Here is your pdf: A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight

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A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight Philip Lubin Physics Dept, UC Santa Barbara lubin@deepspace.ucsb.edu submitted JBIS April 2015 Current version Ðv (4/6/16) Abstract Ð In the nearly 60 years of spaceflight we have accomplished wonderful feats of exploration

that have shown the incredible spirit of the human drive to explore and understand our universe. Yet in those 60 years we have barely left our solar system with the Voyager 1 spacecraft launched in 1977 finally leaving the solar system after 37 years of flight at a speed of 17 km/s or less than 0.006% the speed of light. As remarkable as this,

to reach even the nearest stars with our current propulsion

technology will take 100 millennium. We have to radically rethink our strategy or give up our dreams of reaching the stars, or wait for technology that does not currently exist. While we all dream of human spaceflight to the stars in a way romanticized in books and movies, it is not within our power to do so, nor it is clear that this is the path we should choose. We posit a path forward, that while not simple, it is within our technological reach. We propose a roadmap to a program that will lead to sending relativistic probes to the nearest stars and will open up a vast array of possibilities of flight both within our solar system and far beyond. Spacecraft from gram level complete spacecraft on a wafer (Òwafer

satsÓ) that

reach more than ! c and reach the nearest star in 20 years to spacecraft with masses more than 10

5 kg (100 tons) that can reach speeds of greater than 1000 km/s. These systems can be propelled to speeds

currently unimaginable with existing propulsion technologies. To do so requires a fundamental change in our thinking of both propulsion and in many cases what a spacecraft is. In addition to larger spacecraft, some capable of transporting humans, we consider functional spacecraft on a wafer, including integrated optical communications, imaging systems, photon thrusters, power and sensors

combined with directed energy propulsion. The costs can be amortized over a very large number of

missions beyond relativistic spacecraft as such planetary defense, beamed energy for distant spacecraft,

sending power back to Earth, stand-off composition analysis of solar system targets, long range laser communications, SETI searches and even terra forming. The human factor of exploring the nearest stars

and exo-planets would be a profound voyage for humanity, one whose non-scientific implications would

be enormous. It is time to begin this inevitable journey far beyond our home.

. 1 -Introduction: Nearly 50 years ago we set foot on the surface of the moon and in doing so opened up the vision and imaginations of literally billion of people. The number of children ennobled to dream of

spaceflight is truly without equal in our history. Many reading this will remember this event or look

back at the grainy images with optimism for the future. At the same time we sent robotic probes

throughout our solar system and took images of distant galaxies and exoplanet signatures that are

forever engrained in our minds. One of humanities grand challenges is to explore other planetary

systems by remote sensing, sending probes, and eventually life. Within 20 light-years of the Sun, there

are over 150 stars and there are known to be a number of planets around at least 12 of these stars and at

least 1

7 stars in 14 star systems appear to be capable of supporting planets in stable orbits within the

“habitable zone”. This is an incredibly rich environment to explore. Even within the outer reaches of our

solar system and into the beginnings of interstellar space lay a profoundly interesting number of objects

we would love to explore if we could. These include the Oort cloud, the heliosheath and heliopause, the

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