相关论文: The Andromeda Study: A Femto-Spacecraft Mission to…
Laser-accelerated lightsails enable new types of missions that are very different from the Breakthrough Starshot mission to the Centauri system that aims to send 1 gram of payload at 0.2 c. The present work widens the mission design space…
At a distance of about 4.22 lightyears, it would take about 100,000 years for humans to visit our closest stellar neighbor Proxima Centauri using modern chemical thrusters. New technologies are now being developed that involve high-power…
The authors describe the general motion of radiation-pushed sails accelerated near the speed of light with directed energy propulsion. Practical applications of the model are also given, including the interstellar flyby mission to the Alpha…
Breakthrough Starshot is an initiative to prove ultra-fast light-driven nanocrafts, and lay the foundations for a first launch to Alpha Centauri within the next generation. Along the way, the project could generate important supplementary…
A search for laser light from the directions of Alpha Centauri A and B was performed by examining 15362 optical, high-resolution spectra obtained between 2004 and 2018. None of the spectra exhibit laser emission lines. The threshold was 10%…
Projections for the earliest interstellar mission possibilities are calculated based on 27 years of data on historic energy trends, societal priorities, required mission energy, and the implications of the Incessant Obsolescence Postulate…
The Breakthrough Starshot project aims to send a tiny 2 gram spacecraft to Proxima Centauri propelled by a light sail and powerful Earth-based lasers. We provide two derivations of the laser energy required to propel the spacecraft and give…
The first definitely interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua (previously A/2017 U1) observed in our solar system provides the opportunity to directly study material from other star systems. Can such objects be intercepted? The challenge of…
Several mission concepts are being studied to directly image planets around nearby stars. It is commonly thought that directly imaging a potentially habitable exoplanet around a Sun-like star requires space telescopes with apertures of at…
In this paper we outline the considerations required in order to select a target star system for the Icarus interstellar mission. It is considered that the maximum likely range for the Icarus vehicle will be 15 light-years, and a list is…
In the future interstellar exploration at near-relativistic speeds will be possible using beamed energy laser propulsion. With this, spacecraft as small as gm mass picospacecraft become candidates for the exploration of deep space, with a…
We have studied the science rationale, goals and requirements for a mission aimed at using the gravitational lensing from the Sun as a way of achieving high angular resolution and high signal amplification. We find that such a mission…
Breakthrough Starshot is an initiative to propel a sailcraft to Alpha Centauri within the next generation. As the sailcraft transits Alpha Centauri at 0.2 c, it looks for signs of life by imaging planets and gathering other scientific data.…
A search for laser light from Proxima Centauri was performed, including 107 high-resolution, optical spectra obtained between 2004 and 2019. Among them, 57 spectra contain multiple, confined spectral combs, each consisting of 10…
Icy moons with subsurface oceans of liquid water rank among the most promising astrobiological targets in our Solar System. In this work, we assess the feasibility of deploying laser sail technology in precursor life-detection missions. We…
Interstellar communications are achievable with gram-scale spacecraft using swarm techniques introduced herein if an adequate energy source, clocks and a suitable communications protocol exist. The essence of our approach to the…
Interstellar material has been discovered in our Solar System, yet its origins and details of its transport are unknown. Here we present $\alpha$ Centauri as a case study of the delivery of interstellar material to our Solar System.…
Discovered in October 2017, the interstellar object designated 1I/'Oumuamua was the first such object to be observed travelling through our solar system. 1I/'Oumuamua has other characteristics never seen before in a celestial body and…
The Starshot lightsail project aims to build an ultralight spacecraft ("nanocraft") that can reach Proxima Centauri b in approximately 20 years, requiring propulsion with a relativistic velocity of ~60 000 km/s. The spacecraft's…
As our nearest large neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy provides a unique laboratory for investigating galaxy formation and the distribution and substructure properties of dark matter in a Milky Way-like galaxy. Here, we propose an initial…