{"id":2310,"date":"2015-04-24T10:33:11","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T17:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deepspace.ucsb.edu\/?page_id=2310"},"modified":"2022-08-24T12:03:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T19:03:35","slug":"starlight","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/128.111.23.62\/wordpress\/projects\/starlight","title":{"rendered":"Starlight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"NASA<\/a><\/div>\n

\"NASA\"NASA<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Starlight<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Directed Energy for Relativistic Interstellar Missions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\"laser<\/a>

Rendition of a laser propelled sail (A. Mann)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DEEP-laser<\/a>

Laser propulsion\u00a0 (Q. Zhang)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Starlight program as known as DEEP-IN (Directed Energy Propulsion for Interstellar Exploration) and DEIS (Directed Energy Interstellar Studies) is a NASA program to use large scale directed energy to propel small spacecraft to relativistic speeds to enable humanity’s first interstellar missions. This program was started in 2009 with initial funding from UC Santa Barbara and the NASA Spacegrant Consortium with funding from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program from a 2014 proposal. NIAC Phase I funding began in April 2015 with Phase II funding started in May 2016.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

NASA DEEP-IN page<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the beginning of\u00a0spaceflight, humans have accomplished wonderful feats of exploration and showcased their drive to understand the universe. Yet, in those 60 years, only one spacecraft, Voyager 1 (launched in 1977) has left the solar system. As remarkable as this is, humans will never reach even the nearest stars with our current propulsion technology. Instead,\u00a0radically new\u00a0strategies involving the technology already available must be used.<\/p>\n

We propose a roadmap to a program that will lead to sending relativistic probes to the nearest stars.<\/p>\n

To do so requires a fundamental change in our thinking of both propulsion and our definition of what a spacecraft is. In addition to larger spacecrafts capable of\u00a0human transportation, we consider “wafer sats”, wafer-scale systems weighing no more than a gram. The wafer sats would include integrated optical communications, optical systems, and sensors. When combined with directed energy propulsion, these are\u00a0capable of speeds greater\u00a0than 0.25 c.<\/p>\n

This program has applications for planetary defense<\/a>, SETI and Kepler missions.<\/p>\n

List of our recent Directed Energy related publications: <\/strong>DE_STAR_and_related_References<\/a><\/p>\n

An online photon propulsion calculator with laser comm is available Here<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Relativistic online photon propulsion calculator with laser comm is available Here<\/a><\/h4>\n

More sophisticated laser communications online calculator (Messerschmitt – see below) Here<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n

For our related Breakthrough Initiatives Starshot effort see: Here<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

…projects\/starshot<\/p>\n

For our related work on small wafer scale spacecraft see: Here<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

…projects\/wafer-scale-spacecraft-development<\/p>\n

For implications of this technology to future planetary defense applications see: Here<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

…projects\/directed-energy-planetary-defense<\/p>\n

For implications of this technology for optical SETI see: Here<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n

…projects\/implications-of-directed-energy-for-seti<\/p>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
1\/4-Scale 19 Element Phased Array with 7 central elements activated and Hexapod from PI\u00a0- Front View<\/div>\n\n\n\t\"\"\n\t
<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
1\/4-Scale 19 Element Phased Array with Hexapod from PI<\/div>\n\n\n\t\"\"\n\t
<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
1\/4-Scale 19 Element Phased Array with 7 central elements activated - Bottom View<\/div>\n\n\n\t\"\"\n\t
<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
1\/4-Scale 19 Element Phased Array with 7 central elements activated - Front View<\/div>\n\n\n\t\"\"\n\t
<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\t\t