Physicists Propose New Tech to Reach the Nearest Star 1000 Times Faster

A new method of moving through space will allow us to reach the nearest star not in thousands of years, but in just a few decades.

Physicists have proposed a new way to deliver spacecraft to nearby stars in a relatively short time using relativistic electron beams. The study was published in the journal Acta Astronautica.

Without better space travel, dreams of reaching even the closest stars may remain just dreams. The closest star to us, Proxima Centauri, is about 4 light years away. It is orbited by a potentially habitable planet, Proxima Centauri b. To study both the planet and the star at close range, a space probe would need to be sent there.

If this probe were to travel at the speed of, say, the most distant human spacecraft, Voyager 1, the journey would take more than 70,000 years.

There are ideas now that involve sending spacecraft to the stars at relatively high speeds equipped with a light sail using a laser beam. This beam should push the sail and allow the probe to gain very high speeds to move through space.

But such projects assume that the size and weight of the space probe will be small, which means that it cannot accommodate many scientific instruments.

Therefore, such a probe cannot collect much valuable information about nearby stars and their planets. On the other hand, the cost of launching such a laser beam is quite high and such a beam will also dissipate over a large distance, which reduces its effectiveness.

Current designs, which rely on a light sail and a laser beam, suggest that the beam can only effectively push the probe to a distance of 0.1 astronomical units, while the distance to Proxima Centauri is approximately 270,000 astronomical units.

Although even such a small distance should be enough to accelerate the spacecraft to a very high speed. But the laser beam, as already mentioned, will dissipate, and therefore there is no guarantee that the probe will reach the nearest star in a reasonable time.

Therefore, physicists have proposed using beams of electrons or electron beams that would be accelerated to relativistic speeds to move a large probe with a light sail. This is a speed that is close to the speed of light. In this way, it would be possible to send a probe of much greater size and mass to the nearest stars.

According to physicists, such a beam will allow the probe to accumulate more energy and its speed could be up to 10% of the speed of light.

Electrons are relatively easy to accelerate to speeds close to the speed of light. And the scattering of the electron beam can be avoided using an effect well studied in particle accelerators.

Calculations by scientists show that such a beam will be able to push a space probe to a distance of 100 and even 1000 astronomical units. Thus, thanks to the obtained speed, the probe will be able to reach the star Proxima Centauri in about 40 years.

But accelerating the electron beam to relativistic speeds and keeping it pointed straight at the probe is still a challenge that needs to be solved, physicists say.

To create such a beam, a lot of energy is needed, and therefore scientists propose placing another spacecraft close to the Sun, which will rotate around our star and create the necessary electron beam, which will be directed at the probe flying to the stars.

According to scientists, minimal improvements to existing technologies will allow humanity to reach the nearest stars fairly quickly.