Wednesday, August 30, 2017

The littlest Spaceship! – currently in LEO


You may have seen coverage on SPACE-TIME CONTINUES (my science show on You Tube) regarding Breakthrough Initiatives and Alpha Centuari but one thing the show couldn’t give you is the breakthrough that was launched on June 23rd – the chips pictured just above, yup, they are the probes


Granted it is a prototype of the tiny spacecraft they plan to send to Alpha Centuari, called Sprites.

Of course this was their first test, so instead of riding solo, they took a position on low Earth Orbit satellites. Four of the Sprites are on Max Valier as well as one riding shotgun and only one on Venta-1.

 

The plan was to release the freeloaders, but as of the second week of August the Sprites on Max Valier were not responsive although the one on Venta-1 is in Radio contact.

 

No big deal, this was the first in many 100’s of steps. Scientists expect that before sending a new batch up, they will equip them with cameras, actuators for steering and other tools.


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