NASA and the Swarming Proxima Centauri concept
The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration is supporting a bold idea called Swarming Proxima Centauri. The plan involves sending thousands of tiny unmanned aerial vehicles with solar sails toward the Alpha Centauri star system, the nearest star system to Earth. The concept was selected for the first phase of development under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, commonly known as NIAC. Space Agency notes this ongoing effort as part of a visionary research initiative.
The Swarming Proxima Centauri project was developed by a program known as the Space Initiative. Chief scientist Marshall Eubanks explains that Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, located about 4.25 light years away, roughly 40 trillion kilometers from Earth. The distance highlights the vast challenge of interstellar travel using conventional propulsion methods, reinforcing the need for breakthrough approaches. Space Initiative attribution.
To provide perspective, Voyager 1 holds the record for the farthest distance traveled by a spacecraft to date, at about 24 billion kilometers. It accomplished this journey over 46 years and achieved a peak speed near 61.5 thousand kilometers per hour. This showcases the immense time scale involved in deep space missions if only traditional rocket technology is used. Space Initiative attribution.
The Space Initiative proposes a novel approach to overcome these hurdles by deploying a fleet of autonomous probes, each weighing roughly a gram, equipped with solar sails rather than conventional engines. The fleet would be accelerated by a laser beam with a power around 100 gigawatts. This method could push the drones to speeds approaching 20 percent of the speed of light, equating to about 215.8 million kilometers per hour and far exceeding Voyager 1 in velocity. Under this program, a swarm could reach the neighboring star system in about 24 years. Space Initiative attribution.
According to Marshall Eubanks, the initiative could mature by mid century, with an Earth-based solar fleet potentially reaching Proxima Centauri and its Earth-like planet Proxima b as early as 2075. The timeline reflects the long lead times typical of ambitious interstellar technology demonstrations, balanced with the momentum of research and development. Space Initiative attribution.
Earlier designs featured solar sails capable of achieving significant fractions of light speed, illustrating the longstanding interest in sail-based propulsion as a pathway to faster interstellar travel. Space Initiative attribution.