Initiative for Interstellar Studies

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

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ISU Projects

Individual Thesis Projects

Each year the i4is proposes technical subjects that constitute individual thesis projects for the ISU Masters of Space Studies students. These are subjects for which i4is have an interest or believe are important to the technological and strategic roadmap of interstellar flight.

Although the ISU will assign a formal academic supervisor to the thesis (typically this is Professor Chris Welch), we appoint members of our team to act as external advisors. Typically they are experts in that area. We have been building on this collaboration for several years now and we have helped students to produce their thesis subjects on the following topics:

We have also supported Masters projects at other universities including Southampton University and York University. They are also listed below.

2019/2020 Academic Year

  • Taavishe Gupta, "Bussard: The Interstellar Ramjet", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor Dr Andreas Hein.
  • Kush Kumar Sharma, "Deceleration of Interstellar Probe", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor Dr Andreas Hein.

Read more about these projects in:

News Feature: i4is-supported ISU MSS Projects — Bussard Ramjet and Deceleration of Interstellar Probes, Patrick Mahon, August 2020, Principium, issue 30, pp. 20–25.

2018/2019 Academic Year

  1. Andy Townsend, "AI for Deep Space Exploration", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor John Davies.
  2. Farnoosh Sheini, "ChipSats for Space Exploration", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor Marshall Eubanks.
  3. Salvatore Vivenzio, "ChipSats for planetary atmospheric re-entry", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor Dan Fries.
  4. Pablo Melendres Claros, "The role of SF ideas in driving new technologies for space", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor Angelo Genovese.
  5. Stephanie Rocha, "Solar sail deployment mechanism for a ChipSat", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor Martin Langer.
  6. Aurelio Kaluthantrige, "Laser sail deployment mechanism for a ChipSat", ISU/i4is Masters project, External Advisor Andreas Hein.
  7. Callum S Shanks, "Resistive MHD modelling of plasma in a magnetic nozzle of an interstellar spacecraft", York University (York Plasma Institute) Masters project.
    • Resistive Magneto Hydro Dynamic (MHD) models simulating the plasma behaviour in a magnetic nozzle design for an interstellar spacecraft. Multiple models were run where the magnetic coil current values were altered in various ways, along with the placement of the coils themselves around the nozzle parameter. It was seen that when the coil currents were increased the nozzle exhaust velocity also increased. The altering of the coil location did increase the exhaust velocities but to values smaller than that of the coil current increases.  The models were compared by their exhaust velocities which were measured at the end of the nozzle via taking a 1-D lineout and then averaging this result. Each model then had an average nozzle exhaust velocity for each time-step of the nozzle and so could be compared.

2017/2018 Academic Year

  1. Ana Cristina Baltazar Garduño, "Laser-Powered Electric Propulsion for Interstellar Precursor Missions", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, External Advisor Angelo Genovese.
  2. Zachary Burkhardt, "Glowworm: Demonstrating Laser Sail Propulsion in LEO", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, External Advisor Nikolas Perakis.
  3. Wenjing Hu, "A Minimal Chipsat Interstellar Mission: Technology and Mission Architecture", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, External Advisor Elena Ancona

2016/2017 Academic Year

  1. Jian Wang, "Limits to Growth and the long-term Implications to Humanity in an Inner Solar System Society", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, External Advisor Martin Langer.
  2. Pablo Galleguillos, "Low-cost asteroid mining using Small Spacecraft", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, External Advisor Dan Fries.
  3. Bethany Downer, "A comparison of Spaceplanes with Vertical Landing Reusable Rockets", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, External Advisors Rob Swinney and David Ashford.

2015/2016 Academic Year

  1. Marta Oliveira, "Financing Options for a Precursor Interstellar Mission", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2016, External Advisor Stefan Zeidler.
  2. Shanthini K, "TAU Laser Sail Mission", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2016, External Advisor Angelo Genovese.
  3. Ruslan Skomorohov, "In-Orbit Spacecraft Manufacturing: Near-Term Business Case", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2016, External Advisor Andreas Hein.
  4. Anushree Soni, "Minimum Interstellar Precursor Mission", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2016, External Advisor Martin Langer.

2014/2015 Academic Year

  1. Shambo Bhattacharjee, "Program to Characterize the Local Stellar Environment", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2015, External Advisor Rob Swinney.
  2. Melissa Guzman, "Space Eternal Memory", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2015, External Advisor Andreas Hein.
  3. Brian Ramos, "Biological Life Support Systems for Future Spaceflight Missions", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2015, External Advisor Professor Rachel Armstrong.

