The galaxy’s billions of worlds like ours. Do we need to send them the germ of life, to settle her throughout the cosmos? Claudius Gros Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, believes that it is necessary. For this, he proposes to use the ships with laser motion systems, which are technically it is possible to collect now. The same project Breakthrough Starshot has ambitious goals for the use of such systems to send tiny light probes to alpha Centauri. Behind it, scientists want to take pictures of our nearest star, but, according to Grose, such systems could bring much more cargo to the orbit of this star.
Possible targets include planetary system near TRAPPIST-1, red dwarf star only 40 years away. Earlier this year astronomers found that it has become home to a solid seven planets, three of which rotate within the potentially habitable zone of a star.
The alleged 20-year-old Starshot mission to the nearest star, excluding the Sun, is based on an ultralight craft that can accelerate to 20 percent of the speed of light due to the giant lasers on Earth, which will indicate light-sail — in fact, the mirror surface. Despite enormous difficulties, especially in the design of lasers and the reflectivity of the laser sail, engineers are confident of carrying out such a mission.
“To do it is a matter of will power,” says Thieme Chi Hoang from the Canadian Institute for theoretical astrophysics. However, not being able to slow down, disposable ship Starshot Whistler just past the target star system a few hours after arrival.
Project Genesis
Can laser pull to bring the heavy, slow-moving cargo on Board the ship with the braking system on orbit? Gros says that can — and should.
His interest in interstellar travel is not research and not research. He wants to spread life.
“Such projects are useless to mankind, but life has value and should be able to evolve on other planets,” he says.
Gros find comfort in the fact excitement at the thought that planets revolving near the most common types of stars in our galaxy, red dwarfs like TRAPPIST-1, may be the ancient oxygen-rich atmosphere. Although today that would make them potentially suitable for habitat, they also would not give life the opportunity to form naturally due to oxidation probioticescoe organic chemistry.
“In our galaxy could be a billion sterile, but inhabitable worlds,” he says.
In the proposed project Genesis Gros sees the possibility of sending in space of the Autonomous instruments of life: a miniature version of gene labs, scientists are trying to create on Earth. They will be grown genes and cells of the chemical ingredients and spread on inhabitable worlds.
How to slow down heavy cargo on arrival? It is proposed to use sails, but instead of mirroring the application they will be magnetic fields stretching for miles and transmits the pulse probe interstellar particles by beating him. As soon as the lasers used to start, stop push the sails, they will be able to use Stardust to slow down.
Magnetic sail
Deep space can be virtually empty, containing any atom per cubic centimeter, so you will need a sail with a large surface area. According to Grosso, the newest high-temperature superconducting wires is fine — they can transfer energy almost without losses at a temperature just above absolute zero. Of them could create magnetized sail, large enough to stop heavy machine.
Gros simulated interstellar particles entering the magnetic sail, and found that successful inhibition is determined by four parameters: the mass of a space ship, its speed, the radius of the sails and the current flowing through the loop, the superconducting loop inside the main ship, which will result in the action of the magnetic sail.
“Superconducting current can be created one time before start, and it will flow forever,” says Gros. This technology could definitely work long enough for the mission to a relatively close star like TRAPPIST-1 took place.
According to estimates Grosso, a 1.5-ton ship, carrying superconducting infrastructure for sails 50 km wide, can reach TRAPPIST-1 in 12 000 years, if will be broken up by lasers Breakthrough.
Jeff Kuhn, counselor Starshot and physicist, University of Hawaii, commended the work of Grosso, but expresses concern that obtaining support and funding of the mission, which is 12 000 years old, it will be harder than building and running such.
If we can settle the life on outer space?
Ilya Hel