Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2016

ASTRONAUTICS around the stars making it up! Laughs and scepticism must sure- ly have been the overriding feel- ings of those who first heard this news without knowing its be- hind-the-scenes facts. Who too hastily dismissed the topic as a science fiction story were wide of the mark, as it would have been sufficient to quickly look at who were the authors of the announ- cement to realize that this is se- rious stuff. One of them is no less than Ste- phen Hawking, renowned theo- retical physicist and cosmologist at the University of Cambridge, one of the most enlightened scientific minds of our time. An- other highly respected scientist is Freeman Dyson, a world-renown- ed theoretical physicist and mathematician. Among the other prominent figures involv- ed and bringing with them an unmatched wealth of technical and scientific knowledge and experience, suffice to mention Peter “Pete” Worden, former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, and Avi Loeb, a pro- lific researcher and professor at Harvard Uni- versity. With the achievements of these world-class scientists and engineers we could fill whole issues of the magazine that would be easy to illustrate with pictures of the several high profile awards received during their brilliant careers. If behind that announcement there are scientists of this calibre, we can sure bet that it is not so abstract as it might have seemed at first sight. Before we get to the facts, we though need a component without which, unfortunately, almost nothing can be done: money. Who could ever finance an idea apparently so far-fet- ched? The answer is Yuri Milner, a Russian entrepreneur with as- sets of $3.1 billion (2015), and Marc Zuckerberg, aka Mr. Face- book, who can sit on a $35.7 bil- lion nest egg (2015). Now that along with the minds and the means we also have the money, we can go into it in detail. The surprising announce- ment, made personally by Milner, with Haw- king's presence, falls under the Breakthrough Initiatives of the Breakthrough Foundation, a private organization created by Milner himself to fund scientific research projects considered too ambitious for accessing public funds. One of those projects, called Break- S ome moments of the Break- through Starshot presentation: top, Milner and Haw- king; bottom, Freeman, Druyen, Loeb, Jemison and Worden. [Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images]