Breakthrough Starshot program overview
Date
Authors
Worden, S. Pete
Bandutunga, Chathura
Sibley, Paul
Ireland, Michael
Schalkwyk, James
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Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
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Abstract
In 2016 the Breakthrough Prize Foundation initiated the Breakthrough Starshot program. The programs approach is to construct 100 GM class ground-based lasers to propell a space-based light sail to sub-light velocities enabling a several decade trip and flyby of the Alpha Centauri star system and return via laser-light communications link images and other scientific data on planets in that system. This paper reviews challenges and progress on this program.
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Type
Book Title
Laser Propulsion in Space: Fundamentals, Technology, and Future Missions
Entity type
Publication