Posted on 12/19/2017 9:06:07 PM PST by BenLurkin
The proposed journey, which was revealed by scientists with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the 2017 Geophysical Union Conference and reported by New Scientist, was born out of a budget mandate to make progress on interstellar travel. Now, NASA is working on technology that, if all goes as planned, could allow a spacecraft to reach ten percent of light speed, and the goal is to have it ready by 2069 with Alpha Centauri in its sights.
... The system is around 4.3 light years from Earth, which essentially makes it a next-door neighbor. If NASA succeeds at achieving ten percent of light speed with a spacecraft, it would allow them to reach the system with a probe in as little as 44 years.
The biggest hurdle in this proposed mission for NASA to overcome is the development of the propulsion technology that would allow a probe to travel the massive distance in a relatively short period of time. A number of possible techniques have been proposed, including laser-propelled sails which could be pushed to incredible speeds, but putting such theoretical technology into practice is easier said than done.
(Excerpt) Read more at bgr.com ...
So it will take 44 years to get there.
What is Congress zeroes out the budget after 10 years?
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