NASA is developing a new plan to try to determine the presence of life on distant planets. To do this, he aims to develop a new telescope system that involves combining multiple CubeSats in full space. NASA’s Advanced Concepts Institute wants to use the Sun as a magnifying lens and speed up observation of distant planets.

You CubeSats are small space agency weather analysis devices that track the formation and evolution of storms and tornadoes. The project received $2 million in funding and is one of the few projects at the Advanced Concepts Institute to have reached development phase III, meaning NASA is betting on the project.

Solar gravitational lens

The plan is to develop a system capable of launching multiple CubeSats into space over a 25-year journey, using the sun as a gravitational lens, a method that will use the luminosity generated by a star as a magnifying lens, which is possible at the SGL (solar gravitational lens). Upon arrival at SGL, CubeSats will gather in the middle of space to form a large telescope.

But this will not be easy to achieve, because the SGL is between 550 and 1000 AU. (astronomical units) on the opposite side of the Sun. Currently, Voyager 1 has taken 44 years to reach 156 AU. But how then will CubeSats get to SGL in 25 years? The idea of ​​the project is use the size of the devices and the gravitational pull of the sun to speed up the whole process.

This opens up a wide range of variables to ensure that the CubeSats are not lost during the 25-year journey. After all, they need to come together at the end of a 25-year journey to build a telescope. Looking at it this way, one can see how bold the plan is and contains risky variables. In any case, NASA’s investment should lead to the development of new technologies that will certainly serve to facilitate space exploration.

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Source: BGR

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