Why human exploration of the outer solar system and the stars? Due to COVID-19 issues, the Limitless Space Institute (LSI) is unable to host student interns during the summer of 2020. As an alternate approach to still be able to engage with students on the topic of bold space exploration, LSI will instead sponsor and […]
Starship Blog
With the recent creation of the new i4is website, along with the newer blogs, we have included a selection of previous Starship Blog posts from our archive which we hope you will enjoy browsing. If you would like to write an article and have it appear on our web site, then get in touch with us.
The Case for a Space Economy
Thermodynamic limits to economic growth on Earth – Can space save us? This new paper argues that continued economic growth on Earth will hit a thermodynamic limit within the third millenium, if economic activities and energy consumption cannot be decoupled. The maximum size would be up to 7000 times the current one. An in-space economy […]
i4is Self-Replicating Probe
i4is concept for a near-term self-replicating probe – The potential to drastically increase the efficiency of space exploration!https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2005/2005.12303.pdf. Beautifully illustrated by Adrian Mann!
Principium 29 now released!
Issue 29 of Principium, the quarterly publication of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies is now published. The front cover image is a Bussard Ramjet – a new piece produced for i4is by our friend and esteemed artist Alex Storer (thelightdream.net).
ISU–i4is Interstellar Module concluded!
The ISU – i4is Interstellar Module ended today with four awesome presentations on world ship topics, each one venturing into areas no human has visited before! A big thank you to Prof. Chris Welch and the amazing MSS20 students who worked very hard on this for the last two weeks! Also, thank you to the […]
i4is delivers ISU Interstellar Module
Thanks to Prof. Chris Welch, International Space University, for the opportunity to co-deliver the Interstellar Module to ISU students this year again! We deliver two-weeks of lectures and hands-on projects on world ships! Members of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies have access to video recordings of the lectures that the i4is crew presented. The videos […]
Project World Ship
World ships are hypothetical, large, self-contained spacecraft for crewed interstellar travel, taking centuries to reach other stars. Due to their crewed nature, size, and long trip times, the feasibility of world ships faces an additional set of challenges compared to interstellar probes. Despite their emergence in the 1980s, most of these topics remain unexplored. This […]
i4is World Ships featured in Medium OneZero
We are proud to announce that our research on world ships has now been featured in an article on OneZero, “Scientists Are Contemplating a 1,000-Year Space Mission to Save Humanity” by Corin Faife. The article generated a stream of other features such as on Futurism. From the article: There’s no principal obstacle from a physics […]
Project Lyra featured in Wired
Our new Project Lyra research was featured in Wired magazine. Project Lyra assesses the feasibility of missions to interstellar objects such as ‘Oumuamua and Borisov.
David A. Hardy – AI interstellar probe paintings
We are proud to have legendary space artist David A. Hardy among our ranks. He created two wonderful paintings of AI interstellar probes, inspired by the paper by Andreas Hein & Stephen Baxter published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. The probe’s characteristic features are large solar panels at the front for generating […]
i4is World Ship journal article published
We are proud to announce that our article on world ships, huge, self-contained generation ships, has now been published in Acta Futura, the journal of the Advanced Concepts Team of the European Space Agency. The article provides a concise overview of the state of research on world ships and generation ships and touches on the […]
Freeman Dyson passed away
With great sadness, we received the message that Freeman Dyson has passed away on the 28th of February 2020. He was 96 years old. A distinguished physicist, Freeman Dyson was a member of the i4is Advisory Council for many years. Many obituaries have already appeared. In the following, we would like to honor Freeman by […]
