The stars Alpha Centauri (upper left) including A and B, are part of the same trinary star system as Proxima Centauri (circled). Beta Centauri, the other bright star in this photo, is much larger and farther away. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user Skatebiker.

How Shooting For Alpha Centauri Will Change The World

Aiming for the nearest star would necessitate a whole slew of advances. Even if the mission fails, humanity wins by investing in itself.

There have been some magnificent moments in NASA history, as well as some goals we’ve aspired to but haven’t yet realized. We’ve sent humans to the Moon, installing devices there and retrieving samples for the return home. We’ve sent probes to every planet in the Solar System, and to many asteroids, comets, and moons as well. We’ve even launched a few of them out of the Solar System, with more to follow. We’ve learned how to hunt for alien worlds, and our great observatories have helped us photograph and understand the Universe as never before. And our next great step, as a NASA team revealed at this month’s American Geophysical Union meeting, could be to travel to Alpha Centauri: another star. If we go for it, here’s how this project will change the world.

An artist’s rendition of Proxima Centauri as seen from the “ring” portion of the world, Proxima b. It would be over 3 times the diameter and 10 times the area that our Sun takes up. Alpha Centauri A and B (shown) would be visible during the day. It is completely unknown whether there are any planets around Alpha Centauri A or B at this time. Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser.

The biggest advances, both scientifically and as a society, arise from attempting something grand, and striving to turn that into an accomplishment. When we first chose to go to the…