Category Archives: Space Travel

Earth may one day have its own ring system one made from space junk.

Whenever there are humans, pollution seems to follow. Our planets orbit doesnt seem to be an exception. However, not all is lost yet! Research at the University of Utah is exploring novel ideas for how to clear the build-up before it can cause more trouble for space-faring vessels and their crews.

Their idea involves using a magnetic tractor beam to capture and remove debris orbiting the Earth.

Earth is on course to have its own rings, says University of Utah professor of mechanical engineering Jake Abbott, corresponding author of the study, for the Salt Lake Tribune. Theyll just be made of space junk.

The Earth is on its way to becoming the fifth planet in the Solar System to gain planetary rings. However, unlike the rock-and-ice rings of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, Earths rings will be made of scrap and junk. It would also be wholly human-made.

According to NASAs Orbital Debris Program Office, there are an estimated 23,000 pieces of orbital debris larger than a softball; these are joined by a few hundreds of millions of pieces smaller than a softball. These travel at speeds of 17,500 mph (28,160 km/h), and pose an immense threat to satellites, space travel, and hamper research efforts.

Because of their high speeds, removing these pieces of space debris is very risky and hard to pull off.

Most of that junk is spinning, Abbott added. Reach out to stop it with a robotic arm, youll break the arm and create more debris.

A small part of this debris around 200 to 400 burns out in the Earths atmosphere every year. However, fresh pieces make their way into orbit as the planets orbit is increasingly used and traversed. Plans by private entities to launch thousands of new satellites in the coming years will only make the problem worse.

Abbotts team proposes using a magnetic device to capture or pull debris down into low orbit, where they will eventually burn up in the Earths atmosphere.

Weve basically created the worlds first tractor beam, he told Salt Lake Tribune. Its just a question of engineering now. Building and launching it.

The paper Dexterous magnetic manipulation of conductive non-magnetic objects has been published in the journal Nature.

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Earth might develop junk rings but engineers are working to prevent that - ZME Science

Vizzio Art Creators Lab (VACL), part of Vizzio Art, a European provider of digital wall art technology, announces the launch of a limited NFT collection Homo Spacien. The uniquely crafted series will conceptualize how humanity continues to evolve in parallel with space exploration.

VACL will be dropping their collection of 10,000 female Homo Spaciens, designed as digital collage art, on their website on 16th December 2021. The female series components are created using geometrical shapes combined from a pool of 153 attributes and 13 different traits using computer-generated software.

Celebrating the on-trend movement of space exploration, driven by the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, the NFT collection has been designed to explore how humans will evolve physically and technologically.

I have always been intrigued by space and wanted to explore how human evolution can evolve under different environments, comments Nukhet Cetin, Creative Director of VACL, and art and concept creator.

It is exciting that humans will one day colonize the Earths cosmic backyard and our NFT collection will be another reference point in the conversations about space exploration for years to come.

Homo Spacien will be the worlds first NFT collection that will allow a sneak preview of the collection in high definition on the TVs, and screens, of those interested in the collection.

Patrick Ashworth

Instead of seeing a small image on a marketplace, NFT collectors will be able to experience this distinctive collection using a proprietary Digital Art & NFT platform, Vizzio Art, explains Patrick Ashworth, Founder and CEO.

We are extremely excited to launch this unique NFT collection at a time when there are so many great achievements with space missions adds Patrick Ashworth.

The Homo Spacien collection keeps in line with the current movement towards PFP (Picture for Proof) Art and the huge demand for such computer-generated digital artworks. It pushes the boundaries of our imagination and allows users to imagine what life could be like on another planet. It has been designed to explore the idea of colonizing our cosmic backyard and humanity existing and living in these environments.

Homo Spacien NFT Art Collection Collage

It is more than a NFT collection and will form a community of like-minded NFT collectors and lovers of space innovation that will be able to provide ideas and feedback for a male version. Owners of the female Homo Spacien collection will also receive a unique mobile and desktop screensaver, space-themed events and give-aways, and free access to Vizzio Art and an exclusive merch store will be introduced at the beginning of 2022.

Vizzio Art will also be donating 10% of minting proceeds from the main sale to three charities chosen by the community. All of which are related to the exploration of space through education and advocacy, and helping refugees find new homes.

