Claire. Posted June 21, 2017 #1 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Stephen Hawking: Humans Should Ride a Beam of Light to Other Planets Humanity should focus its efforts on exploring other worlds that we might inhabit, and to get there, Earthlings may need to ride on a beam of light, famed physicist Stephen Hawking says. Hawking made his remarks today (June 20) at Starmus, an arts and science festival in Norway whose advisory board he sits on. In his speech, he reiterated his belief that humans need to explore space to avoid the dangers of our own finite world. And then he described how humans could one day travel on a beam of light, harnessing the power of Einstein's theory of relativity to reach mind-bogglingly distant planets. Read more: Live Science 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted June 21, 2017 #2 Share Posted June 21, 2017 I've often thought about solar sails. If we set up millions of mirrors around the Sun can aimed them all at one location, and then collected then and refracted them into a single beam, it would be a power propellant to such a ship. I'm not sure if current materials science would have materials that could handle that level of energy though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barkinghorse Posted June 21, 2017 #3 Share Posted June 21, 2017 After its arrival, 4.5 years wait to see if it got there and receive the pictures back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeresExpo2000 Posted June 21, 2017 #4 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Alpha Centauri is not far away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 21, 2017 #5 Share Posted June 21, 2017 2 minutes ago, CeresExpo2000 said: Alpha Centauri is not far away. Only about 43,000,000,000,000 kilometers 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeresExpo2000 Posted June 21, 2017 #6 Share Posted June 21, 2017 1 minute ago, Imaginarynumber1 said: Only about 43,000,000,000,000 kilometers Maybe the ETs there could give us a quick ride back to the Sol Star System? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almighty Evan Posted June 21, 2017 #7 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Good. The grups are dead and the onlies will be running out of food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaldon Posted June 21, 2017 #8 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Taking pictures while flying by at the 1/5th of speed of light? Sounds unlikely, even if the same solar sail to be used to decelerate using the winds of Alpha and Proxima Centauri. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Caspian Hare Posted June 21, 2017 #9 Share Posted June 21, 2017 YOu would still need a powerful engine to decelerate at the destination 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkie1103 Posted June 21, 2017 #10 Share Posted June 21, 2017 (edited) It says propelled by a laser beam from the surface of the Earth. I am a little confused how would they locked on with the rotation of the earth. Lol I have loved this site for years and this is my first published comment Edited June 21, 2017 by Punkie1103 Added text 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted June 21, 2017 #11 Share Posted June 21, 2017 (edited) When you get to Centauri Prime, ask for "Londo." Edited June 21, 2017 by Sundew 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nzo Posted June 21, 2017 #12 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Let's do it... send a couple hundred thousand over there just to make we get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeastieRunner Posted June 21, 2017 #13 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Star Chip sounds like a Ben and Jerry's flavor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMan Posted June 22, 2017 #14 Share Posted June 22, 2017 5 hours ago, Chaldon said: Taking pictures while flying by at the 1/5th of speed of light? Sounds unlikely, even if the same solar sail to be used to decelerate using the winds of Alpha and Proxima Centauri. Fast, I mean really fast, shutter speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taniwha Posted June 22, 2017 #15 Share Posted June 22, 2017 8 hours ago, The Russian Hare said: YOu would still need a powerful engine to decelerate at the destination Just throw a deep space anchor overboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noxasa Posted June 22, 2017 #16 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) 8 hours ago, Punkie1103 said: It says propelled by a laser beam from the surface of the Earth. I am a little confused how would they locked on with the rotation of the earth. Lol I have loved this site for years and this is my first published comment Telescopes track stars continuously without so much as a wiggle for entire nights so I would imagine the same tech would be used to aim a laser at a solar sail. Probably setup a few stations around the globe so the a laser is always hitting the sail. What would be funny is if the Star Chip, once there, actually flew into the star before being able to take any images of the planet, or even flew past the star on the opposite side of where the planet was. I don't know how they'd target the craft to fly close to the planet after 20 years of travel at 1/5th the speed of light. Edited June 22, 2017 by Noxasa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripGun Posted June 22, 2017 #17 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Millennial great great great grandchildren will be rulers of the world when the data comes back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted June 23, 2017 #18 Share Posted June 23, 2017 This is the same Stephen Hawking that can't make up his mind on whether we should stop looking for ET or keep exploring the new frontier? This guy flips sides more often than Harvey Dent! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibeliever Posted June 23, 2017 #19 Share Posted June 23, 2017 Fun fact, the spacecraft will perceive itself arriving 165 days sooner than we observe (21 years, assumes 1/5 c over 4.37 light years). There's also the pesky problem of return data transmission. We won't get any images back for nearly 5 years after it arrives. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kobolds Posted June 24, 2017 #20 Share Posted June 24, 2017 (edited) I think the main problem now is to build machine that can withstand 1/5 speed light . bullet -> around 1,700 mph speed of light -> 6.706e+8 mph even bullet will melt travel at that speed Edited June 24, 2017 by kobolds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted June 26, 2017 #21 Share Posted June 26, 2017 On June 24, 2017 at 2:49 AM, kobolds said: I think the main problem now is to build machine that can withstand 1/5 speed light . bullet -> around 1,700 mph speed of light -> 6.706e+8 mph even bullet will melt travel at that speed Yes but we are talking about mostly "empty" space where only a few hydrogen atoms are scattered about over vast distances, I would be curious about the density of such space vs the speed of an object regarding the object's survivability. And it only takes one dust mote at high speed to destroy the entire device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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