This article was taken from the April 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Asteroid mining and space tourism are all well and good, but a network of researchers around the world is thinking bigger when it comes to space exploration: interstellar travel. Our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 39 billion kilometres away; travelling there at a tenth of the speed of light would take 100 years. "If we really focused our efforts, it is feasible to send at least an unmanned probe towards our nearest star by the end of the century," says Keith Cooper, of The Institute for Interstellar Studies, a group seeking to unify the various space-research disciplines to this end.
If we want to hit our 2114 deadline, we'd best get started now - and a number of organisations around the world already have. "We try to work together, but not overlap," Cooper says. There are several approaches - and most "do not violate the laws of physics," says Paul Glister, founder of Tau Zero, a blog collecting peer-reviewed deep-space exploration research.
Proposed propulsion methods include fusion engines (pictured), solar energy beamed on to 100km-wide sails, detonating nuclear weapons behind a ship and riding the shockwave, antimatter rockets and, yes, warp drive. Here's a guide to the teams who may be boldly going, in 100 years or so.
100YSS
Launch date: 2100
Mission: To make the capability of human travel beyond our solar system a reality within 100 years.
Propulsion: The 100YSS project speculates that nuclear fission, fusion and antimatter are the most promising energy sources.
Institute for Interstellar Studies
Launch date: 2100
Mission: To ensure starflight becomes possible by the end of the 21st century.
Propulsion: A solar-energy collector in Mercury's orbit converts sunlight into a petawatt laser, fired at a ship's solar sail.
British Interplanetary Society
Launch date: 2500
Mission: Promoting technical information.
Propulsion: According to Richard Osborne, on BIS's technical committee, nuclear fusion rocket engines, fuelled by a three-million-tonne ball of frozen deuterium.
Tau Zero
Launch date: 2400
Mission: Interstellar research, education and outreach.
Propulsion: Founder Paul Glister is an advocate for either solar or beamed sails, "because a sail lets us leave the propellant behind. I think it makes the most sense for long-haul missions."
Icarus Interstellar
Launch date: 2100
Mission: Design an interstellar probe.
Propulsion: Icarus president Andreas Tziolas prefers magnetic confinement fusion engines; a starship would hop from stop to stop, extracting resources to convert into fuel.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