Details of our female Homo Spacien collection:Limited edition to 10,000 unique Homo Spacien NFTsPrice: 0.045 ETH each (+ gas fees)

Launch: Thursday 16/12/21 at 5pm GMT / 6pm CET / 12pm EST / 9am PST

Early access:

Early bird: 500 Homo Spacien NFTs released on Thursday 2/12/21 at 5pm GMT / 6pm CET / 12pm EST / 9am PST via a whitelisting (join our communities and send us a message via one of the platforms with your wallet details)

Pre-sale: 1,000 Homo Spacien NFTs released on Monday 13/12/21 at 5pm GMT / 6pm CET / 12pm EST / 9am PST via a whitelisting (join our communities and send us a message via one of the platforms with your wallet details it is first come first served, so hurry)

Disclaimer: this is an article written by Vizzio Art Creators Lab. Fintechnews does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products or other materials on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company. Fintechnews is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. Please note this is no investment advice.

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Launch of 'Homo Spacien' NFT Collection Shows How Space Travel Will Shape Human Evolution | Fintech Singapore - Fintech News Singapore

For the past two years, a small CubeSat has been orbiting Earth, occasionally using its ion thrusters to prove that iodine can be used successfully for fuel in space.

Working with members of Sorbonne Universite, researchers from ThrustMe have published a paper in the journal Nature, detailing their work on the satellite and with iodine.

The accelerants used to launch a rocket into orbit are not ideal for actual space travel, where little power is needed to course-correct and propel a spacecraft. Typical rocket fuel is powerful but wildly inefficient. Space travel is where ion thrusters come in, moving spacecraft forward by expelling ions. Solar panels aboard the spacecraft generate the electricity needed to strip a neutral atom of its electrons, creating ions. Xenon gas is currently the default neutral atom source, though the authors of this paper have been trialing iodine as an alternative.

Iodine has been disregarded previously owing to its corrosive nature. The researchers circumvented this by using ceramic materials in the satellite and storing the iodine in solid form. Iodine sublimates readily, so little energy is needed to change the phase and ionize it. The CubeSat's solar panel generates power to heat the iodine, which is held in a tank connected directly to an ionizing chamber. The gas is blasted with electrons to form a plasma inside the chamber. Electricity then accelerates the positive ions in the plasma, generating thrust.

Despite the small size of the CubeSat, only ten centimeters across per side, and a total weight of 1.2 kilograms, its successful two-year orbit is proof of concept for iodine as a viable fuel for use in space.

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Iodine ion thrusters successfully used to move a satellite in orbit - TweakTown

Fifteen years before Amazons founder, Jeff Bezos, catapulted himself into space in a rocket, Anousheh Ansari became the first female space tourist, spending nine days on the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. She is still the only woman ever to have traveled to space on a self-funded mission, which cost her $20 million.

Today, Ansari is CEO of XPrize, a California-based nonprofit that organizes multimillion-dollar competitions to support scientific innovation and benefit humanity. The first competition (sponsored by her family and worth $10 million) was aimed at building the worlds first nongovernment-funded spaceship. The winning design was licensed by Richard Branson, who used it to build the Virgin Galactic rocket that he boarded on a July spaceflight (nine days before Bezos).

Q: There seems to be a space craze going on right now among the worlds billionaires. What motivated you to go on a space mission?A: Since I was very young, Ive always wanted to go to space. Its what inspired me to study sciences, physics, math, and go in the direction I went. It was and still is a big passion of mine to understand our universe, how its built, my relationship to it. To me, its this extraordinary place of discovery and exploration.

Q: Why do you think Mr. Bezos and Mr. Branson flew to space?A: I happen to know both of them, and both of them are big space fans. Jeff Bezos grew up reading Jules Verne and has had a passion for space for many years. Branson bought the license for the winning spacecraft design in our XPrize competition, and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in building Virgin Galactic.

From the outside, it looks like another billionaire splurge. In the case of those two men, I know its not just a whim. Its something theyve passionately cared about all their life.

Q: What made you spend $20 million on your own space trip in 2006?A: To me, I would have paid with my life. It wasnt a matter of money. I felt that this was part of the purpose of my living on this earth.

Q: What was life like on the space station?A: My time up there was spent partly doing scientific experiments with the European Space Agency, partly talking to a lot of students and telling them how it felt to be there. I also wrote a blog.

