there's a planet just four light-years
away that could potentially support life
I want to go to there you may remember
in a previous episode I talked about
Proxima being a planet orbiting the
Goldilocks zone of the star Proxima
Centauri it's the closest planet outside
of our own solar system where life might
possibly exist but 4 light years away is
still really far it's the distance light
you know the fastest stuff in the
universe can travel in four years if we
decided we wanted to take a hop on over
to Proxima be using boring old
conventional rockets we'd be in for
quite the road trip it would take tens
of thousands of years for us to get
there consider for a moment that the
written word is less than ten thousand
years old and you realize a journey to
Alpha Centauri star system would take
longer than the entire recorded history
of humans
yikes but you may also remember I
mentioned a group that was interested in
sending very tiny probes to the Alpha
Centauri system and that these probes
could get there in much less time the
group is called breakthrough starshot
and their approach is to develop
hundreds of small spacecraft far too
tiny to carry a person the spacecraft
would have some very basic sensors and
optics instead of music Rockets for
propulsion they'd use light sails a
large laser array on earth would provide
the energy the sails would use to propel
the craft to Alpha Centauri
once they reach top speed these
spacecraft would be moving at 20% the
speed of light that means they get to
our neighbors in about 20 years but
there are a couple of problems with this
idea one is that it'll be really
expensive another is that the spacecraft
won't be able to slow down to take a
look at things they'll have to snap some
images as they zoom past the star system
at fifty nine million nine hundred fifty
eight thousand meters per second so it's
kind of like going on a road trip to
Mount Rushmore only dad won't stop the
car so you will have to take pictures
out the window while he drives at top
speed
meanwhile researchers have published a
proposal in the Astrophysical Journal
Letters outlining an alternative
approach their idea involves a larger
though also unmanned spacecraft with a
truly enormous light sail stretching
100,000 square meters the light sail
would harness light from stars not a
laser on earth that eliminates the price
tag for an expensive laser array though
constructing such a thin large light
sail would cost a pretty penny on its
own and there's another trade off the
journey to Alpha Centauri would take
longer I'm talking about 100 years once
the starship is close to the stars Alpha
Centauri a and B it can steer toward an
orbit around Proxima B that will take
another half century so all told we're
talking about a 150 year journey once
someone builds the thing and wait it
gets worse the researchers are relying
upon a specific configuration of the
three stars in the Alpha Centauri system
this configuration happens every 80
years the next one is in 2035 but that's
too soon for us to design and build this
hypothetical spacecraft that means the
earliest we could start the 150 year
Trek to Proxima B would be 20 115 it's a
tough sell I mean you're asking people
to put money time and effort into a
project they won't live to see the end
of barring some medical breakthrough
that extends our lifespans dramatically
you'll know that humans will have a
chance to get a closer look at Proxima B
as the spacecraft orbits the planet for
years but it won't be you a bit of a
bummer on the other hand not everything
we do should be about our own benefit
but the benefit of those who follow
behind us that's a real big part of
forward thinking we need to consider how
we can best help future generations and
perhaps sending a ship out to Proxima B
could be one of those actions so this
leads me to a question for you guys
let's say you're filthy rich and you
love things would you prefer to invest
your money in a plan that would get an
unmanned spacecraft to the Alpha
Centauri system by 2065 but it would
only be there for a heartbeat or would
you rather spend my developing a
starship that will spend much more time
in the system but won't get there
until 2265 let me know in the comments
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