NASA Press conference.

[cucumberman]

Identifying the required technology is very different to actually having it. Actual development of the technology they are talking about would take decades and huge amounts of investment. Once the technology is proven it would take even more time and much more money to develop a spacecraft that could utilise the technology. It's way beyond everyone's lifetime.

It's not really a spacecraft now that I have a good read. Its a mothership drone that will carry tiny nano sized ships. Like 1cm tiny. We can send some ants. But the technology they say is within this generation. They need some type of laser to fire the small ships and materials to insulate the ship so they don't break in such speed. Investment wise, it's funded by a millionaire. Might be the Glazers.

 

[aguero93:20]

I thought that as well as I read it would take us 17 thousand years to travel to the nearest star to us which is only 4 light years away!

700,000 years according to the BBC

So flying there with Ryanair wouldn't be a good idea then?

 

[Magicpole]

So flying there with Ryanair wouldn't be a good idea then?

40m years by plane.

 

[aguero93:20]

40m years by plane.

They'd still probably do a return for less than €50 though.

 

[SPIDERBOY]

So flying there with Ryanair wouldn't be a good idea then?

C'mon..... O'Leary is a blue...

 

[Magicpole]

They'd still probably do a return for less than €50 though.

I heard £45 but they're raising a beer to £20 and it's index linked so by the time we get there that will be about £30m a pop. A beer even more...,

 

[@BluePhil8]

I love reading stuff like this, but it's sad as well.

We can't even send humans further than the moon. We'll all be long dead before humanity is ever ready to travel to other solar systems.

Then I think our solar system is just a tiny speck of shit in the milky way, which is in turn a tiny speck of shit in the universe.

Makes everything seem pointless.

 

[Metalartin]

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016...s-big-plan-build-tiny-interstellar-spacecraft

Not really reassuring though since they are tiny spacecrafts. I did


Breakthrough Starshot

What does Milner know anyway though? He thought he would be playing at CM and winning trophies at Liverpool.

Also I understand it takes solar/light energy but not sure how the propulsion mechanically works and how do they stop when they reach their destination?

 

[Robinho's Subbuteo]

I love reading stuff like this, but it's sad as well.

We can't even send humans further than the moon. We'll all be long dead before humanity is ever ready to travel to other solar systems.

Then I think our solar system is just a tiny speck of shit in the milky way, which is in turn a tiny speck of shit in the universe.

Makes everything seem pointless.

Makes you feel rather insignificant doesn't it? The same goes when you realise that the earth is 4.5billion years older than you are.

 

[@BluePhil8]

Makes you feel rather insignificant doesn't it? The same goes when you realise that the earth is 4.5billion years older than you are.

And our life span is on average 80 years or something. It's not even seconds in the grand scheme of things. It's just a cruel joke really. Billions of years for us to get 80 years of life, if we are lucky. And then gone like the wind. Fucking pointless. And we are the only animals on this fucking planet born with the awareness and comprehension that we will one day die.