A Visionary Project Aims for Alpha Centauri, a Star 4.37 Light-Years Away

Re:A Visionary Project Aims for Alpha Centauri, a Star 4.37 ... by TallGuyShort on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @05:48PM (#11483868)

Even if this is possible, it'll probably be prohibitively expensive to do constant resupplies when you won't know for years if previous trips have worked. A manned mission or a resupply mission would also be orders of magnitude beyond the masses they're talking about, which strains credibility even further.

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Re:A Visionary Project Aims for Alpha Centauri, a Star 4.37 ... by brianwawok on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @09:08PM (#11484944)

I am pretty sure you just sent out a new boat of supplies every year make it or not. Worse case the mission fails and the next mission has 20 supply ships in orbit waiting for them. I have no idea on the minimum mass required to send supplies, i.e. if you can recycle 99% of the water you need, would only need a few drops per day. If you can only recycle 50%, you are going to need a bunch.

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Re:A Visionary Project Aims for Alpha Centauri, a Star 4.37 ... by TallGuyShort on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @02:14PM (#11490736)

Nah - they're already pushing some theoretical limits by talking about planetary levels of energy. You're talking about just throwing money at doing that many times in a row with no proof of success.

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