Scientists plan to shoot tiny spacecraft at black hole using lasers

By Stephen Beech

The first interstellar mission to a black hole could be launched within 30 years - by a spacecraft no heavier than a paperclip, say scientists.

The ultra-lightweight craft would be propelled by a laser beam through space at the speed of light, according to astrophysicist Professor Cosimo Bambi.

The century-long mission would enable scientists to probe the very fabric of space and time and test the laws of physics.

Black hole expert Bambi says it may sound like science fiction, but the idea is not so far-fetched.

He outlined the blueprint for turning the fantastic voyage to a black hole into reality in the journal iScience.

Bambi, of Fudan University in China, said: “We don’t have the technology now.

"But in 20 or 30 years, we might.”

He says the mission hinges on two key challenges - finding a black hole close enough to target and developing probes capable of withstanding the journey.

Previous knowledge on how stars evolve suggests that there could be a black hole 20 to 25 light-years from Earth.

But Bambi says finding it won’t be easy, as black holes are virtually invisible to telescopes because they don’t emit or reflect light.

Scientists currently detect and study them based on how they influence nearby stars or distort light.

Bambi said, “There have been new techniques to discover black holes.

“I think it’s reasonable to expect we could find a nearby one within the next decade.”

He says that once the target is identified, the next hurdle is getting there.

Conventional spaceships, powered by chemical fuel, are too clunky and slow to make the journey.

Bambi says "nanocrafts" - tiny probes consisting of a microchip and light sail - are a possible solution.

Earth-based lasers would blast the sail with photons, accelerating the craft to a third of the speed of light.

At that pace, Bambi says the craft could reach a black hole 20 to 25 light-years away in about 70 years.

The data it collects would then take another two decades to get back to Earth, making the total mission duration around 80 to 100 years.

Once the craft is near the black hole, Bambi says scientists could run experiments to answer some of the most pressing questions in physics.

These include whether a black hole truly has an event horizon, the boundary beyond which not even light can escape its gravitational pull.

Experts would also be able to establish if the rules of physics change near a black hole and whether Einstein’s theory of general relativity holds under the universe’s most extreme conditions.

Bambi notes that the lasers alone would cost around one trillion euros today, and the technology to create a nanocraft does not yet exist.

But in 30 years, he says that costs may fall and technology could advance far enough.

Bambi added: “It may sound really crazy, and in a sense closer to science fiction.

“But people said we’d never detect gravitational waves because they’re too weak. We did - 100 years later.

"People thought we’d never observe the shadows of black holes. Now, 50 years later, we have images of two.”