Meet Chrysalis — a spacecraft project presented as part of the Project Hyperion competition and awarded the top prize for the best-developed concept for a multigenerational interstellar journey.
The idea is simple: build a 58-kilometer-long ship, populate it with 1,500 volunteers and send it on a 400-year flight to the star Alpha Centauri. The goal is the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b, which appears to be similar to Earth. On board there will be forests, schools, libraries, living areas and farms — everything needed to live in space for generations.
Before launch comes training in Antarctica (just 70–80 years in isolation). Cargo holds will be serviced by robots. The ship will be controlled by AI, which is expected not only to monitor oxygen and heating, but also to somehow maintain social balance.
The energy for such a ship is planned to come from fusion reactors. The only problem is that none exist yet. But that is not an issue: the project is not meant to launch tomorrow, but to energize the minds of engineers and scientists. Let them sweat while we pack our bags for Proxima.
