Starshot wants to build the world’s most powerful laser and aim it at Alpha Centauri. What could go wrong?

Breakthrough Starshot has $100 million in funding and the endorsement of Stephen Hawking, who called it the “next great leap into the cosmos.”

What is it? The plan is to build a laser so powerful that it could accelerate tiny spacecraft to 20% of the speed of light, getting them to Alpha Centauri in just 20 years. The audacious plan was first outlined by Philip Lubin, a cosmologist (pictured).

How it will work: An enormous array of moderately powerful lasers are yoked together to create a single beam with up to 100 gigawatts of power. Direct the beam onto highly reflective light sails attached to spacecraft weighing less than a gram and already in orbit. Turn the beam on for a few minutes, and the photon pressure blasts the spacecraft to relativistic speeds.

Issues: Starshot still faces a lot of challenges. There is no laser yet powerful enough to do this kind of blasting. There are no light sails that could take such a beam without being obliterated. The tiny spacecraft doesn’t exist. And that’s before we even get to the geopolitics. Read all about the technology involved and the people who want to make it happen here. 

This is part of our new space issue: you can read the rest of the articles here.