How Do You Think We Can Get To Proxima B?

Soo.. the other day I read that the Alpha Centauri system might have several exoplanets apart from Proxima b.. so I looked for info about the Starshot project and found out that the team launched in July a 3.5 x 3.5cm satellite weighing 4 grams.. this encourages me to believe that the project can actually be achievable.. what do you guys think? do you think that a faster interstellar travel system will be developed even sooner?

I decided to make a video on this exciting topic and I would like to share it with you guys: youtu.be...

I honestly can't wait 44 years for receiving the first images of Proxima b, I would be 70 years old. There must be another way of getting there sooner.

*Ahem* Here's how you get there: Go half past the stellar-monkeys ass, take a quarter turn until you see his star-balls.

And, you're there.

Enjoy the trip.

a reply to: alpha015

If the team launched a satellite to Proxima b in July it will be overtaken by the satellite they want to launch in the near future that will be propelled by laser beams fired from Earth , sounds like a crazy idea but they believe they can reach Proxima in just 30 years.

Breakthrough Starshot wants to take light sail technology even farther out to space—all the way to Proxima Centauri. Last year, the organization announced a plan to use light sailing and laser propulsion to accelerate dozens or even hundreds of nano-spacecraft fast enough to reach Proxima Centauri in a matter of decades. We're talking about relativistic speeds, roughly 20 percent of the speed of light, or somewhere around 100 million mph.
www.popularmechanics.com...

From small acorns.

You have to get to Proxima A first...take the number 10 express from Tooting Broadway.

a reply to: alpha015

It's really easy actually. First go to Proxima A and then call an Uber.

Not fast enough, if you ask anyone who's ever made the Hutton Orbital run...but I digress, and nobody here is gonna get that joke anyways.

Frankly, it's not going to be practical for us until we make a few big advances. Specifically, we need faster ships, better communications, and a way to ensure colonies will be completely self-sufficient, because they won't be seeing regular supply runs from Earth.

The issue of travel time is a weird one. Unless FTL drive is possible (which is pretty much anyone's guess at the moment), interstellar travel times will be limited by the speed of light. Which means relative to the colonists and people watching from Earth, a ship leaving Sol for TRAPPIST-1 (a better prospect than Proxima Centauri, and the numbers are easier to work with for the sake of this example) will take at least 40 years to reach. Same thing for any messages being sent. Now, if you can get moving fast enough, the crew of a hypothetical colony ship wouldn't need to worry too much due to time dilation effects, but an 80-year lag time for any communications or supplies will be difficult to overcome.

originally posted by: ShadeWolfFrankly, it's not going to be practical for us until we make a few big advances. Specifically, we need faster ships, better communications, and a way to ensure colonies will be completely self-sufficient, because they won't be seeing regular supply runs from Earth.

I was under the impression that the idea was not to get there with people to start colonies, but to use ultra-small vehicles first for reconnaissance to see what's there. It would be a drag to send people on a trip and find out there as no vacancy once they got there. Plus it would be a lot cheaper to do an unmanned survey first.

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Psatellite.com: Princeton Satellite Systems.

That will be near term. There are also Ion/Hull thrusters that only put out a small amount of thrust but over a long enough length of time can get up to a small fraction the speed of light.

Of course the scuttle butt is we've already been to one of the nearest planets and only found a rocky world with primordial goo (we've got some kind of "quantum magic" device that allows FTL or near FTL travel).

*Sigh* if only we could harness the power of FARTS. I could take us all to infinity and beyond.

*Let's one rip -blast off, hyper-drive,...fart-speed*

You would need a starship that relies on an infinite fuel source, such as starlight photons, which could achieve superluminal speeds due to constant acceleration. The only one that could possibly fit that requirement...would be a 'Black Hole Starship.'

Hire a lactose intolerant crew with an endless supply of: milk, beans, and cheeze. Fuel problem solved.

Side note: "Wonder if FARTS stink in space?"

a reply to: schuyler

Unmanned probes are a decent option, but getting people there is still a major challenge. Personally, I think we should simultaneously be sending probes out and expanding into our own solar system.

The problem is always going to be one of deciding when the technology is developed enough to send something there. That's because if you do it too soon, your clunky, old, slow satellites will be passed by the new ones like they're standing still, making the effort a waste of time.

Maybe wait a few years until we get our nuclear / ion propulsion worked out. Or our smart AI does it and makes the trip without us. Fifty years?

Easy peasy - just go through the stargate on the sun.

a reply to: alpha015

Teleportation
Working on it in my basement.. I will tell you when its ready

originally posted by: schuyler
Plus it would be a lot cheaper to do an unmanned survey first.

Send seeds.

If I had a lot of money, one thing I might do with it is send a rocket to Venus with a genetically engineered bacteria on it that would eat the sulphuric acid in the sky and rain down good old H2O. Not a whole lot can be done about the slow rotation of the planet, but at least we can try to cool it down enough and give us enough water to realistically visit.

a reply to: Blue Shift

If I had a lot of money, I would keep my feet on the earth, head out of the clouds, pay all my bills, quit my life-sucking job, and live a nice-reality based life.

originally posted by: hiddenlight
If I had a lot of money, I would keep my feet on the earth, head out of the clouds, pay all my bills, quit my life-sucking job, and live a nice-reality based life.

I was thinking more along the lines of "more money than I knew what do to with," which would be A LOT!

a reply to: Blue Shift

Wow-wee-woo, I sure believe that?!?! Whoo-hoo, Pay-bills, Yippee-Skippee- food and water, Awesome - pay more bills and bills and more bills...

No wait!!! Let me think about sending rockets to Venus, hehehe, and let's have Voltron, and the Smurfs, and the Thunder Cats Guide us to plant Niber-roo-boo-hoo.

Sorry kid. Some of us live pay check to pay check and don't think about playing light-bright with ourselves or the stars.

No offense.