Business — Market Watch

Innovation in space exploration requires bright minds and deep pockets. A new ambitious space project, announced today (April 12), boasts the best of both those worlds.

The legendary physicist Stephen Hawking is combining powers with the Russian entrepreneur and billionaire Yuri Milner to launch “Breakthrough Starshot,” a $100 million initiative to aid in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Its lofty goal sounds straight out of science fiction: Starshot aims to send thousands of tiny spacecrafts, called “nanocrafts,” to Alpha Centauri—the closest solar system to our own.

They’d be equipped with even tinier cameras that could record images of potentially habitable planets within the Alpha Centauri system. It would then take about four years for the nanocrafts to send that data back to Earth. If all goes according to plan, humans could be looking at images of these alien worlds in just three decades or so. With standard spacecraft technology, it would take around 30,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, which is four lightyears (25 trillion miles) away. Starshot, however, would use a very different technology. Instead of a traditional chemical propellant, the nanocrafts are powered by light. In theory, the nanocrafts could travel at roughly one-fifth of the speed of light, allowing them to—again, theoretically—reach the faraway star system in just 20 years.

They’d be equipped with even tinier cameras that could record images of potentially habitable planets within the Alpha Centauri system. It would then take about four years for the nanocrafts to send that data back to Earth. If all goes according to plan, humans could be looking at images of these alien worlds in just three decades or so.

The legendary physicist Stephen Hawking is combining powers with the Russian entrepreneur and billionaire Yuri Milner to launch “Breakthrough Starshot,” a $100 million initiative to aid in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Its lofty goal sounds straight out of science fiction: Starshot aims to send thousands of tiny spacecrafts, called “nanocrafts,” to Alpha Centauri—the closest solar system to our own.

They’d be equipped with even tinier cameras that could record images of potentially habitable planets within the Alpha Centauri system. It would then take about four years for the nanocrafts to send that data back to Earth. If all goes according to plan, humans could be looking at images of these alien worlds in just three decades or so. With standard spacecraft technology, it would take around 30,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, which is four lightyears (25 trillion miles) away. Starshot, however, would use a very different technology. Instead of a traditional chemical propellant, the nanocrafts are powered by light. In theory, the nanocrafts could travel at roughly one-fifth of the speed of light, allowing them to—again, theoretically—reach the faraway star system in just 20 years.

They’d be equipped with even tinier cameras that could record images of potentially habitable planets within the Alpha Centauri system. It would then take about four years for the nanocrafts to send that data back to Earth. If all goes according to plan, humans could be looking at images of these alien worlds in just three decades or so.

The legendary physicist Stephen Hawking is combining powers with the Russian entrepreneur and billionaire Yuri Milner to launch “Breakthrough Starshot,” a $100 million initiative to aid in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Its lofty goal sounds straight out of science fiction: Starshot aims to send thousands of tiny spacecrafts, called “nanocrafts,” to Alpha Centauri—the closest solar system to our own.

They’d be equipped with even tinier cameras that could record images of potentially habitable planets within the Alpha Centauri system. It would then take about four years for the nanocrafts to send that data back to Earth. If all goes according to plan, humans could be looking at images of these alien worlds in just three decades or so. With standard spacecraft technology, it would take around 30,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, which is four lightyears (25 trillion miles) away. Starshot, however, would use a very different technology. Instead of a traditional chemical propellant, the nanocrafts are powered by light. In theory, the nanocrafts could travel at roughly one-fifth of the speed of light, allowing them to—again, theoretically—reach the faraway star system in just 20 years.

They’d be equipped with even tinier cameras that could record images of potentially habitable planets within the Alpha Centauri system. It would then take about four years for the nanocrafts to send that data back to Earth. If all goes according to plan, humans could be looking at images of these alien worlds in just three decades or so.