2013/2014 Academic Year

  1. Andrew Alexander, "Project BAIR: the Black Hole Augmented Interstellar Rocket", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2014, External Advisor Kelvin F. Long
  2. Sissi Enestam, "Project SENTINEL: Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence Near one Earth Light Year", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2014, External Advisor Kelvin F. Long
  3. Michio Hirai, "Autonomous Space Colony Construction", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2014, External Advisor Andreas Hein.
  4. Samiksha Mestry, "Mission to Titan Using Fission Fragment Rocket Engine", Southampton University Masters project.
    • Focuses on the need to decrease the transit time to reach Titan and to set new grounds for deep space exploration such as beyond the planetary Solar System using nuclear power driven spaceships.

2012/2013 Academic Year

  1. Erik Franks, "Agricultural Design Trade-offs for Space Colony Feasibility", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2013, External Advisor Rob Swinney.
  2. James Harpur, "Jude: Solar Sailing a Low Mass Payload to Alpha Centauri-B", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2013, External Advisor Kelvin F. Long.
  3. Piotr Murzionak, "The Oculus Project: Solar Sailing to Discover Exoplanets at the Center of Our Galaxy", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2013, External Advisor Professor Gregory Matloff.
  4. Wei Wang, "Review of the Deceleration Options for a Robotic Interstellar Spacecraft Entering the System of Another Star", ISU/i4is Individual Thesis project, April 2013, External Advisor Professor Ian Crawford.

Interstellar Elective Module

During the spring of 2016, a team from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies successfully ran the first interstellar elective module at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. Leading this team was Rob Swinney, the Chairman of the Educational Academy Committee. The interstellar elective was supported by Kelvin F. Long, John Davies, Angelo Genovese, Professor Chris Welch, Professor Ian Crawford, Marc Casson and Stephen Ashworth.

As a part of the interstellar elective module, the student teams were required to write 'white papers' on specific study topics. The papers produced included:

  1. "Creating an Interstellar Focussed Society",  ISU/i4is White Paper, 13 May 2016, Shireen Basheer, Misael Chagas, Abhilash Medapalli, Lei Huang,
  2. "Breakthrough Starshot Sail and Environmental Challenges", ISU/i4is White Paper, May 2016, Peter Thoreau, Shantini K, Jun Shen, David Rodriguz.
  3. "World Ship Revisited", ISU/i4is White Paper, May 2016, Orla Punch, J. Stimmer, W. Zhang, M. J. H. Hedegaard.
  4. "The Nature of Intelligent Life in the Galaxy", ISU/i4is White Paper, May 2016, Sema Husseyin, William Jones, Eryi Xu, Mohamed Makthoum.
  5. "An Interstellar Mission Based on Advanced Artificial Intelligence", ISU/i4is White Paper, May 2016, Farhan Abdullah, Martina Lanza, Veena Shelvankar, Ming Wang.

We have continued providing elective modules for the ISU, including modules:

Astra Planeta World Ship Team Project

During the 2014/2015 academic year, a team of over 20 ISU Masters students completed a project on the design of a world ship. This was a study that was initiated by the Initiative for Interstellar Studies. The study was completed by a team made up of students from all over the world and is possibly the first international collaboration on a world ship ever completed.

The team included Kyle Acierno (Canada), James Bevington (USA), Shambo Bhattacharjee (India), Chaitra (India), Guang Chen (China), Daphne De Jong (Netherlands), Lei Geng (China), Avishek Ghosh (India), Karan Gujarati (India), Micah Klettke (Canada), Florin-Christian Lazar (Romania), Olivier Leblanc (France), Peng Zuo (China), Anderson Wilder (USA), Abigail Sherriff (USA), Mansoor Shar (UK), Parmesh Saini (India), Fergus Russel-Conway (Ireland), Jean-Francois Rococo (Reunion Island), Brian Ramos (USA), Hamza Ragala (Morocco), Hameed Manoharan (India) and Yang Liu (China).

Two reports were produced in association with this study:

  • "Astra Planeta Final Report", ISU/i4is Team Project, 2014/2015.
  • "Interstellar Worldship Literature Review", ISU/i4is Team Project, 17 December 2014