Sending an object to another star is still the stuff of science fiction. But some concrete missions could get us at least part way there. These "interstellar precursor missions" include a trip to the solar gravitational lens point at 550 AU from the sun—farther than any artificial object has ever been, including Voyager.
For comparison, Voyager 1 is almost 24.8 billion km away from Earth right now and has been traveling since 1977 (near on 50 years).
Haven’t read the article yet, but if the headline is anything to go by, very cool if it can be done.
Edit:
Just read the article. Disappointingly but unsurprisingly:
The paper defined an ideal power plan that can output 1 kW per kg of weight.
This is currently well outside the realm of possibility, with the best ion thruster power sources coming at something like 10 W per kg and even nuclear electric propulsion systems outputting 100 W per kg. Some potentially better technologies are on the horizon, but nothing tested in the literature would meet this requirement yet.
For comparison, Voyager 1 is almost 24.8 billion km away from Earth right now and has been traveling since 1977 (near on 50 years).
Haven’t read the article yet, but if the headline is anything to go by, very cool if it can be done.
Edit:
Just read the article. Disappointingly but unsurprisingly:
Why even publish that? You’re not going to get better performance than the already unproven existing nuclear-electric systems any time soon.