They would travel trillions of miles; far further than any previous craft.
A $100m (£70m) research programme to develop the computer chip-sized “starships” was launched by the billionaire Yuri Milner, supported by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Interstellar travel has long been a dream for many, but significant technological hurdles remain.
But Prof Hawking told BBC News that fantasy could be realised sooner than we might think.
“If we are to survive as a species we must ultimately spread out to the stars,” he said.
“Astronomers believe that there is a reasonable chance of an Earth-like planet orbiting one of the stars [in] the Alpha Centauri system. But we will know more in the next two decades from ground based and space based telescopes.
“Technological developments in the last two decades and the future make it possible in principle within a generation.”
Prof Hawking is backing a project by Mr Milner’s Breakthrough Foundation, a private organisation funding scientific research initiatives that government funders think to be too ambitious.
Expert group
The organisation has brought together an expert group of scientists to assess whether it might be possible to develop spaceships capable of travelling to another star within a generation and sending information back.
The nearest star system is 40 trillion km (25 trillion miles) away. Using current technology it would take about 30,000 years to get there.
The expert group concluded that with a little more research and development it might be possible to develop spacecraft that could cut that journey time to just 30 years.
“I’d have said that even a few years ago travel to another star at that kind of speed would not be possible,” said Dr Pete Worden, who is leading the project. He is chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and a former director of Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California.
“But the expert group figured out that because of developments in technology there appears to be a concept that appears to work.”
The concept is to reduce the size of the spacecraft to about the size of a chip used in electronic devices. The idea is to launch a thousand of these mini-spacecraft into the Earth’s orbit. Each would have a solar sail.
Learn more: Hawking backs interstellar travel project
The Latest on: Interstellar travel
via Google News
The Latest on: Interstellar travel
- Aliens could send quantum messages to Earth, calculations suggeston July 5, 2022 at 6:00 am
Scientists are developing quantum communications networks on Earth. Aliens, if they exist, could be going further.
- Interstellar Coming To The IMAX Screen Dec. 26on June 28, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Interstellar, the science-fiction thriller starring Matthew McConaughey as the first astronaut to travel through a wormhole, is coming to the region’s largest indoor movie screen at the ...
- Starfield is messing up the spacetime continuumon June 27, 2022 at 3:00 am
Starfield's gameplay footage shows enemy ships warping into space, hinting at what's to come in the sci-fi RPG.
- This space robot was made to help astronauts on the moon and Marson June 26, 2022 at 9:00 am
Building bases on the moon and Mars may be feasible sooner than we expected, but for now, allowing humans to roam the vast empty lands of these interstellar surfaces is costly and difficult. Often, a ...
- Loved Interstellar? Here are 8 mind-bending space films to watch nexton June 26, 2022 at 12:01 am
From the scientifically accurate depictions of black holes to debates about love crossing dimensions to Matthew McConaughey shouting "Murph!" every five minutes, Interstellar was one of the most ...
- Is Interstellar Travel Too Difficult?on June 22, 2022 at 10:00 pm
Space is pretty deadly. But is it so deadly that we’re effectively imprisoned in our solar system forever? Many have said so, but a few have actually figured it out.
- Interstellar meaning: Here's what actually happened in the Matthew McConaughey movieon June 19, 2022 at 12:02 am
Interstellar is no different, turning his attention to space travel and pushing the concept to its extreme with one key difference - the events of Interstellar might just be physically possible.
- Scientist says interstellar travel might be possible without spaceshipson June 5, 2022 at 11:18 am
While a warp drive almost certainly isn't a thing that will ever exist, there's no law of physics that says interstellar travel isn't possible. Perhaps that is one reason why the sci-fi idea isn't ...
- Hostile alien civilizations might be hiding in our galaxy right now, study claimson June 5, 2022 at 6:19 am
Further, the paper posits that some of these civilizations may be technologically advanced similarly to humans, and not yet capable of interstellar travel. The center of the Milky Way as observed ...
via Bing News