The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is considering organizing the first ever interstellar space expedition to the Alpha Centauri system by 2069 to search for life there. This is stated in an article published in the latest issue of the British scientific journal New Scientist.
The mission, according to the idea, will be timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the manned landing on the moon. However, this time not people will go on space travel, but small probes. Their target will be one of the closest exoplanets to Earth, orbiting the stars in the Alpha Centauri system and located at a distance of about 4.4 light years from our planet. To get there in a more or less acceptable time, spacecraft will have to develop a speed of at least 10% of the speed of light. If they succeed, the expedition will last 44 years and reach its goal by 2113.
However, scientists note that there are no technologies that would allow such a speed to be developed yet. "It's all very vague," co-author Anthony Freeman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, admitted in an interview with New Scientist. However, according to the researchers, there is still plenty of time until 2069 to think through the details.
The Alpha Centauri star system is home to the closest potentially habitable planet to Earth - Proxima Centauri b. However, it may not be the most suitable for learning if people ever try to go there themselves. The fact is that Proxima b orbits around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, which is a flashing variable star. During such outbreaks, Proxima b can be exposed to intense radiation that can destroy living organisms.