Initiative for Interstellar Studies

Working towards the achievement of interstellar flight through knowledge to the stars - Starships in our lifetime

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News from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies

In this section you can read some of the latest news from i4is and the world of interstellar studies.  If you know of appropriate news please get in touch and it might appear here.

ISU World Ship Module

We are very pleased to be back to the International Space University (ISU) for this year’s MSS21 elective on Interstellar World Ships with several i4is researchers such as Andreas Hein, Rob Swinney, John Davies, Dan Fries, Olivia Borgue. The 2-week elective will provide the students with in-depth knowledge on world ships and they will work […]

i4is Interstellar Object Article makes Headlines

i4is, in collaboration with researchers from the Florida Institute of Technology, Harvard, and Paris Observatory published a paper, in which they estimate that about 7 interstellar objects are entering the solar system per year. The article has been featured in numerous media outlets: Science Alert, Phys.org, Astrobites, Universe Today, Mashable India, Republic World, Fred Zone. […]

i4is Director presents prospects of space resources and settlements to German Federal Ministry of the Environment

i4is Executive Director Andreas Hein has been invited to a discussion on space resource utilization with the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on the 25th March 2021. He presented the prospects of space resource utilization and space settlements. The results of the discussion will inform future policy-making of […]

Deutsche Welle – i4is asteroid mining research featured

Andreas Hein presents some of the results form the i4is techno-economic analysis of asteroid mining in this excellent video. The paper: Hein, A. M., Matheson, R., & Fries, D. (2020). A techno-economic analysis of asteroid mining. Acta Astronautica, 168, 104-115.

i4is Article published in Astrophysical Journal Letters

We are proud that our article about a Venus astrobiology mission, based on a fleet of balloons has now been published in the prestigious journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. The article can also be downloaded for free via arXiv. We are grateful for the collaboration with Manasvi Lingam (Florida Institute of Technology / Harvard), without whose […]

i4is Venus balloon concept featured in Forbes

Fast mission to detect microbes on Venus – The joint i4is, FIT, Harvard, Space Initiatives paper: “A Precursor Balloon Mission for Venusian Astrobiology” by Andreas M. Hein, Manasvi Lingam, T. Marshall Eubanks, Adam Hibberd, Dan Fries, William Paul Blase has now been published on arXiv. Thanks to Bruce Dorminey, it has now been featured in […]

Project Lyra on Universe Today

Our Decadal Survey White Paper “Interstellar Now! Missions to and Sample Returns from Nearby Interstellar Objects” has been featured on Universe Today. Thank you to Matt Williams for another awesome article about Project Lyra!

Interstellar Now! Joint White Paper for Decadal Survey Submitted

We are very proud to announce that we have submitted a Mission Concept White Paper for the Decadal Survey on missions to interstellar objects: “Interstellar Now! Missions to and Sample Returns from Nearby Interstellar Objects” This was an intense collaborative effort between a group of international researchers: Andreas M. Hein (i4is), T. Marshall Eubanks (i4is/Space […]

Reaching 1I/’Oumuamua via Nuclear Thermal Rockets – A Gamechanger

Our Project Lyra Team has come up with an analysis of using nuclear thermal rockets for reaching the interstellar object 1I/’Oumuamua. It turns out that drastic reductions in mission duration (< 14 years for a launch in 2031) and spacecraft mass (1000s of kg vs. 100s of kg for conventional chemical propulsion) are possible.