Russian billionaire Yuri Milner recently showed his interest in developing spacecraft that can travel at upto 20% the speed of light. This would make the travel time to reach Alpha Centauri less than twenty years. It seemed pretty clear that for this mission, extremely lightweight spacecrafts have to be made. Also, no human would be suitable for such a space travel, hence appropriate robots need to be developed. A new species of tiny satellites seem to be capable.
The proposed project called Kicksat-2 is led by Cornell. It will launch hundreds of tiny sticky-note sized satellites to the International Space Station. Each of these devices is a complete spacecraft with solar cells, radio transceiver, and a tiny computer. The purpose is to allow these satellites to field test their navigation and communication systems before they burn up in the orbit.
Zachary Manchester and Mason Peck are the project’s chief engineers. They are also on the advisory committee for Breakthrough Startshot, which aims to make interstellar voyages a reality. Sprites are based on the “chipsat” technology, both of which indicate the possibilities of space travel.
A Cambridge-based non-profit Draper has been developing chipsat technology since 2007. An aerospace engineer associated with the firm said that a chipsat can never replace a big spacecraft but it can do new things like land on a planet. They have thought of sending them to places where a normal spacecraft can’t go.
Very small and lightweight design impart very high, realistic speeds, reducing years from the time it would normally take. Such supersonic speeds along with state-of-the-art technology will revolutionise space travel and allow risky landings on comets, going beyond the solar system and bringing information back to the earth. Sounds fascinating, huh?
But before we make such advancements, the technology needs to be proven. Manchester’s first Sprites were deported outside of the ISS in 2011. Several years later, even after receiving a large dose of radiation, their hardware was still found to be functioning. We seem to be lucky on this.
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