(This is very important for public interest/knowledge)

Scientists have conducted tests on a tiny spacecraft which could ‘sail’ through space on a beam of light and reach another star system within our lifetimes.

–Researchers hope that a light sail with a beam of energy can carry a tiny spacecraft – a ‘wafercraft’ – through space to Proxima Centauri.

–Researchers at the Experimental Cosmology Group led by Phliip Lubin sent a prototype up in the stratosphere on a balloon to 105,000ft.

–The idea is that the wafer-sized craft could be propelled up to a fraction of light speed – allowing us to reach our nearest stellar neighbour, four light years away.

Lubin said, ‘It’s part of a process of building for the future, and along the way you test each part of the system to refine it.

–‘It’s part of a long-term program to develop miniature spacecraft for interplanetary and eventually for interstellar flight.’

–‘Directed energy’ is a pioneering technology championed by Stephen Hawking for a project to send a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri in 20 years.

–Backed by Russian Internet billionaire Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, the microscopic spacecraft would travel at a fifth of the speed of light.

–The nanocraft, powered by a sail pushed by a light beam, could potentially travel the distance over 1,000 times faster and make the journey in 20 years.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/first-test-spacecraft-reach-another-star-system-within-lifetimes-201232407.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot