
Self-Healing Transistors for Chip-Scale Starships - rbanffy
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/devices/selfhealing-transistors-for-chipscale-starships
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mxvzr
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13161879](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13161879)

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Xeoncross
> "the craft could accelerate to one-fifth the speed of light"

At that speed, wouldn't this little device be ripped to shreds by dust,
radiation, and loose atoms or ions?

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davedx
Not sure if space has that much stuff in it outside the heliosphere...

Some numbers here:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium)

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incompatible
It will still be travelling at that speed when entering the corresponding area
of the target system. If it could survive, it would be interesting to know
what kind of observations could be made by a single-chip sensor travelling at
that speed. No planetary close-ups surely.

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davedx
This is a fascinating read:
[https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0610030.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0610030.pdf)

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placeybordeaux
Even assuming you can slow down the chip once it gets to the solar system, do
we even have a way to send a signal back?

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devrandomguy
Perhaps, the sail could modulate the reflected beam? That way, all of the
heavy communications gear can stay in our own solar system.

Instead of trying to stop at the destination, you could instead send a stream
of these tiny expendable probes past the target. Each one would get, say, a
microsecond to take a snapshot, and then it would spend the short remainder of
its life relaying the raw data.

To do a chemical analysis, some probes could be sent on relativistic collision
course with the subject planet, and other probes could watch the impact. It
would be a scale-up of NASA's Deep Impact mission from 2005.

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andrewflnr
A relativistic impact sufficient to allow chemical analysis from space is
probably sufficient to kill creatures that may live on the planet. I'm not
entirely comfortable with this.

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devrandomguy
I don't think a 0.1g probe would make it through an atmosphere at any speed.
The targets I had in mind, were moons, rings, asteroids, much like Deep
Impact; I used the term "planet" as a catch-all.

Nevertheless, your point stands, if we consider technologically advanced life
a possibility. It would be real shame to clobber someone's moon colony.
Perhaps, these impactor missions should not be considered on the first
expedition.

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diggernet
Not only would it be rude to pelt someone's colony (or planet) like that, but
if they were sufficiently advanced to recognize what's happening, they would
likely consider it an attack. Not a great way to make friends.

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traverseda
Anything living on stellar bodies without an atmosphere should be prepared for
micrometeorite impacts.

Of course this is a somewhat strange micrometeorite, but it shouldn't be too
far from the standard set of space debris.

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JoeDaDude
I presume this is a part of/sponsored by/ or something related to the
Breakthrough Starshot Initiative[0]? It is not mentioned in the article.

[0]
[https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/Initiative/3](https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/Initiative/3)

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vivekd
Solar sail technology seems so promising as a means of allowing our species to
take our first steps into space. It's a shame that more isn't being put into
it, as far as I am aware, the first test on it was done just two years ago.

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greglindahl
No, there was testing earlier than that. In particular, a Japanese test in
Venus transfer orbit starting in 2010:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail)

The one 2 years ago was the Planetary Society's Lightsail, which had a big
crowdfunding campaign. The next iteration of Lightsail is launching on the 2nd
Falcon Heavy flight.

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xfactor973
This is prob a silly idea but is there any way to harness this cosmic
radiation that is bombarding the chip? Cosmic rays are high energy particles.
Surely we can do something with that right?

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jacquesm
It's enough to fry your hardware but not enough to drive your vehicle with. A
bit like a bullet hitting a driving car. If it hits in the right place it
would kill the car (or it's occupant(s)), but you can't really propel your car
with bullets, not only because there are too few bullets to start counting on
but also because they can hit you from any angle when they do hit.

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zardo
I interpreted that as a question about energy harvesting, not propulsion.

Sounds plausible to me. A sort of, cosmic ray greenhouse effect working on a
dense insulated target, producing a heat gradient to a (cosmic ray
transparent) radiator.

I'm not sure if the material requirements work out, or if it's worth it's mass
to bring along.

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pavement
This means that here on earth, our new terrestrial robot overlords will be
invulnerable to tempest and EMP attacks, after they take our jobs.

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NikolaeVarius
But will they be immune to bullet?

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pavement
The ones controlling advanced aircraft will, in some cases, fly faster than
most bullets.

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jfoutz
Advanced aircraft fly faster than mountains too, but somehow those mountains
manage to hit them.

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pavement
Yes, and flying as fast as a bullet directly into another bullet travelling in
the opposite direction means an impact at twice the speed of each.

