Traveling at the Speed of Light: Transcending Our Limits
In Traveling at the Speed of Light: Transcending Our Limits, narrator Kate Yule describes how Einstein's theory could allow humans to explore the cosmos, but to do so would involve traveling at the speed of light. Learn about Stephen Hawking’s Breakthrough Starshot, which aimed to develop a spaceship that could do just that. Zac Manchester from Stanford University has continued these efforts and developed sprites, which are tiny spacecraft that travel at a speed of 20% of the speed of light. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
Lesson Express
Q: What was the goal of Breakthrough Starshot?
A: The aim was to develop a spacecraft that can travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
Q: What is the goal of the Sprite project?
A: The goal is to disperse a hundred sprites into space and have them talk to each other and send data back to Earth.
Q: How are scientists trying to get spacecraft to reach close to the speed of light?
A: By using a giant laser, they will push a lightweight spacecraft up to 20% of the speed of light, which means time dilation effects would come into play.
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