NEBULA VOLUME 44 Issue 2 PAGE 2
Solar mass and 44.5 % of Solar visual luminosity . During the pair ’ s 79.91 year orbit about a common centre , the distance between them varies from about that between Pluto and the Sun , to that between Saturn and the Sun . Proxima Centauri is at the slightly smaller distance of 4.24 light years from our Sun , making it the closest star to our Solar System , though not visible to the naked eye . An Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri has been detected , and as far as I know , has been scientifically verified as actually existing , the results were recently published in Nature . This planet may be a destination of future interstellar spacecraft , including the afore-mentioned nano probes currently being developed for a fly-by mission by the Breakthrough Starshot Project .
Many other future space craft for travelling to and between the stars have been envisaged over the last 50 years , such as so-called Generation Starships or Space Arks , in which whole generations live and die on board the giant craft on decades or centuries-long journeys to other stars . Putting the astronauts into deep sleep by means of advanced cryonics have also been speculated upon and proposed . But Breakthrough Starshot is an audacious attempt to send a series of nano-probes the size of fairly large computer chips to the Proxima System . The project was launched in April , this year , and will be initially funded by the Russian billionaire , Yuri Milner , and is being endorsed by Professor Stephen Hawking , Mark Zuckerberg and Kip Thorne . According to Milner , ‘ if the Voyager spacecraft had left our planet when humans first left Africa , travelling at 11 miles a second , it would be arriving at Alpha Centauri just about now ’. By contrast , if the nano probes set off some time in the 2030s , after a 20 year journey , they should be in a position to start sending data from Proxima round about the year 2060 . However , at the present moment in time , Breakthrough Starshot is still very much in the early planning stage , and there ’ s a real possibility that either the costs involved will be too prohibitive , or that the probes may meet with an unforeseen accident in deep interstellar space . Still , it seems to be well worth giving the project the best start possible , and the benefits , scientifically , could be stupendous and compe l- ling .
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There ’ s no doubt , in my opinion , that manned interstellar travel won ’ t be taking place any time soon . Some physicists and engineers don ’ t think that it will ever prove possible , or feasible , to launch vessels that may well be vast in size and even more in terms of expense . To send a team of humans to even the nearest stars would utterly bankrupt the global economy within the economic parameters of the present time , and it may well prove politically impossible for governments to sell to the tax-payers the idea of funding a few humans to the stars , even though the benefits may not be felt by people on Earth for centuries to come . Nevertheless , my guess is that within the next couple of centuries , the first manned star ships will be blasting off from our ancestral home planet , to colonise and explore other worlds in other star systems . We may learn an incredible amount about how our Sun and its attendant planets formed , originally . We may , also , discover strange , new life forms which would keep scientists busy for centuries to come . It ’ s all got to be , definitely , worthwhile .
HOW TO GET TO OUR MEETINGS
Carlton Hill , Friends Meeting House , 188 , Woodhouse Lane , Leeds LS2 9DX
Directions from Woodhouse Lane :
By car , turn into St . Mark ' s street there is a small car park on the right .
From Headingley , the bus stop is just after you pass the meeting house
By foot : 25 mins uphill going out of town to the University .
By bus : all buses to the university : 1,28,56,93,95,96,97 . From the city centre ask for the stop outside the Chemical Engineering Dept , the stop after the Parkinson Building Steps .