Interstellar Voyages: The Ion Drive
The spacecraft that promises to give mankind new worlds
The nearest habitable world is a planet not much larger than Earth, tidally locked as it orbits ‘round its red dwarf star. To be tidally locked means that the same side of Proxima b always faces its star, Proxima Centauri, and the same side of the planet always faces away from it. This is also the case with our moon. As it loyally and lovingly drifts across the night sky, it views us always with the same face. Proxima b sails within its star’s habitable zone where simulations have shown there’s a good chance liquid water sways and bounces on the surface, soaking in the rosy light of our nearest stellar neighbor. Secrets just 4.2 light years away. That ocean could sustain human life in some exciting future, or it could already nurture life of its own. Organisms swimming through Proxima b’s rugged, rocky channels, the beginnings of complex life exploding in shadows our instruments haven’t yet touched.
And what if this world is our future home — this ocean the ocean in which our distant grandchildren play, looking out at the scattering of stars and knowing that somewhere out there lies the Earth. The cradle that birthed them all. They will seek their beginnings as we now seek our future.
