NASA is planning an interstellar mission for 2069, may head to nearby Alpha Centauri

[kevindavis007]

Mankind hasn’t yet explored some of the most interesting objects in our own solar system — heck, we still don’t even know all that much about Earth itself — but that isn’t stopping NASA from setting its sights at a destination so distant that it would take decades for a spacecraft to even get there. A tentative mission is currently being outlined that would see NASA send a spacecraft on an interstellar mission to explore the Alpha Centauri system.

The proposed journey, which was revealed by scientists with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the 2017 Geophysical Union Conference and reported by New Scientist, was born out of a budget mandate to make progress on interstellar travel. Now, NASA is working on technology that, if all goes as planned, could allow a spacecraft to reach ten percent of light speed, and the goal is to have it ready by 2069 with Alpha Centauri in its sights

Alpha Centauri is a system made up of three stars, with the two primary stars being Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and the third — thought to possibly be merely passing through the system — is Proxima Centauri. The system is around 4.3 light years from Earth, which essentially makes it a next-door neighbor. If NASA succeeds at achieving ten percent of light speed with a spacecraft, it would allow them to reach the system with a probe in as little as 44 years.


Read More: http://www.isn-news.net/2017/12/nasa-is-planning-interstellar-mission.html

[Cripplecreek]

No telling what kinds of propulsion systems we may have available by 2069.

[Joe Wooten]

No telling what kinds of propulsion systems we may have available by 2069.

Given the progress of the last 30 years, it probably will not be much different from what we have today.....

[Doug Loss]

Sounds nice, but getting NASA (or any government organization) to commit to something intended to happen 52 years in the future and expecting that commitment to hold seems like a pretty naive thing to plan for.  I think the Breakthrough Initiative probes are much more likely to actually happen.

[Suppressed]

No telling what kinds of propulsion systems we may have available by 2069.

Not as good as the ones in 2089....when we launch a second probe that passes the first.

[Doug Loss]

Actually, we covered this exact topic in a presentation at the TVIW symposium in Huntsville back in early October:


https://youtu.be/uHKbb_ga5AY

The media got it wrong, as usual.  It isn't a plan to actually launch a mission, it's a mission concept study.