Scientists say the latest development is an important a precursor to an ambitious attempt to send space probes to planets beyond our solar system, dubbed Breakthrough Starshot. Breakthrough Starshot: getting to Proxima Centauri b – Science Weekly podcast Read more“This is a new frontier of tiny, gram-scale spacecraft” said Professor Avi Loeb of Harvard University, chair of the advisory committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. The Sprite project is led by Zac Manchester, now a researcher working with Loeb at Harvard University, who began work on the spacecraft almost a decade ago, before the project became part of the Breakthrough Starshot effort. The top destination for such a mission is our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, within which is the star Proxima Centauri which is orbited by the planet Proxima b. Loeb believes it will take 20 years for the Breakthrough Starshot space probes to be developed, and another 20 for them to reach the Alpha Centauri system, but he says the wait will be worth it.

Source: The Guardian July 28, 2017 16:32 UTC