This week, I sat down with Marshall Eubanks, a former engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an astronomer with the U.S. Naval Observatory, and the CTO of the Lifport Group – a company dedicated to building a Space Elevator! Nowadays, he is the chief scientist of Space Initiatives Inc. and has been working with the Institute for Interstellar Studies (i4is) on Project Lyra, a spacecraft that could rendezvous with interstellar objects (like ‘Oumuamua) when they enter the Solar System.
He and his colleagues are also working on a concept that would send swarms of tiny spacecraft using direct-energy propulsion (lasers) that could travel to Proxima Centauri to explore the nearest exoplanet – Proxima b. Their concept was recently selected for Phase I development by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which includes a grant to develop the concept further.
But this was just one topic we discussed during our chat. Follow the links below to learn more!
Stories by Williams 
I’d heard a little about this before, but it hadn’t occurred to me that the same technology could also be used to explore worlds closer to home. That would revolutionize Solar System exploration!
Wouldn’t it just? Missions to the Outer Solar System in a matter of hours instead of decades!
It certainly would. Who knows? This could be the way of the future until we figure out really fast nuclear propulsion.