Bikfiets to Alpha Centauri
In February, 2017 the Space Horizons workshop at Brown University focused on sending spacecraft to the Alpha Centauri stellar / planetary system. The first questions that come to mind include: getting there in some relevant amount of time, i.e. less than a human lifespan; communicating back over the 4+ light years distance; surviving the space environment en route; What do you do when you get there, and; how much is all that going to cost?
We also asked: what could we learn by going there vs. wouldn’t we learn more directing those resources to developing instruments here in the earth and near-earth environment to observe the star system (and probably other star systems) and exoplanets remotely? Would going there have some special meaning to people on earth as America’s landing of people on the moon did, versus the Soviet robotic missions? And what might we learn along the way - thinking our way to another star - that might change how we do other possibly completely unrelated things - closer to home?