Nasa invites ISRO to US |
The $100-million revolutionary space programme Breakthrough StarShot, which envisages sending ultralight nano crafts to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri - 25 trillion miles away - will seek India`s participation soon. This was disclosed by executive director of the project S Pete Worden , who is also the former director of Nasa`s Ames Research Centre. He notes that India is a leader in space exploration, especially with the recent Mars Orbiter Mission. So, they hope to explore the possibility of working closely with the Indian Space Research Organisation on their StarShot program. `Breakthrough StarShot`, which will turn sci-fi into reality, involves a ground-based light-beamer pushing ultralight nano crafts-miniature space probes attached to light sails-to speeds up to 100 million miles an hour. As against the eight to nine months it takes a spacecraft to fly to Mars, Breakthrough StarShshot will cover the distance in just 30 minutes. And to reach Pluto, as against 10 years, it will take 72 hours. It is estimated that, at this speed, it will take the nano crafts about 20 years to reach the Alpha Centauri system.
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