341E-364-Laser Surfing

341E-364-Laser Surfing

Author: Albert D. Grauer June 17, 2025 Duration: 2:01
When we find a planet which appears to have the chemical signs of living organisms in its atmosphere, the desire to take a close up look at it will be hard to contain. In a Scientific American article, Lee Billings describes Yuri Milner's 100 million dollar project "Breakthrough Starshot" which has been created to leap frog our current rocket technology's extremely long travel times to nearby planets. The plan is to put ultra light space probes on paths which will enable them to collect data as they streak by nearby potentially habitable planets. Our current iPhone technology is being used to envision a tiny robotic space probe which features cameras, life detecting sensors, maneuvering rockets, computers, and communications gear and yet has a mass of about that of a dime. Photons from 100 gigawatt pulses from a ground based laser array are then envisioned to reflect off the tiny spacecrafts solar sail where they transfer momentum to the space craft accelerating it to 20% of the speed of light. Numbers of these tiny robotic investigators could be launched together into Earth orbit and perhaps one a day could be sent towards a nearby star accelerated by laser pulses each of which contains the energy required to send a space shuttle into orbit. In a few decades closeup views and data from nearby worlds would begin streaming back towards the residents of our planet. The cost of investigating our planetary life hosting neighbors is likely to be less than what the US is planning to spend upgrading its nuclear weapons.

Each episode of Travelers In The Night feels like a quiet, personal conversation under a dark sky. Hosted by astronomer Dr. Albert D. Grauer, this podcast brings the distant cosmos into sharp, intimate focus. Dr. Grauer isn't just an observer; he's an active participant in the hunt, working with the Catalina Sky Survey team that has consistently discovered near-Earth asteroids for years. In these brief and engaging segments, you'll hear firsthand accounts of what it's like to track these ancient celestial travelers-the asteroids and comets that silently pass by our world. The discussions move beyond simple facts to explore the real-world implications of these discoveries, from planetary defense to the sheer wonder of our dynamic solar system. Accompanied by the contemplative music of John Lyell's "Eternity," each installment offers a moment of calm reflection on humanity's place in the universe. It’s a perfect blend of grounded science and cosmic curiosity, making complex astronomical concepts accessible and deeply fascinating. For anyone who has ever looked up and wondered what's out there moving in the dark, this podcast provides a direct line to the front lines of discovery.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Travelers In The Night
Podcast Episodes
339E-359-Ice World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
Recently Dr. Yossi Shvartzvald led a team which published their discovery of an Earth sized planet using microlensing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The newly discovered planet OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb orbits a small…
851-Scientists Views Odds of Aliens [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
In a recent paper published in Nature Astronomy entitled “Surveys of the scientific community on the existence of extraterrestrial life” Dr. Peter Vickers and his team of 10 co-authors report the results of their survey…
338E-357-Double Trouble [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
When I discovered 2014 JO25 with the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on May 5, 2014, it appeared as a single point of light as it moved past us. As 2014 JO25 approached the Earth from the direction of…
850-Who Owns A Space Rock [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
Since there is a world wide market for meteorites some of which can be sold for millions of dollars, on line, the question of ownership becomes important.
337E-356-Seeds [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
When a fleet of interstellar spaceships leaves our solar system for a planet circling a nearby star the most important of all of the riches that human explorers will carry with them will be libraries of our planet's DNA…
849-Europa-Clipper [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
NASA’s Europa Clipper was launched October 14, 2024 on a mission to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter’s Moon Europa. The space craft will travel some 1.8 billion miles and should reach Jupiter in April 2030. This missi…
336E-355-2 Suns [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
The NASA Kepler Spacecraft has discovered more than 2,000 planets which have been confirmed to be orbiting distant stars. It performs this remarkable feat by imaging more than 145,000 stars simultaneously to observe and…
848-C.2024 E1 (Wierzchos) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
On March 3, 2024 my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Kacper Wierzchos was asteroid hunting with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he spotted a fuzzy object in the constellation of Draco. After Kacper reported…
335E-354-Returnee [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01
On May 5, 2014 when I discovered 2014 JO25 with the Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona it was the brightest, fastest asteroid I had ever seen. In April of 2017, 2014 JO25 returned to come with…

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