Sentences with phrase «of nanocraft»

A conventional rocket would carry hundreds to thousands of these nanocraft into space, releasing them into high - Earth orbit.

He envisions sending a larger conventional spacecraft containing thousands of nanocraft into orbit, and then launching the nanocraft one by one, he said in an interview.

Not exact matches

Scientists hope the vehicles, known as nanocraft, will eventually fly at 20 percent of the speed of light, more than a thousand times faster than today's spacecraft.

A still image taken from a video rendering shows a nanocraft which could be used on Breakthrough Starshot, a $ 100 million research and engineering program aiming to demonstrate proof of concept for light - propelled spacecrafts.

A beryllium or graphite coating could protect the electronics, and as another precaution, researchers could reduce the number of collisions by folding up the sail after the nanocraft is beyond the reach of Earth - based lasers.

In April, it announced a plan to put $ 100 million toward developing new technology that could send a fleet of tiny nanocrafts toward Alpha Centauri.

Breakthrough Starshot is a proof - of - concept initiative to send a fleet of ultra-fast light - driven nanocraft to explore the Alpha Centauri system, which could pave the way for a first launch within the next generation.

It proposes to use the $ 100 million to learn whether it's possible to use a 100 - gigawatt light beam and light sails to propel some 1,000 ultra-lightweight nanocraft to 20 % of light speed.

They will be seeking confirmation that it's possible to use a 100 - gigawatt light beam to propel approximately 1,000 ultra-lightweight nanocraft to 20 percent of light speed.