"Halo-engine" will accelerate the spacecraft to a billion kilometers per hour
The possibility of moving between galaxies and the search for planets similar to ours have long haunted many scientists. So, the world famous physicist Stephen Hawking and billionaire Yuri Milner presented the Breakthrough Starshot program in 2016, the implementation cost of which will be $ 100 million.
The essence of the latter is to send 1000 miniature spaceships, no larger than a microchip, to the exoplanet Proxima Centauri, which is located in the Alpha Centauri system at a distance of 4,22 light years from Earth. As a source of energy for accelerating the apparatus to relativistic speed, light projected onto a light sail attached to the ship using a powerful ground-based laser will be used. Such technology would allow a miniature fleet to reach the target in less than 30 years.
However, such powerful ground-based laser systems have their drawback - it will be extremely difficult and expensive to develop them. Therefore, scientists are trying to find other ways to send the "star fleet" to nearby galaxies.
Today, one of the most interesting concepts belongs to astronomer David Kipping. He suggests using the so-called "star slingshot" to accelerate ships. This method was used by NASA to send the Galileo apparatus to Jupiter.
Kipping created his own version by borrowing and finalizing the idea of Freeman Dyson, who back in 1960 stated that a spacecraft could accelerate a black hole to a relativistic speed (close to the speed of light - about 300 0000 km per second, or more than a billion km / h). However, with this approach, the destruction of the apparatus itself is likely.
An astronomer from Columbia University took a different path, suggesting sending photons around a black hole. Kinetic energy from the latter will be transmitted to a ray of light, the particles of which, upon return, will disperse the spacecraft. In other words, Kipping suggests using a kind of “boomerang orbit” around the black hole.
The scientist called his brainchild a "halo-engine." According to him, such a technology will work on any ship whose mass is much lower than a black hole.
The essence of the latter is to send 1000 miniature spaceships, no larger than a microchip, to the exoplanet Proxima Centauri, which is located in the Alpha Centauri system at a distance of 4,22 light years from Earth. As a source of energy for accelerating the apparatus to relativistic speed, light projected onto a light sail attached to the ship using a powerful ground-based laser will be used. Such technology would allow a miniature fleet to reach the target in less than 30 years.
However, such powerful ground-based laser systems have their drawback - it will be extremely difficult and expensive to develop them. Therefore, scientists are trying to find other ways to send the "star fleet" to nearby galaxies.
Today, one of the most interesting concepts belongs to astronomer David Kipping. He suggests using the so-called "star slingshot" to accelerate ships. This method was used by NASA to send the Galileo apparatus to Jupiter.
Kipping created his own version by borrowing and finalizing the idea of Freeman Dyson, who back in 1960 stated that a spacecraft could accelerate a black hole to a relativistic speed (close to the speed of light - about 300 0000 km per second, or more than a billion km / h). However, with this approach, the destruction of the apparatus itself is likely.
An astronomer from Columbia University took a different path, suggesting sending photons around a black hole. Kinetic energy from the latter will be transmitted to a ray of light, the particles of which, upon return, will disperse the spacecraft. In other words, Kipping suggests using a kind of “boomerang orbit” around the black hole.
The scientist called his brainchild a "halo-engine." According to him, such a technology will work on any ship whose mass is much lower than a black hole.
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