STARSHIPS 177
erals found on the moon, to create a powerful radio station that could
beam information back to Earth. Or the nanofactory could be designed
to create millions of copies of itself to explore the solar system and venture off to other nearby stars, repeating the process. Because these
ships would be robotic, there would be no need for a return voyage
home once they had radioed back their information.
The nanobot I've just described is sometimes called a von Neumann probe, named after the famed mathematician John von Neumann, who worked out the mathematics of self-replicating Turing
machines. In principle, such self-replicating nanobot spaceships might
be able to explore the entire galaxy, not just the nearby stars. Eventually there could be a sphere of trillions of these robots, multiplying exponentially as it grows in size, expanding at nearly the speed of light.
The nanobots inside this expanding sphere could colonize the entire
galaxy within a few hundred thousand years.
One electrical engineer who takes the idea of nanoships very seriously is Brian Gilchrist of the University of Michigan. He recently received a $500,000 grant from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts
to explore the idea of building nanoships with engines no bigger than
a bacterium. He envisions using the same etching technology used
in the semiconductor industry to create a fleet of several million
nanoships that will propel themselves by ejecting tiny nanoparticles
that are only tens of nanometers across. These nanoparticles would be
energized by passing through an electric field, just as in an ion engine.
Since each nanoparticle weighs thousands of times more than an ion,
the engines would pack much more thrust than a typical ion engine.
Thus the nanoship engines would have the same advantages as an ion
engine, except they would have much more thrust. Gilchrist has already begun etching some of the parts for these nanoships. So far he
can pack 10,000 individual thrusters on a single silicon chip that measures 1 centimeter across. Initially he envisions sending his fleet of
nanoships throughout the solar system to test their efficiency. But
eventually these nanoships might be part of the first fleet to reach the
stars.
Gilchrist's proposal is one of several futuristic proposals being
erals found on the moon, to create a powerful radio station that could
beam information back to Earth. Or the nanofactory could be designed
to create millions of copies of itself to explore the solar system and venture off to other nearby stars, repeating the process. Because these
ships would be robotic, there would be no need for a return voyage
home once they had radioed back their information.
The nanobot I've just described is sometimes called a von Neumann probe, named after the famed mathematician John von Neumann, who worked out the mathematics of self-replicating Turing
machines. In principle, such self-replicating nanobot spaceships might
be able to explore the entire galaxy, not just the nearby stars. Eventually there could be a sphere of trillions of these robots, multiplying exponentially as it grows in size, expanding at nearly the speed of light.
The nanobots inside this expanding sphere could colonize the entire
galaxy within a few hundred thousand years.
One electrical engineer who takes the idea of nanoships very seriously is Brian Gilchrist of the University of Michigan. He recently received a $500,000 grant from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts
to explore the idea of building nanoships with engines no bigger than
a bacterium. He envisions using the same etching technology used
in the semiconductor industry to create a fleet of several million
nanoships that will propel themselves by ejecting tiny nanoparticles
that are only tens of nanometers across. These nanoparticles would be
energized by passing through an electric field, just as in an ion engine.
Since each nanoparticle weighs thousands of times more than an ion,
the engines would pack much more thrust than a typical ion engine.
Thus the nanoship engines would have the same advantages as an ion
engine, except they would have much more thrust. Gilchrist has already begun etching some of the parts for these nanoships. So far he
can pack 10,000 individual thrusters on a single silicon chip that measures 1 centimeter across. Initially he envisions sending his fleet of
nanoships throughout the solar system to test their efficiency. But
eventually these nanoships might be part of the first fleet to reach the
stars.
Gilchrist's proposal is one of several futuristic proposals being