Engineers Dream of Practical Star Flight

摘要

Why settle for poking through the clutter of the solar system when you can break out into interstellar space? That was the mood last week at a workshop on Robotic Interstellar Exploration in the Next Century, held at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and sponsored by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Engineers took the opportunity to engage in some uninhibited thinking about practical—or, at least, plausible—ways to propel, control, and communicate with an interstellar probe. One enthusiast is NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, who has directed NASA's Office of Space Science to investigate the possibilities for interstellar flight. The notion is also getting a boost from the recent discovery of planets around other stars. Although the first interstellar probes would probably aim for nearby interstellar space, the ultimate goal would be to reach other planets within, say, 40 light-years of Earth. "If you can find them and image them, maybe you should think about visiting them," says JPL deputy director Larry Dumas.