For me, it was a moment of reflection on my life, the reason Im here on this planet. It helped me see the big picture.

Q: What about the practicalities of spending nine days up there?A: Life on a space station is like being a child and needing to relearn everything whether its washing your hair, eating in space, or working in space. Youre in microgravity, and things are different. You cant have a shower. Water floats; it doesnt flow. Theres no cooking going on, and no refrigerator. So all food forms are either dehydrated or in cans. Youre floating and not sleeping in a bed, so you need to get used to that. Youre not walking around, youre flying around. Realizing that you dont need to exert that much force to move around takes time. I banged myself around the space station many times, and got bruises.

When youre orbiting the Earth, you see a sunrise and a sunset every 90 minutes, so your biorhythm is completely out of whack. Your body goes through a lot of changes. You get this surge of fluid that goes to your head and causes headaches and puffiness. Your spine stretches, so youre taller, but you feel back pain. Your muscle mass changes; your bone density changes. Slowly your body starts adapting and changing as well.

Q: How is space exploration and travel useful to humanity?A: Space is the answer to our future on Earth. As the population grows, as our way of life requires more consumption of resources, we wont be able to sustain life as we know it without access to the resources of space. We need to build infrastructures and technologies that will give us access to the continuous energy of the sun to power our cities, for example, and to move some manufacturing into orbit so that it doesnt have a negative impact on our environment. Space will allow us to understand our planet and be able to predict things better.

Many technologies we use today come from the space program, whether its the lightweight material in clothing or shoes, or the lightweight material used in aerospace, satellite entertainment, GPS systems, the banking system.

Q: Three years ago, you moved over to the nonprofit organization XPrize. Can you talk about its mission?A: XPrize launches massive competitions to solve humanitys grand challenges. We focus on specific problems that have been stagnant because of lack of funding or lack of understanding or attention. A lot of our work right now is focused on climate change, energy, biodiversity and conservation.

Q: How do your competitions attract such huge sums?A: We dont, the teams do. When we have a $10 million competition, someone whos been sitting on their couch at home just thinking about something will have a reason to go build it. They form a team, and we connect them with potential investors.

Q: Are you tempted to go back to space again?A: I would love to go back to space at any point in time. I would be happy and willing to go live in space. I felt at home when I was on the space station; I experienced a freedom I had never felt before.

Q: A spiritual experience?A: Yes, it was a spiritual experience but not because I felt closer to God, because I dont believe that God is up there and that you get close to him if you go into space! I felt like I was reaching a different level of understanding of humanity.

Originally posted here:

Meet Anousheh Ansari, the only woman ever to travel to space on self-funded mission - Economic Times

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

Alex Wong | Getty Images

Jeff Bezos may have earmarked $1 billion of Amazon stock a year to fund his Blue Origin rocket company, but he says he's spending more of his fortune on addressing climate change.

During an interview at the Ignatius Forum in Washington, D.C., last week, the Amazon founder and executive chairman was asked what he would say to critics who argue that billionaires such as himself should be spending more of their fortune on targeting Earth's climate issues rather than space travel.

"They're missing the duality that we need to do both and that the two things are deeply connected," Bezos told Harvard Business Review editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius. "I'm actually spending even more money on the Bezos Earth Fund than I'm spending on space."

Bezos acknowledged there's a "tremendous amount to be done" on Earth, but that in order to "keep growing as a civilization," humans need to look to developing resources on other planets as well.

Bezos launched the $10 billion Earth Fund in 2020 to issue grants to scientists, activists and other organizations working to address climate change. So far, the fund has granted $947 million, and the goal is to issue the remaining $9 billion by 2030.

After stepping down as Amazon CEO in July, Bezos is spending more time on personal ambitions like the Earth Fund and Blue Origin, as well as The Washington Post, which he acquired in 2013.

Bezos is setting aside more time to Blue Origin projects in particular. CNBC previously reported that Bezos recently doubled his weekly time commitment to Blue Origin, dedicating both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons to updates or discussions at the space company.

Bezos has long had an interest in space. At his high school graduation, he gave a valedictorian speech that said he wanted to build "space hotels, amusement parks, yachts and colonies for two or three million people orbiting around the earth." He ended his valedictorian speech with the words, "Space: the final frontier. Meet me there." It was meant to be a riff on the "Star Trek" tagline.

