[Baps] Wed 2/15 Lunchtime Seminar, Interstellar Missions with Prof. Phil Lubin, 37-252

[Kerri Cahoy]

Please distribute and post widely

AeroAstro STAR Lab Special Seminar
Enabling the first Interstellar Missions: Directed Energy for Relativistic Flight

Prof. Philip Lubin
UC Santa Barbara

Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Noon in Marlar Lounge, 37-252
Pizza lunch provided on a first-come, first-served basis

Does a star about 26 trillion miles from Earth seem far away to you? Farther than anything from Earth could possibly travel in your 

Professor Philip Lubin, Department of Physics at UC Santa Barbara is a leading researcher in laser propulsion of chip-scale spacecraft. Prof. Lubin will talk about the prospects of interstellar space travel using recent advances in photonics and directed energy systems to accelerate tiny spacecraft to speeds greater than 20% of the speed of light. This would enable a spacecraft to reach the nearest star in about 20 years. It may also be possible to accelerate large spacecraft, capable of supporting human life, to reach speeds greater than 1000 km/s. This technology has the potential to revolutionize space travel and bring about advances in planetary defense, the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, and more.

Speaker Bio: Philip Lubin is a professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara whose primary research has been focused on studies of the early universe in the millimeter wavelengths bands as well as applications of directed energy for planetary defense and relativistic propulsion. His group has designed, developed and fielded more than two dozen ground based and balloon borne missions and helped develop two major cosmology satellites. Among other accomplishments his group first detected the horizon scale fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background from both their South Pole and balloon borne systems twenty years ago and their latest results, along with an international teams of ESA and NASA researchers, are from the Planck cosmology mission which have mapped in exquisite detail the structures of the early universe. He is a co-I on the Planck mission. His group has worked on applications of directed energy systems for both small scale single launcher solutions as well as large standoff systems for planetary defense and on applications to allow small interstellar probes. He is co-recipient of the 2006 Gruber Prize in Cosmology along with the COBE science team for their groundbreaking work in cosmology.

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