Spacecraft to Start 80,000 Year Journey to Proxima Centauri
It will be humanity's first interstellar mission when the Fermi Explorer starts its journey in 2028. It is predicted to arrive in the AD 81,528.
The Fermi Explorer mission will carry scientific instruments for research en route to the star Proxima Centauri, which is 4.4 light years away from Earth. It's our nearest star outside our solar system. It will come as no surprise to hear that scientists will never see the outcomes of their experiments, because it will take tens of thousands of years for the craft to travel the 26 trillion miles to its destination.
The seemingly bonkers mission was outlined by Kam Ghaffarian at the Starmus Festival in Tenerife. He said: “I believe humanity’s destination is to become interstellar. Our idea is, in 2028 we’re going to launch the first satellite ever from Earth to Proxima Centauri. It’s going to take many thousands of years but the idea is to inspire the next generation.” Ghaffarian is not a mere dreamer, as he is already a founder of Axiom Space and Intuitive Machines, which are working with NASA to provide equipment for Artemis missions.
He went on to tell the audience in Tenerife: “I believe by 2050 we will have hourly launches to a space city that sits outside our planet, where people are living and working, we have artificial gravity, and it becomes a huge factory where we can create microgravity technologies that will cure cancer. You will have people that when they say where you’re from, they say, ‘I’m from the Moon’. Then we have weekly launches to the surface of Mars, where again we have a Mars base where people are living and working, and maybe bi-monthly or quarterly missions beyond our solar system, especially to our closest star Proxima Centauri.”
Thus far, the only man-made objects to leave our Solar System are Nasa’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft. Both of them have spent almost 49 years soaring through space. In the process, they’ve traveled further than any other human-made objects have ever gone before. Initially intended to provide never-before-glimpses of the outer planets, they have surprised researchers by continuing to send back remarkable data while sailing further into the unknown - billions of miles further than their intended initial objective.
If it actually happens, the Fermi spacecraft would be first to be launched to another star system.
