Nonprofit Wants to Launch 80,000-Year Mission to Alpha Centauri in 2029
Philip Johnston’s team seeks $15 million for a 1-kilogram probe that would carry human DNA and the Voyager Golden Record.
- On Tuesday, the nonprofit Fermi Explorer Mission announced plans to launch a probe toward the Alpha Centauri system by 2029, targeting humanity's nearest stellar neighbor about 4.4 light-years away.
- Philip Johnston, co-founder and president of the Fermi Explorer Mission, launched the project to confront the Fermi Paradox—the question "Where is everybody?" posed by physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950.
- Unlike the stalled Breakthrough Starshot mission, the team plans to use proven electric propulsion for the 155kg probe carrying a 1kg payload, with total mission costs estimated under $15 million.
- Launching in 2029, the probe will cruise at 24km/s for 79,800 years to reach Alpha Centauri; Johnston acknowledged that none of the current team will live to witness its arrival.
- Beyond Alpha Centauri, Johnston estimated that future missions to the Andromeda galaxy could cost around £73 million, with plans to send a spacecraft reaching our nearest galaxy in about one billion years.
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12 Articles
A non-profit organization will send a small spacecraft toward the Alpha Centauri star system.
Nonprofit wants to launch 80,000-year mission to Alpha Centauri in 2029
The Fermi Explorer Mission plans to launch a small, cheap probe to Alpha Centauri in the next few years, to inspire further exploration and help humanity contemplate its place in the universe.
How AI plotted an interstellar journey to Alpha Centauri
A nonprofit organization called the Fermi Explorer Mission announced today that it intends to launch a spacecraft to our nearest star system by the end of 2029. It’s a hugely ambitious mission—if all goes well, the spacecraft could take up to 80,000 years to arrive at Alpha Centauri, which is 4.4 light-years away. And the…
A non-profit organization from the United States plans to send a spacecraft to the nearest star, which should prove that interstellar travel is possible without futuristic technologies.
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