Cornellians to advise Starshot exploring Alpha Centauri

Mason Peck, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell, and Stephen Hawking at the announcement of the Breakthrough Starshot project. Cornell faculty and alumni are helping to advise Breakthrough Starshot - a $100 million research and engineering project aiming to demonstrate proof of concept for light-propelled nanocraft that could capture and send back images and scientific data in our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. The project was announced April 12 during a press conference in New York City by philanthropist Yuri Milner and renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who say the goal is to fly nanocraft at 20 percent the speed of light and reach Alpha Centauri within 20 years of their launch. Among those advising the project will be Mason Peck, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and his former student Zac Manchester, Ph.D. '15, now a researcher at Harvard University. Peck and Manchester have engineered tiny, cracker-sized satellites called "Sprites," which are serving as models for how the Breakthrough Starshot nanocraft could be designed. "This kind of project is the reason I got into aerospace engineering in the first place," said Peck.