Would you board a spacecraft that takes 400 years to reach Alpha Centauri?

Opinion
By published

Travelling to our nearest star system is the ultimate one-way trip — but could you live your life among the stars? Let us know in our latest poll.

An artist's rendition of the spacecraft Chrysalis
(Image credit: Giacomo Infelise, Veronica Magli, Guido Sbrogio', Nevenka Martinello and Federica Chiara Serpe​)

Imagine leaving Earth forever and boarding a spaceship designed to carry you and thousands of others on a one-way trip to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri — a journey that could take 400 years.

This is the bold vision behind Chrysalis, a hypothetical spacecraft that could transport 2,400 people over 25 trillion miles (40 trillion kilometers) to the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. The project won first place in the Project Hyperion Design Competition on July 23, a contest among engineers to design a hypothetical multigenerational spacecraft built for long-duration interstellar travel and capable of sustaining a closed society over centuries.

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Elise Poore
Elise Poore
Editorial assistant

Elise studied marine biology at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. She has worked as a freelance journalist focusing on the aquatic realm.

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