In issue 25 of Principium, published in May, we challenged i4is members and supporters, and space fans more generally, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned Moon landing on 20 July 1969 by writing a poem to show how interstellar exploration can inspire us just as much today as the epic achievement of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins did half a century ago, during the Apollo 11 mission.
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2nd Foundation of Interstellar Studies Workshop
The Initiative for Interstellar Studies and the British Interplanetary Society are pleased to announce the 2nd Foundation of Interstellar Studies Workshop, which will take place from 27th to 30th of June, at the current headquarters of the i4is, The Bone Mill, on the edge of the wonderful English Cotswolds, in south Gloucestershire, UK. Interstellar Travel is […]
What is Oumuamua? The Loeb/Bialy Conjecture and i4is Project Lyra
Principium editor John Davies offers a personal view of the continuing mystery of the interstellar object Oumuamua. More than one year since its discovery we still do not know what this object is. Here John summarises analysis so far and suggests that a mission to Oumuamua may be our only way of solving the mystery.
Implications of the Gaia Mission for Future Interstellar Travel
In this article, Dr Phil Sutton, Lecturer in Astrophysics, University of Lincoln, UK, discusses how the Gaia astrometry mission creates our first full “map of the neighbourhood”. This data has immediate supporting value for all astronomical investigation but also has both cosmological and astronautical significance as we begin to contemplate missions to the near stars. […]
Reaching the Stars in a Century using Fusion Propulsion
Fusion-based rocket propulsion remains our best current option to deliver substantial probe payloads to the nearest stars quickly. Project Icarus was founded by members of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) and Tau Zero Foundation in 2009. It is now a joint effort by the BIS and Icarus Interstellar to build on BIS Project Daedalus using […]
The AttoSat Manifesto
The AttoSat Manifesto AttoSats in orbit (Image: Enora Mercier) Despite the advent of CubeSats, PocketQubes, and femto satellites, developing and launching a spacecraft still costs a fortune, the equivalent of buying a house. It also takes years to get from the initial concept to launch. This means that space exploration for education is still only […]
“Slow down!”: How to park an interstellar rocket
Solar physicist Tishtrya Mehta is a regular Principium contributor. Here she brings us an introduction to momentum braking, based on work by Professor Dr Claudius Gros, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Frankfurt/Main Germany.
World’s First Interstellar Summer School Announced
Have you ever wanted to know how to design spacecraft and starships? Would you like to get access to the latest information on technology developments relevant to advanced space propulsion, artificial intelligence and astronomy? Would you like to understand what the implications for going interstellar are for the outer space treaty? Now is your chance […]
Project Lyra: A feasibility study for a mission to the interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua
Andreas Hein describes how an i4is technical team responded to the detection of the interstellar asteroid ’Oumuamua. Their paper, Project Lyra: Sending a Spacecraft to 1I/’Oumuamua (former A/2017 U1), the Interstellar Asteroid received wide attention and sparked interest in interception of interstellar objects.