Interstellar Travel Concept Pioneered by UCSB, Cal Poly Professors Closer to Liftoff

$100 million investment could help launch mission to Alpha Centauri  

An interstellar travel concept that once seemed like a work of fiction is much closer to becoming a reality thanks in part to backing from billionaire entrepreneur Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking.

With Hawking at his side, Milner on Tuesday announced a bold $100 million initiative called Breakthrough Starshot, which uses concepts proposed by UC Santa Barbara physicist Philip Lubin and Cal Poly statistics professor Gary Hughes. 

Statistics Professor Gary Hughes.

Lubin and Hughes investigated using a phased laser array to push a tiny spacecraft outfitted with reflective sails through the cosmos at about a quarter of the speed of light. The two called the project DEEP-IN, or Directed Energy Propulsion for Interstellar Exploration. Last year, they were awarded one of NASA’s $100,000 Phase I Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grants to advance their research.

Milner’s Breakthrough Starshot initiative will take the research a step forward. Hughes lauded Milner’s effort to develop an interstellar spacecraft, calling the announcement “gratifying.”

“The technology required for interstellar missions is mostly here today,” Hughes said.

If launched with a sufficient laser array, the spacecraft would reach Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, in about 20 years. Breakthrough Starshot envisions a ground-based laser array whereas DEEP-IN has focused on a laser array docked in space. The spacecraft would beam back images and data that scientists could then use to determine whether life exists outside of our solar system.

“With this new infusion of funding, it is now more likely that interstellar missions will begin before we retire,” Hughes said.

This video from NASA 360 explains the research behind project DEEP-IN.