NASA Plans Mission to Alpha Centauri
NASA has announced that it plans to send a spacecraft to the nearest star outside the solar system, Alpha Centauri, in 2069. The bold mission is scheduled to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing in 1969.
The announcement comes from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is responsible for planning new missions within the solar system and beyond.
Alpha Centauri is a system of three stars, just four light years away. Even at a tenth of the speed of light, which NASA experts say may be possible, it would take a spacecraft 44 years to reach the constellation.
The technology for such a mission, however, does not even exist yet. Some form of laser-powered sails or a nuclear propulsion system would have to be created to reach such a speed.
NASA's first interstellar mission would concentrate on exploring one of the system's exoplanets, Proxima Centauri b, which may be habitable.
Experts say that it would take half a century before such a mission could even be launched. As a result, the spacecraft would probably not reach its destination before the beginning of the next century. In addition, considering cuts to NASA's budget, the agency does not nearly have enough money to develop a spacecraft that could actually make the mission.
Currently, Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is the farthest spacecraft and man-made object from earth.
Related Topics
- Voyager Spacecraft Continue to Fly On in Outer Space
- The Solar System
- Stars - Great Balls of Gas in Our Universe
- Apollo - Mission to the Moon
- NASA Discovers Star System With 8 Planets
- NASA at 50
Words
- agency = organisation
- anniversary = date on which something important happened in the past
- announce = to say officially, in public
- beyond = here: outside the solar system
- bold = exciting; not afraid of being difficult to do
- century = a hundred years
- coincide = be at the same time as
- considering = if you look at or think about something
- constellation =group of stars
- currently = at the moment; now
- destination = place where you want to go
- develop = plan, design and make
- exoplanet =planet that is not in the solar system
- explore = to travel to a place to find out more about it
- habitable = a place with water and air, that allows you to live there
- in addition = also
- interstellar = between stars
- laser = a narrow beam of light
- light year = the distance light travels in one year = 9 500 000 000 000 kilometres
- lunar = moon
- mission = here: a trip to a faraway destination
- nuclear propulsion system = a system that uses nuclear energy to make a spacecraft move forward
- reach = get to
- responsible = in charge of
- scheduled = planned
- solar system = our sun and the planets that go around it
- spacecraft = object that can reach space and travel to the sun and other planets
- technology = objects and machines to make something work