Astrophysicist Proposes Chip-Sized Spacecraft Mission to Nearby Black Hole
Astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University has outlined a daring plan to send a wafer-sized spacecraft to the nearest black hole. This mission, described as being "somewhere between hard engineering and science fiction," aims to provide unprecedented insights into the extreme physics of black holes. The proposed spacecraft, a nanocraft, would be propelled by a ground-based laser array, pushing it to approximately one-third the speed of light. Bambi estimates that the necessary technology could be ready within 20 to 30 years, with the journey itself taking around 70 years. The data collected would then take another 25 years to reach Earth, meaning results could be available in about a century from now. The primary goal is to test Albert Einstein’s general relativity in its most extreme conditions, where current telescopic and gravitational-wave data are limited by stray gas clouds and noisy data. The closest known black hole, Gaia BH1, is 1,600 light-years away, but Bambi suggests many others could be ...
