Breakthrough Starshot
E653619
Breakthrough Initiatives program
interstellar spaceflight project
research and engineering initiative
Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project aiming to develop ultra-light, laser-propelled spacecraft capable of reaching nearby star systems within a human lifetime.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Breakthrough Starshot canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7272778 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Breakthrough Starshot Context triple: [Breakthrough Initiatives, hasPart, Breakthrough Starshot]
-
A.
New Horizon
New Horizon is a large-scale, nomadic art installation by American artist Doug Aitken featuring a reflective hot air balloon that traveled across Massachusetts as a moving platform for public gatherings and cultural events.
-
B.
Pioneer plaque project
The Pioneer plaque project was a scientific and artistic initiative to create and place engraved messages aboard the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, intended as a symbolic introduction of humanity to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter them.
-
C.
Nomad space probe
The Nomad space probe is a fictional, highly advanced robotic spacecraft from the Star Trek universe that becomes a powerful and dangerous hybrid entity after merging with an alien probe.
-
D.
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA space probe best known for its historic flyby of Pluto and exploration of the outer regions of the solar system.
-
E.
Project Daedalus
Project Daedalus was a 1970s British Interplanetary Society study that designed an unmanned, fusion-powered interstellar probe intended to reach nearby star systems within a human lifetime.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Breakthrough Starshot Target entity description: Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project aiming to develop ultra-light, laser-propelled spacecraft capable of reaching nearby star systems within a human lifetime.
-
A.
New Horizon
New Horizon is a large-scale, nomadic art installation by American artist Doug Aitken featuring a reflective hot air balloon that traveled across Massachusetts as a moving platform for public gatherings and cultural events.
-
B.
Pioneer plaque project
The Pioneer plaque project was a scientific and artistic initiative to create and place engraved messages aboard the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, intended as a symbolic introduction of humanity to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter them.
-
C.
Nomad space probe
The Nomad space probe is a fictional, highly advanced robotic spacecraft from the Star Trek universe that becomes a powerful and dangerous hybrid entity after merging with an alien probe.
-
D.
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA space probe best known for its historic flyby of Pluto and exploration of the outer regions of the solar system.
-
E.
Project Daedalus
Project Daedalus was a 1970s British Interplanetary Society study that designed an unmanned, fusion-powered interstellar probe intended to reach nearby star systems within a human lifetime.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Breakthrough Initiatives program
ⓘ
interstellar spaceflight project ⓘ research and engineering initiative ⓘ |
| aimsAt |
Alpha Centauri star system
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Proxima Centauri system NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| announcedBy |
Mark Zuckerberg
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Stephen Hawking NERFINISHED ⓘ Yuri Milner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| announcedIn | New York City NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| announcedOn | 2016-04-12 ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| estimatedTravelTimeToTarget | approximately 20 years to Alpha Centauri at proposed speeds ⓘ |
| field |
astronautics
ⓘ
astrophysics ⓘ interstellar studies ⓘ photonics ⓘ |
| fundedBy | Yuri Milner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasAdvisoryBoardMember |
Avi Loeb
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Pete Worden NERFINISHED ⓘ Stephen Hawking NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasChallenge |
data transmission over light-year distances with tiny transmitters
ⓘ
interstellar dust impacts at relativistic speeds ⓘ pointing stability of laser array ⓘ sail material survivability under intense laser flux ⓘ |
| hasExecutiveDirector | Pete Worden NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasGoal |
develop ultra-light laser-propelled spacecraft
ⓘ
enable interstellar travel to nearby star systems within a human lifetime ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
beamed energy propulsion
ⓘ
miniaturized electronics ⓘ relativistic travel speeds ⓘ swarm of small probes ⓘ |
| hasPhase |
feasibility study
ⓘ
full-scale mission deployment ⓘ technology demonstration ⓘ |
| operatedBy | Breakthrough Initiatives NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| partOf | Breakthrough Initiatives NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| proposedCruisingSpeed | up to 0.2c ⓘ |
| proposesSpacecraftType |
gram-scale spacecraft
ⓘ
light sail spacecraft ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Breakthrough Listen
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Breakthrough Message NERFINISHED ⓘ Breakthrough Watch NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| requiresTechnology |
extremely thin reflective light sails
ⓘ
high-bandwidth interstellar communication ⓘ multi-gigawatt laser array ⓘ precision formation flying of laser array elements ⓘ radiation-hardened microelectronics ⓘ |
| targetDistance | approximately 4.37 light-years ⓘ |
| usesPropulsionConcept |
ground-based high-power laser array
ⓘ
photon sail propulsion ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Breakthrough Starshot Description of subject: Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project aiming to develop ultra-light, laser-propelled spacecraft capable of reaching nearby star systems within a human lifetime.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.