Bezos went on to play a small role as an alien in the 2016 sci-fi film "Star Trek: Beyond."

"That was not an easy gig to get," Bezos told Ignatius, adding that he only spoke one line during the film. "I insisted on a speaking role which complicated the whole scenario."

WATCH: Why the Bezos Earth Fund is putting $500 million into renewable energy in the climate change fight

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Jeff Bezos says he spends more on climate than space travel and recounts the time he played an alien - CNBC

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 19 November 2021, 06:11 am

Space travel technology has advanced so much within the last 53 years. What used to be impossible is now possible, and it seems like the tech just keeps on progressing.

But amidst the smoke of rocket fuel and high-profile, multi-billion-dollar launches, one specific space exploration tech has gone under the radar: solar sails. And if there's something you should know about them, it's that they could herald in a new age of space exploration.

The solar sail mission LightSail 2 has been up there orbiting the Earth for over two years now. And according to Universe Today, it is providing excellent hard data that could inform humanity's next steps into exploring the cosmos.

Now, you might be asking, "what in the world are solar sails?"

The simple answer is, they basically work like boat sails. The only difference is that they don't use wind to propel a spacecraft (there's obviously no wind in space) but sunlight. That's why they're called solar sails in the first place.

(Photo : Getty Images )

LightSail 2 was a revolutionary mission because it demonstrated that reaching a high orbital altitude is possible without ever using rocket fuel. Furthermore, Bill Nye "The Science Guy"calls it "poetic" that space travel could be achieved by "sailing on sunbeams."

So, how does a solar sail work? According to Planetary.org, literally just like a boat sail.

Light particles, or photons, while not having mass, actually have momentum behind them as they travel through space. When they hit the surface of a solar sail, they give it a tiny push. Every single succeeding photon push will propel a spacecraft forward--and at incredible speeds, too.

Read also:NASA Confirms to Try Latest Solar Sail Technologies in Space by Mid-2022

A spacecraft powered by solar sails could theoretically reach 10 percent of light speed, according to Exploring Solar Sails. That's all without having to use rocket fuel or other conventional forms of propulsion.

Here's a bit of perspective to give justice to that figure. The speed of light is a blistering 186,000 miles per second. This figure remains constant all throughout the universe, according to the American Museum of Natural History.

(Photo : Getty Images )

10 percent of that, while relatively small, is still a whopping 18,600 miles every single second. If, for example, a plane would go as fast as 10 percent the speed of light, it would take less than a second for it to travel from Los Angeles to Beijing--a distance of 6,248 miles.

So, will future space travel incorporate solar sail technology?

For now, the LightSail 2 mission will continue gathering relevant data. But within the next several decades, this technology could potentially allow man-made spacecraft to reach places in the galaxy previously unreachable by conventional tech.

(Photo : Getty Images )

There's already one mission, Breakthrough Starshot, which plans to send a solar sail-powered spacecraft to Proxima Centauri--the nearest neighboring star to our sun. Today's fastest-existing space travel tech, called gravity assist, would take an insane 19,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri, according to Universe Today

With a solar sail, it will only take a few decades, writes Astronomy. That could be humanity's biggest mission yet, which can be achieved within the current generations' lifetimes.

So for now,forget real-life warp drivesand other science fiction space travel tech. Solar sail propulsion is here, and the possibilities are almost endless.

Related: NASA Releases Video Of WILD, Sci-Fi-Like Space Exploration Concepts--Which Ones Can Come True?

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce

2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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Space Travel Using Solar Sails: A Good Alternative for Light Speed Propulsion? - Tech Times

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins waves at the audience during the astronaut graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in January 2020. In April 2022, she will become the first Black woman to live and work on the International Space Station. Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins waves at the audience during the astronaut graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in January 2020. In April 2022, she will become the first Black woman to live and work on the International Space Station.

For the first time, a Black woman will live and work on the International Space Station, starting in April of next year.

Jessica Watkins, who was born in Maryland but now considers Colorado home, is slated to spend six months on the ISS as a mission specialist. It will be her first mission in space.

