The famed physicist Stephen Hawking is partnering with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to look for intelligent life with a fleet of postage stamp-sized spacecraft.

By Story Hinckley www.csmonitor.com 4-13-16

Do aliens exist? Using small spaceships the size of postage stamps, famous physicist Stephen Hawking, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plan to find out.

Through their $100-million project named Breakthrough Starshot, the three board members plan to send thousands of light-propelled nanocraft to Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth. Traveling at 20 percent the speed of light, the nanocraft fleet would likely reach Alpha Centauri (which is 4.37 light years away) in the next 20 years.

Equipped with cameras and communication and navigation equipment, the nanocrafts will hopefully answer whether or not habitable planets – and even alien life – exists.
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Fueled by an initial $100 million from Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, a team laden with big names laid out a multi-decade plan to send flurries of smartphone-sized probes to the Alpha Centauri system, powered by laser-driven light sails.

By Alan Boyle www.geekwire.com 4-12-16

“For the first time in human history, we can do more than just gaze at the stars,” Milner said today at a New York news conference where the Breakthrough Starshot project was unveiled. “We can actually reach them. It is time to launch the next great leap in human history.”

Eventually, the plan will require billions of dollars more in funding – and much more planning as well. But the Starshot team boasts some top-drawer supporters: In addition to Milner, the board includes British physicist Stephen Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. [...]
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