Project Dragonfly. A Laser-Powered Probe to Alpha Centauri

The distances between stars are so vast, it’s hard to wrap your mind around it. Even our far flung Voyagers have barely reached interstellar space, and would take tens of thousands of years to get to even the nearest star. But scientists and engineers are considering what it would actually take to send a spacecraft to another star. It’s called Project Dragonfly, and would use existing or near future technologies to send a 3,000 kg spacecraft to Alpha Centauri within 100 years. Project Dragonfly paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576517319136?dgcid=rss_sd_all#! Audio Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio Video Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/bh/podcast/universe-today-video/id794057165?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/video What Fraser s Watching Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G Weekly email newsletter: https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter Support us at: http://www.patreon.com/universetoday More stories at: http://www.universetoday.com/ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+universetoday/ Instagram - http://instagram.com/universetoday Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Chad Weber - weber.chad@gmail.com Chloe Cain - Instagram: @chloegwen2001 References: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576517319136?dgcid=rss_sd_all#! https://i4is.org/ https://theconversation.com/worlds-most-powerful-laser-is-2-000-trillion-watts-but-whats-it-for-45891 http://casa.colorado.edu/~danforth/science/magsail/magsail.html