About Manned Interstellar Travel
Scientific literature and, above all, science fiction abound with proposals and ideas to turn the dream of interstellar travel into reality. Unfortunately, the truth is that we are still far from having the technical-scientific skills to send a human crew to other stars
The dream of interstellar travel
Since the beginning of the space age, humanity has cherished the dream of interstellar travel. But being able to overcome the abyss of space that separates us from even the closest stars is a titanic feat, if it must be accomplished within the span of a human life. It is necessary to travel 4.24 light-years, that is, over 40 trillion km [1], to reach the two central stars of Alpha Centauri’s triple system. To get to Barnard’s star, just a little further away, there are almost six light-years to cross, equal to 56.4 trillion km [2].
To get an idea of the distances that are currently within reach of our technologies, a mission of great success comes in handy: that of the New Horizons probe. Launched on January 19, 2006, after photographing Pluto and its moons in 2015 and the trans-Neptunian object Arrokoth in 2019, it is now 7 billion km…
