In the science fiction Universe, this is very old tech. " Russell Saunders' “Clipper Ships of Space,” appeared in 1951, the first SF short stories and novellas featuring light sails of which I am aware..." Solar sails are 73 years' old.

Of course, we could just use the TR-3B.

How do they plan on stopping it?

Where does the reflection of the earth based laser go that reflected off the spacecraft’s highly reflective, silver MLI surface? Back to earth / Hawaii?!

graphene

If you're going to use a flat sail to push a ship you need to make the whole sail the computer. Foldable machinery already exists so now they just need to harden it against radiation

Yes, use graphene

Are all stars about 4 light years apart?

Why not strap a cable to the earth using inertia and propel yourself with the spin of the earth

make it out ⁰f PIXIE du§T 🤣〽️

Meh…humans be like…

If you can’t cut back on weight can you build a bigger laser?

What if you pre loaded the sail in space. Artificially make its mass a couple tons, then launch it at a couple grams.

Who's got Borat to narrate this? 😅

What do we do after we spend all the billions of dollars to get there. Just maybe it has the solution to our homeless problems. Oh and maybe when we get there it will have enough food to feed all the people here on earth from starving to death. I just can't wait for us to get there. 😳😳😳😳

Aerogel

Any idea 😮 😅

Yes, don't use matter

The speed will be 37,200mps

To get a solar sail under 5 grams, you’d need to use super lightweight materials like graphene. You can make the sail super thin, around 100 nanometers, and get about 650 square meters of surface area within that weight. Photon pressure from the Sun would propel it, and carbon nanotube booms could support it without adding much weight. With the latest in nanotech, this idea isn't just sci-fi anymore. Future space missions could totally use this!

Mass is needed to accelerate mass.

If you had a giant hollow metal sphere like on a Van De Graff generator and use a belt to remove some electrons it would charge up the sphere positive. If you fired the electrons at a point maybe three times the diameter of the sphere away from the sphere, the electrons would repel each other at the point and go into orbit around the sphere and return to the exact same point. This concentration of electrons would build up a negative voltage at the point. If the voltage was high enough, it would confine fusion velocity ions in the vicinity of the point. Alpha particles that are created by fusion at the point with velocities high enough to escape from the point would be repelled by the positive charge on the sphere and push against the sphere. Little space ships with electron and ion guns could travel out to the point to refresh the supply of electrons and ions. If alpha particle products of fusion have a velocity of about 20 million meters per second, it would take thousands of times less fuel than chemical rockets. Or use solar energy to power an accelerator that ejects plasma at velocities near the speed of light. Ten tons of hydrogen and oxygen has about a hundred billion Joules of energy. Ten thousand square meters of 30% efficient solar panels generates about 4 million Joules per second. So, it would take about 25,000 seconds or 7 hours to equal the ten tons of hydrogen and oxygen rocket fuel. One year of this solar energy would equal about twelve thousand tons of rocket fuel. If the rocket ship weighs 20 tons and it us carrying ten tons of liquid air to accelerate in the accelerator, it would take about ten thousand trillion Joules to get the ship going ten percent of the speed of light or about twenty years. If the ship had one square kilometer of solar panels and a huge inflatable mylar dish to concentrate the sun at great distances, it might get up near the speed of light in less than ten years. Then again it might not. A circular area of 30% efficient solar cells one kilometer in diameter would generate about 300 Megawatts. With a ten kilometer diameter inflatable mylar dish concentrator it migh generate about 30 billion watts. That is like the energy of about 200,000 tons of hydrogen and oxygen rocket fuel per day or 73 million tons per year. A twenty ton rocket ship travelling at one tenth the speed of light has about 100,000 trillion Joules. 73 million tons of hydrogen and oxygen rocket fuel has about ten million trillion Joules if energy

Nano film. 50ftx50ft would weigh less than a half gram. But your distance is off. At 20% the speed of light it would be about 20 years. Either way solar sails are not a new idea either.

Nanotech to maximize performance and minimize weight. Micro camera, micro transmitter, etc. You could then use a series of them that could relay the signal back to us.

Micro computers?

How about aerogel?

I watched a documentary that had talked about light propulsion when I was a kid. At the time the used pulses of high intensity light but could only reach tens of feet in altitude. I told my dad about it and he gave me a hard time for years saying I was crazy and was confused or tricked. Guess the jokes on him now.

Make it out of poke that should work

Well according to Christians all things are possible through Jesus so I say ask him he can help. Orrrr...the earth is flat and covered by a dome so space isn't real orrrr. We are in a matrix or simulation so it won't matter anyway

How will it stop?

We will never get anywhere before the human race ruins earth. And we deserve it

We’ve found lots of ways, most of them in the last century. Finding the political willpower and funding, that’s the hard part.

Wait for the Iphone 3000😅

A suggestion: make many, but smaller, much smaller and send them on the way. But, combine the images to get one good picture.

It won't work. the source of the laser will be constantly moving and orbiting the Sun. 😊

How about we shoot a supercharged piece of aluminum foil into space and hope it reaches alpha cantauri

What about sophons 😅

Do we know some of us dont live pass 84 years, and we're talking about LIGHT YEARS...

Voyager 1 is nearly a light day away from us - so where are you saying 6 million x the distance ??? There are not 6 million days in 4 years !!!!

Why is it every time someone says proxima centari, it varies in distance. I've heard it from 4.2 to 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 light years away. It's always space nuts that want ya to believe they're smart, too. The truth is that they don't know how far away it is. They're all pinpoints of light, even looking through the best telescopes ever created.

Using cells from Joe Biden's brain should keep the weight of the sail so light as to be weightless.

Use aluminum, also start the construction of the spacecraft uss enterprise starship, we need Elon musk help.

The gov'ment needs to fess up with the technology it already has and stop yanking our chain !

One needs to invent a "time drive".

Unfortunately no we haven’t just found a way.

We Already Have The Technology....For many many Years

This is literally all BULL$**T. Hows that for "guidelines". 🙄

No

so this might be a dumb question, but why dont we point our telescopes like the hubble or webb at the star and the planets...

Aerogel with reflective mylar

Yes. Infact I have 2 ideas!!! 1.) you can stretch gold emmenclley, .024grams/1 oz. of gold can be stretched and cover a table desk top. It can be 2 or 3 grams stretched to cover a car. Thin very thin, but it would! It's reflective, golds everywhere in space and on Earth. No worries the sail will sustain in outer space. 2.) There's a meterial almost as light as air. You'd have to look it up. But, a truck size piece can be blown by mouth air and move it across the parking lot. We have the technology. We're just having tunnel vision. I can do it

Well... They did just make gold one molecule thick.

Spin it really fast......................next question......

Printing a graphite film, folded origami style is the breakthrough we need. We may also need a self repairing material considering interstellar material. Would using a large sail that uses the sun's solar wind at high solar activity not being easier than a laser

how long intel we stop taking photos I mean we may need to find a defense planets live in to try to make humanity survive and 95% are already to far away to get to in like a 1000 years we well have mostly by 100%

*I still prefer project Medusa where they throw a nuke into a big pouch and the blast of the nuke is what the craft uses to propel itself. Totally suck bro!*

Nano tech

Goldhene/Graphene like but Au instead of C

for the sail, aerographite web, with a silver nitrate cap on a released capsule, that detonates behind the sail. we should be able to some up with something better then silver nitrate also.

Paul Tyson for president

But what about manuvering at that speed ?

earth based laser? how have you overcome the inverse square law? how do you slow down when you get there??

So no we haven't Bummer.

I got an idea...search Habitran Concept...you won't need to travel at light speed...

No, we haven't. The "solar veil" is a 50 years old idea that proved to be useless. I wonder if some people today even read a book or a newspaper in their life. 🤷‍♂️

250k au

Bro we had a way to get a city to the closest star in the 1950s 💀 It's the orion nuclear pulse rocket

My man is Casually asking for an idea

How about we stop fighting eachother and start working together as a species. We are all humans. Working together, we can achieve so much more, which is worth so much more!

how are they going to slow it down? and pictures would take another 30 years to get here.

Have just found ????? You click baiter … they’ve been talking about it for years.

So not gonna happen.

Waste of time..probe would have to steer to the star..because stars move and also we gotta stop the probe once it gets within range..or else it's just gonna take pics..and then send them back 4 light years toward earth 😂😂😂😂 biggest wast of time ever..solar sails..need to be able to break in space for them to work..so you would need a propellent lol dude there are so many variables at play that "scientists" are just dreaming with this crap..and its just taking pics bruh..30 years for pictures!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 WTF BRUH i am not wasting my time or energy for pictures 30 years later..

Baba

Stupid pipe dream.

Aerogel could be used if weight is the biggest consideration. It could also trap and test things that the gel picks up along the way.

Ian Crossland, slamming through the door. Winded, desperate, gasping: GRAPHENE!!!

Going in a straight line, good luck not hitting a space rock, it's literally fucking impossible

At 1/5 the speed of light at 4.2 light years away it would be an absolute minimum of 21 years. That don't take into account speed up time or slow down time. And how are they gonna slow it down wen it gets there?

We haven't because for all practical purposes it's still impossible.

Build a better engine

How it’s gon’a STOP????

Wasn't this the plan of Stephen Hawking and that Russian billionaire???

30 years ago anything in regards to folding smartphones would have landed you in the psych ward but today nothing's impossible.

This thing is going to end up being the random trash bag floating around on the freeway. Bet it ends up on a alien space ship

1 light year is abt 5 trillion miles give or take

Just????? ... Seriously?

20% the speed of light? THATS INSANE!

Dark energy would help yous

Got an idea ? Yes, do not waste resources and money on this project.

A star is like the sun. It is too hot! How can you even land at a star?

So, the biggest issue with interstellar travel was never really accelerateling, rather slowing down from 20-50%c without absolutely obliterating the craft.

My dealer always gives me a few grams less then whatever I ask for. I'll ask him an see if he can help you guys.

My buddy Doug has been to other star systems

U can make it from a carbon base métal that is very thin but durable enough for the job just saying im 10 😅

Why not send a meteor the opposite way. They fly pretty fast

Breakthrough Starshot is a massive scam.

I am the technological breakthrough you need

Also being in space mass is not an issue

we always hear about things like this and unfortunately they never happen