Engineers have designed a spacecraft that could take up to 2,400 people on a one-way trip to Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to our own. The craft, called Chrysalis, could make the 25 trillion mile (40 trillion kilometer) journey in around 400 years, the engineers say in their project brief, meaning many of its potential passengers would only know life on the craft.
Chrysalis is designed to house several generations of people until it enters the star system, where it could shuttle them to the surface of the planet Proxima Centuri b — an Earth-size exoplanet that is thought to be potentially habitable.
This plan is purely hypothetical, as some of the required technology, like commercial nuclear fusion reactors, don’t yet exist. However, hypothetical projects like this one can still add to our existing knowledge base and help engineers improve upcoming designs.
Their presentation on Canva
they do have a physicist in the design team but how do you plan this without at least a couple engineers?
Well they have a space mission engineer. But the project is not technical, like how to build it, its more like a master plan.
I perhaps don’t quite get what the end game is with such projects but if it critically depends on multiple processes/components which is very hard to achieve (say there has been minimal progress on it until now ex: teleportation) then I feel like it undermines the project. Ofcourse a physicist might help with such stuff when it is science related but there will those that pertain more to engineering.
I think the future technologies that they rely on are mainly the fusion power generation and fusion propulsion. I wouldn’t say that they are far future technologies.
This reminds me of Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein. The inhabitants of the ship descend into barbarism over several generations and eventually forget there is a universe outside the ship.
Yeah, i think psychology is the biggest danger. A lot could happen in 400 years. Look what happened here on earth since 1625. lmao
Imagine if they had a means to communicate with Earth when they got there. Their first message: “We made it.”
I believe we gonna solve interstellar communication way before even launch something towards another star.
the planet Proxima Centuri b — an Earth-size exoplanet that is thought to be potentially habitable
I feel like we might want to double check this before launching the Chrysalis. Cool concept, though.
We haven’t sent even a probe. No wait, sending a probe is not even on our current plans.
There is the Starshot Breakthrough project that study the feasibility of sending probes to our closest stars.
The people are the probe
Well, that’s a way too expensive probe then.
I believe i read somewhere that a light probe, accelerated by a laser beam, could make a flyby there as close as 27 years from launch.
Oh, neat, well it was too early in the morning, but true, you can make things faster if you don’t care about the survival of prganic matter.
One-way trip to an exoplanet? Sounds like a perfect fit for billionaires!
It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century. A half-century has passed since Earth began moving its burgeoning population into gigantic orbiting space colonies. A new home for mankind, where people are born and raised.
And die.
Nine months ago the cluster of colonies furthest from the Earth, called Side 3 proclaimed itself the Principality of Zeon and launched a war of independence against the Earth Federation. Initial fighting lasted over one month and saw both sides lose half their respective populations. People are horrified by the indescribable atrocities that had been committed in the name of independence.
Eight months had passed since the rebellion began. They are at a stalemate.
The mormons are gonna be pissed…
I love the idea of generation ships, and I think we should use them even if they don’t end up being as important in the long run.
