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The sail could be configured so that the stellar pressure from Alpha Centauri A brakes and deflects the probe toward Alpha Centauri B, where it would arrive after a few days. The sail would then be slowed again to 0.4% of the speed of light and catapulted towards Proxima Centauri.
An artist's depiction of a solar sail. In December 2017, NASA released a mission concept involving the launch, in 2069, of an interstellar probe to search for signs of life on planets orbiting stars in and around the Alpha Centauri system. [1] [2] The announcement was at the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union. [3]
Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) ... Flyby – Alpha Centauri, 40 years outbound stage: 65 GW: 1 t: 0.036 g: 3.6 km: 11% @ 0.17 ...
On this scale, the distance to Alpha Centauri A would be 276 kilometers (171 miles). The fastest outward-bound spacecraft yet sent, Voyager 1, has covered 1/390 of a light-year in 46 years and is currently moving at 1/17,600 the speed of light. At this rate, a journey to Proxima Centauri would take 75,000 years. [2] [1]
The full text of Project Longshot: An Unmanned Probe To Alpha Centauri at Wikisource (This article refers to an Alpha and Beta Centauri as the orbital target of the mission, but the correct nomenclature for these two components of the Alpha Centauri binary star system is Alpha Centauri A and B. Beta Centauri is an entirely different, unassociated star.)
Project Starlight is a research project of the University of California, Santa Barbara to develop a fleet of laser beam-propelled interstellar probes and sending them to a star neighboring the Solar System, potentially Alpha Centauri. The project aims to send organisms on board the probe. [1]
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The craft was designed to reach and study Alpha Centauri. Starwisp (1985) Starwisp is a hypothetical unmanned interstellar probe design proposed by Robert L. Forward. [47] [48] It is propelled by a microwave sail, similar to a solar sail in concept, but powered by microwaves from an artificial source. Medusa (1990s)