The crew for this mission known as Crew-4 will be the fourth rotation of astronauts on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.

Watkins joined the ranks of NASA astronauts in 2017 and has worked in the space agency's research centers, particularly on the Mars rover, Curiosity.

Watkins says she grew up admiring astronauts like Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space, and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. And she hopes her work aboard the ISS will inspire more kids of color to aspire to space travel.

"I do hope that all young girls, especially young girls of color that are interested in STEM and interested in exploring space, feel empowered to do so," Watkins told Colorado Public Radio last year. "I just hope young girls across the country feel that way now."

And the International Space Station might not be Watkins' only stop in space. With a background in geology and studying the surface of Mars, Watkins would "certainly" be interested in traveling to the red planet, "as long as we have a ride back," she joked in the CPR interview.

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Jessica Watkins will be the first Black woman to live and work on the space station - NPR

The International Space Station (ISS) photographed by Expedition 56 crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft after undocking, October 4, 2018.NASA/Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS

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STOCKHOLM, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Russia's test on Monday to blow up one of its own satellites in space has drawn criticism for endangering the crew of the International Space Station and, experts say, created a debris field that has increased risks to space activities for years. read more

WHAT IS SPACE DEBRIS AND WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

Space debris, or space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or parts of a spacecraft that float around in space hundreds of miles above the Earth, risking collision with a satellites or a space station.

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Debris can also be caused by an explosion in space or when countries conduct missile tests to destroy their own satellites by missiles. Apart from Russia, China, the United States and India have shot down satellites, creating space debris.

As space debris orbits around the earth at tremendous speeds - about 15,700 miles per hour (25,265 kph) in low Earth orbit - it could cause significant damage to a satellite or a spacecraft in case of a collision.

"Every satellite that goes into orbit has the potential of becoming space debris," Professor Hugh Lewis, head of the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton, said in an interview.

With the launch of more satellites from companies such as Elon Musk's Starlink and OneWeb satellite constellation, near Earth space will likely see more space debris.

HOW BIG IS THE DEBRIS?

The U.S. government tracks about 23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth.

There are half a million pieces of debris larger than 1 centimetre and 100 million pieces of debris about one millimetre or larger.

Debris, particularly near the International Space Station, orbits the Earth 15 to 16 times a day, increasing the risk of collision.

The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates the total mass of all space objects in Earth orbit weigh more than 9,600 tonnes.

In a few decades, if the build-up of space debris continues, some regions of space might become unusable, Holger Krag, head of the ESA's Space Safety Programme Office, said in an interview.

WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE CURRENT TEST?

The Kosmos 1408 satellite that was destroyed on Monday was launched in 1982 and weighed more than 2,000 kg (4,410 lbs), creating a significant amount of space debris.

The test generated more than 1,500 pieces of "trackable orbital debris" and would likely spawn hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments, the U.S. Space Command said in a statement. read more

The crew of the space station were directed to take shelter in their docked spaceship capsules for two hours after the test in case they needed to leave due to a collision with debris.

"The event happened at an altitude just 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the space station altitude," Krag said. "So the risk for the space station will be increased, perhaps even doubled, compared to what it was before."

WILL SPACE DEBRIS AFFECT SPACE TRAVEL?

While space debris is unlikely to affect space travel, it will lead to significant problems for spaceflight around Earth.

The risk would be highest for objects orbiting at an altitude of around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles), which is used for communications and Earth observation.

"We will still be able to travel to Mars because we will transit very fast through this problematic region," Krag said.

"But if you want to operate and stay for years in this problematic region, that might not be possible anymore in a few decades from now," he said.

CAN SPACE DEBRIS BE REMOVED?

According to NASA, debris in orbits below 600 kilometres will fall back to Earth within several years, but above 1,000 kilometres it will continue circling the Earth for a century or more.

"If we want to try and solve the space debris problem, we have to start to remove that type of object," Lewis said.

Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency have partnered with start-ups to help with removal of space debris.

While JAXA has launched a six-month demonstration project with Astroscale for the world's first debris removal mission, ESA is working with Swiss start-up ClearSpace for launching a mission in 2025.

Not only a hazard, space debris increases the cost for satellite operators.

Satellite operators in the geostationary orbit have estimated protective and mitigation measures account for about 5-10% of mission costs and for lower-Earth orbits the cost is higher, according to an OECD study.

