Let's Explore Alpha Centauri With Nano-crafts

[Dez]

Let's Explore Alpha Centauri With Nano-crafts

Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner - the Russian billionaire plan to send lots of nano-crafts to our closest galaxy Alpha Centauri
These tiny silicon chip sized craft will use sails and be launched with strong lasers from Earth.
They will reach 20% of the speed of light and should get there in around twenty years.
The cost of $100m is small in comparison to other missions.
However, this is just a dream right now as the technology has not been utilised yet.
After all, these small craft will need to send data back home, so all current technology will have to be miniaturised.

Once the technology has been finely tuned then maybe we could get these small craft up to close to the speed of light.
If that happens then we could start exploring much more of the universe and a lot quicker.
The craft we will make soon will pass others that have been sent out of Earth's orbit previously.
It does make you wonder if there was ever another intelligent civilisation out there whether they could have invented such craft.
Remember, we will be doing this soon, imagine what we will be able to do in say, a thousand years time.
With that in mind, there could be alien life out there who are a million years ahead of us!

The universe may be sterile - anyone who reads this may never find out if we are alone in the universe!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... tauri.html

[Biggsy]

Sounds good if they can miniaturise everything.

[Tony]

This is quite exciting so I hope it comes off.

[Bandit]

Human intelligence eh!
Who would have thought about nano-craft that could, in theory, be launched in every direction to reach all corners of the universe.
If we can think of things like this then why have nothing like this come our way?
Surely there will have been intelligent life somewhere in the universe that are possibly millions of years ahead of us.
In just say 100 years time the human race will be in a position to explore the universe in other ways we just can't comprehend now!
Maybe the universe is sterile after all

[Joseph]

Amazing concept.
I hope they can achieve all this.

[Dez]

Amazing concept.
I hope they can achieve all this.

They can do it now its just the funding really.

[Gwen]

Once we send out those nano crafts and they reach other intelligent life we will not exist any more sadly.

[Ironside]

Great idea.
I wonder if any other intelligent life on other planets have ever done this.

[Graham]

Great idea.
I wonder if any other intelligent life on other planets have ever done this.

I reckon a few will have.
But time and space is so vast they seem to have missed Earth.

[Biggsy]

Amazing concept.
I hope they can achieve all this.

They will be able to do it but will we survive as a species long enough to reap the rewards - that is the question.
Even if we don't survive some intelligent life may see that they were never unique in the Universe one day.