Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

by Avi Loeb

It was in this familiar setting that I typed out my plans for humanity’s first interstellar probe using lightsail technology. Two weeks later, I visited Milner’s home in Palo Alto and announced that we had a plan that fulfilled the mandates he had set out. Within our lifetimes, it was technologically feasible to send a craft to Proxima Centauri. Yuri was pleased and excited, as was Pete. After several months of extensive discussions, they decided to publicly announce the Starshot Initiative at the observatory atop One World Trade Center in New York City on April 12, 2016. This was Yuri’s Night, a commemoration of the launch of the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. There, on the stage with Yuri Milner, I was joined by Freeman Dyson and Stephen Hawking. The historic vision presented by the panel was recorded by TV crews and broadcast all over the world. The following morning, my wife brought our car in for an oil change, and the mechanic, who was used to seeing me perform this chore, asked where I was. Ofrit mentioned that I could not do it because of the announcement, and he replied: “This project is amazing; I read all the news reports about it.” The vision of visiting another star within our lifetimes captivated the public’s imagination in a way reminiscent of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Just seventeen months after that presentation, ‘Oumuamua was discovered by the telescopes of Pan-STARRS.