(This story has been refiled to correct typos in paragraphs 1, 9, 12)

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Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Alex Richardson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Q+A What is space debris and how dangerous is it? - Reuters

SpaceX chief Elon Musk while mentioning people who have walked on the Moon in a tweet said "soon, that list will grow much longer as humanity reaches new heights."

Musk's latest tweet on space travelcomes as aSpaceX capsule landed at the International Space Station(ISS) last week carrying four astronauts as part of its partnership with NASA.

Also Read:'I keep forgetting you're still alive': Elon Musk takes a jibe at Bernie Sanders

The current mission named Crew-3 had blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying astronauts Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Raja Chari. The spaceship Endurance docked at ISS last Thursday.

Watch:Musk is willing to spend $6 billion to fight world hunger

Chari, 44 who is a US Air Force colonel along with Marshburn, 61, a medical doctor and Maurer,34, are set to stay in space for six months.

Also Read:Musk on stock selling spree? Tesla CEO sells another $1.2 bn worth shares

Maurer is a science engineer while Barron served in the Navy. Marshburn had travelled space on two earlier occasions and had also taken spacewalks.

Also Read:Indian-American hired woman to slap him for using Facebook; Elon Musk approves

The US astronauts will conduct space exploration and carry out scientific research and are likely to undertake spacewalks to upgrade sections of the space station. They were accompanied by German astronaut Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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Soon, that list will grow much longer, says Musk on space travel - WION

A new space mission to hunt for potentially habitable planets around Earths closest neighbouring star system is under way.

In a project with echoes of the 2009 film Avatar, an international collaboration of scientists in Australia and the US will search in the Alpha Centauri star system for earth-like planets that could sustain life.

Alpha Centauri Earths closest neighbouring star system consists of two sun-like stars, known as Alpha Centauri A and B, and a more distant red dwarf star.

The Toliman mission, named after the ancient Arabic-derived name for the star system, will search for potential planets orbiting Alpha Centauri A and B.

The Toliman telescope, which is under construction, is set to be launched into low-earth orbit in 2023. It seeks to discover new planets in the Goldilocks orbit at the right distance, so the planet is neither too hot nor too cold to sustain life.

Project leader Prof Peter Tuthill, of the University of Sydney, said: If were looking for life as we know it, usually the gold standard is a planet where liquid water could be present at the surface of the planet so its not like a frozen snowball, and it doesnt boil all the water up into the atmosphere.

We know that life has evolved at least once, around a sun-like star on an earth-like planet, Tuthill said. We try to look for other examples that are as close to that configuration as possible.

Tuthill likened hunting for planets to solving a mystery: the signals planets give off are very subtle and very faint compared to the signals from stars, he said.

Despite the seemingly frequent discovery of exoplanets planets outside our solar system around our very nearest sun-like stars we dont have any idea whether there could be any earth-like planets, Tuthill said.

The Toliman mission will try to uncover planets by studying whether the stars Alpha Centauri A and B wobble from side to side, due to the presence of unseen planets tugging on them gravitationally.

Collaborators on the mission previously detected a planet candidate potentially orbiting around Alpha Centauri A, but its existence hasnt been definitively confirmed.

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If that is a real planet that would be something like a Neptune-like planet a gas giant, Tuthill said. Maybe it has a moon around it that life could exist on.

That possibility has a sci-fi parallel: James Camerons 2009 film, Avatar, is set on Pandora, a fictional habitable moon that orbits a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri system.

If that detection is proved to be confirmed, then James Cameron got there first with his movie, Tuthill said.

At 4.37 light years away from the sun, Alpha Centauri would be an obvious destination for any future interstellar travel, Tuthill added.

Even so, a terribly forbidding leap in technology would be required to get there. At about the speed of the fastest modern space probes, this is something like a 100,000-year voyage.

Its not in my lifetime, but its still a visionary future where we might imagine developing technologies able to span these interstellar voids.

In collaboration with the University of Sydney, the Toliman mission involves scientists at Saber Astronautics in Australia, and Breakthrough Initiatives and Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US.

This might be the biggest privately funded space telescope ever built, Tuthill said.

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New mission to scour our interstellar neighbourhood for planets that could sustain life - The Guardian