Breakthrough Starshot, the ambitious plan for human probes to reach nearby star Proxima Centauri within decades, has just taken the first successful step in a journey of several light years. Breakthrough has sent its first spacecraft, the smallest ever launched, into orbit.
The spacecraft are named "Sprites," and the program calls them the "world's smallest fully functional space probes, built on a single circuit board." On June 23, Breakthrough sent six Sprites to low earth orbit, riding on the backs of OHB System AG's 'Max Valier' and 'Venta' satellites.
The Sprites are 3.5-by-3.5-centimeter chips that weigh a scant 4 grams. They pack a considerable punch, though, containing solar panels, computers, sensors, and radios. The Sprites have roots in a 2011 Kickstarter project and were later advanced by researchers at Cornell. The current launch is designed to test their ability to perform in space, and so far Breakthrough says they are "performing as designed."
They'll need to if the project wants to succeed. Proxima Centuri is around 25 trillion miles away. Breakthrough wants to power the Sprites with a global network of lasers, which it says should be able to get them up to speeds around 20 perfect of the speed of light. That velocity would get them to Proxima Centuari in a matter of mere decades. On top of that, there would be no real way to know if it worked and it would take around 4 years to get any photos back.
Hey, even the most audacious plans have to start somewhere. And with a successful launch into low orbit, Breakthrough is proving that they want to take the idea off the Internet and into the skies.
Source: Breakthrough via Scientific American
David Grossman is a staff writer for PopularMechanics.com. He's previously written for The Verge, Rolling Stone, The New Republic and several other publications. He's based out of Brooklyn.
