An Internet investor has enlisted famed physicist Stephen Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to help him with a futuristic plan for seeking life in outer space.
Yuri Milner announced the $100 million project Tuesday. It’s aimed at establishing the feasibility of sending a swarm of tiny spacecraft, each weighing far less than an ounce, to the Alpha Centauri star system.
Powered by energy from a huge, Earth-based laser, the spacecraft would fly at about one-fifth the speed of light. Their target would be a planet with potential for holding life. No such planet has been discovered yet at Alpha Centauri, but experts say one may lurk there.
The spacecraft would take 20 years to reach the star system, where they would make observations and send back data.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
20 years for results, what a complete waste of money.
Forcing full disclosure by the major governments would prove that we are already sharing our world with extra terrestrials.
Why bother seeking aliens from outer space. They all live here illegally. What a waste. Man can’t fix the problems on earth so they take it to planets beyond.
For $100 million I can tell the investors that such a mission is possible. The more likely outcome of this study is that some people are going to become very wealthy off the study, design of the vehicles and providing updates. Realistically it would 2040 before the first of these vehicles would arrive at Alpha Centauri. By that point the money will have been made and the real discovery is likely to be that the investors will know no more about life in Alpha Centauri than they do now.
From a practical matter such a lightweight spacecraft is going to have problem getting a signal back to earth. It is also likely that many of the little explorers will become casualties of space and never get anywhere near their targets.
The only way mane exploration of space will happen is for the advanced countries to pool their resources and let the scientific community do their thing without interference! It will not happen and I’m starting to think that some of the moon landings were faked.
A lot of money will be spent on what? 20 years to investigate a new star/planet for humans to live on or aliens? A waste of money that could be spent on Hospitals, cures for cancer in humans and dogs research, health, etc. in their countries……humans have earth to live on with plenty of room for everyone and can be used for lots of important issues on humans……
What interests me is that Stephen Hawking believes in aliens but doesn’t believe in God.
Supposedly Hawking is said to be smart. But even if he is, he has no common sense at all.