Sentences with phrase «sending light sails»

If nothing else, the possibility of sending light sails to orbit many nearby stars suggests a natural next - generation, longer - term follow - up to Starshot's more urgent mission goals.

To reach the potentially habitable planet Proxima b, these «photogravitational» assists counterintuitively require first sending the light sail swooping blisteringly close to the bright, sunlike stars Alpha Centauri A and B — even though they are nearly two trillion kilometers farther from us than Proxima b's smaller, dimmer host star, Proxima Centauri.

Not exact matches

A proposal to spread life says we should use giant lasers and light sails to send microbes out to them

Breakthrough Starshot is an ambitious existing proposal to use giant lasers and light sails to send tiny probes to Alpha Centauri.

Rather than using multibillion - dollar laser arrays to boost small light sails to relativistic speeds for one - time flybys, Heller and Hippke propose using starlight alone to send larger sails on more leisurely journeys that would take them to all three stars in the Alpha Centauri system and leave them parked in orbits there.