People were able to land on the moon and will do so again. Mars is being explored by rovers and space probes have been sent to the outer reaches of the solar system.
But how do you quickly get to our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri? Will humans ever be able to do this?
The Alpha Centauri star system is located about 44.4 light-years away (about 40 trillion km) and is the closest to Earth. This system contains three stars: Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B and Procyma Centauri, which are believed to have a habitable planet orbiting them.
Calculations of NASA scientists have shown that current spacecraft will be able to reach Alpha Centauri in about 150 thousand years, taking into account modern engines. But if it were possible to travel at the speed of light, such a flight would take about four years.
But the laws of physics say that only particles that have no mass, that is, photons or light particles, can travel in space at the maximum known speed.
Therefore, some scientists believe that humans will never be able to get to the Alpha Centauri system, but others believe that in the not too distant future this will be possible, albeit with the help of unmanned missions.
That is, you should use the lightest possible spacecraft that can reach a speed slightly lower than the speed of light through lasers or sunlight.
For example, Marshall Eubanks, CEO of Space Initiatives Inc., believes that a swarm of small probes could be sent to the Alpha Centauri star system to explore it.
Small spacecraft require less energy to move, allowing them to reach very high speeds. Philip Lubin of the University of California, Santa Barbara, says sunlight or lasers would have to be used to accelerate the probes.
To move quickly in space, the device must be small and have a small mass. It can be powered by a solar sail, which uses a pulse of sunlight, or a photonic sail, which uses a pulse of a laser beam.
“We are in the midst of a real revolution in space travel and space exploration, with extremely small systems,” Eubanks said Living Science in an email.
“Although an individual small spacecraft will not be as capable as a larger spacecraft such as the Voyagers, their development times are much shorter; they are relatively cheap.”
Both provide the necessary acceleration for a small device. According to Lubin, if you imagine the probe as a sailing ship, then solar or laser light will be the wind at your back in this case.
Scientists believe that there are no physical obstacles to accelerating the spacecraft to nearly the speed of light, allowing it to reach the Alpha Centauri system as quickly as possible.
According to scientists, such a probe could take close-up images of not only the stars in the system, but also a potentially habitable planet.
While Lubin believes such a mission won’t happen anytime soon, Eubanks is confident it will happen within this century.
He envisions small probes launching as early as the 2040s and reaching the Alpha Centauri system in the 2060s. As for large spacecraft, Eubanks thinks they could go to nearby stars by the end of the 21st century.
Scientists believe that if there is a breakthrough in the development of new propulsion technologies, people on a spaceship could go to Alpha Centauri in the 22nd century. It is likely that this mission will certainly not last 4 years, but much longer.
