I4IS

🌌 Announcing the Winners of the Project Hyperion Design Competition 🌌 ... hosted by i4iS.

Can we imagine a society that thrives on the journey to the stars?

🏆 Winners

🥇 Chrysalis
🥈 WFP Extreme
🥉 Systema Stellare Proximum
Plus 10 mentions...

Full details are here : www.projecthyperion.org

BIS West Midlands Branch: Flying to a Potentially Hazardous Object - A Mission of Gravity - The British Interplanetary Society How might humanity send a mission to explore or even deflect a potentially hazardous object (PHO)? A PHO is a celestial body, usually an asteroid, which regularly intersects Earth’s orbit and, dependi...

Our astrodynamicist @adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social is presenting on "Flying to a Potentially Hazardous Object..." on 20Sep25 with T Marshall Eubanks, hosted by the BIS.

They'll present research into a mission to PHO 2024 YR4, which may hit the Moon in 2032.

www.bis-space.com/event/bis-we...

Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology? At this early stage of its passage through our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS, the recently discovered interstellar interloper, has displayed various anomalous characteristics, determined from photometric and...

Here's an interesting paper by our member @adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social et al.
There's been criticism that it proposes alien origin for 3/Atlas, but it says that is not so : it's an academic exercise mentioning our habit of seeing pattern in randomness.

Please comment!

arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213

Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology? At this early stage of its passage through our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS, the recently discovered interstellar interloper, has displayed various anomalous characteristics, determined from photometric and...

Go to my starshp blog for i4is which can be found here:

i4is.org/wp-admin/pos...

It raises a hypothetical question and mentions the various evidence in favour. It emphasises that the investigations are merely a pedagogical exercise. @i4interstellar.bsky.social

Preprint:

arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213

Here's a recent video from @hoojiwana.bsky.social talking about the recent 'Pulsar Fusion' publicity.
Are his conclusions correct ? Or will Pulsar take us to the stars ?
Comments are welcome !!

This could be interesting, especially if
@adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social can find a good spacecraft rendezvous option ...

Inflatable sails offer steep savings in mass & enable larger payloads. I look today at deep space concepts involving this technology, & new studies on using inflatable structures for exoplanet research via a starshade. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/11/i...

2025 - Austin, Texas - Interstellar Research Group Distant Worlds, Neighboring Opportunities An Interstellar Research Group EventOctober 12-15, 2025 AT&T Conference CenterUniversity of Texas at Austin CALL FOR PAPERS REGISTER TODAY HOTEL RESERVATION I...

Registration is open for the 9th Interstellar Symposium in Austin, Texas, 12-15 October 2025.

irg.space/2025-irg-9th...

Exciting voluntary role for anyone interested in science and/or publishing! Do you have experience with layout software (eg Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, etc) or are learning how do document design? We need a new voluntary Layout Editor for our quarterly online magazine Principium. We will provide the software for you and can provide basic training to fulfil this role if required. The editorial team will supply the written content; you will be responsible for putting it all together into the pdf ready for publication. Join our commitment to expanding humanity’s horizons! Please get in touch with us asap by emailing gillian.norman@i4is.org; we'd love to see a brief summary of your skills and experience and it would be great to hear why you want to help!

Here’s the details Principium is a quarterly magazine published since 2012 by the Initiative & Institute for Interstellar Studies (www.i4is.org). It's published as a PDF on the i4is website www.i4is.org/Publications/Principium and in print for major conferences. It goes to about 1,000 aerospace professionals, academics and interested lay people in countries around the word including many in the US and UK. The layout role is to create the PDF of each new issue using the existing issue as a start point. We currently use Adobe InDesign, which is a widely used document layout tool (https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/indesign.html) but alternatives would be OK. The commitment would be to about 4-5 days work each quarter depending of course on existing expertise. The current Principium Editor, John Davies, is ready to provide initial guidance plus support for the first issues and the incoming Editor, Gill Norman, would be coordinating the work with the rest of the team. The role would suit anyone with design talent and enthusiasm for this creative work. We would welcome expressions of interest from students seeking to gain experience and enhance their CVs. But we would also be very pleased to hear from others who wish to diversify their careers or are seeking interesting work post-retirement. This is a pro bono (unpaid) role but agreed expenses would be paid, including software licences.

Exciting voluntary role !
Do you know layout software?
We need a new voluntary Layout Editor for our quarterly online magazine Principium. We provide the software and training.
The team will supply the content; you would put it all together.
Join our commitment to expanding humanity’s horizons!

YouTube video by Fraser Cain Punching NanoHoles in Light Sails Can Bring Us Closer to Alpha Centauri

Here's another excellent video by @fcain.universetoday.com describing a breakthrough in light sail technology...

youtu.be/iHLm9oHMsyM?...

Holiday workshops: Skateboards to starships (age 15–18)

We are leading two 1-day Workshops at The Royal Institution in London for young space scientists/engineers/dreamers !
"Skateboards to Starships"
- Age 12–14 : 07Aug25 www.rigb.org/whats-on/hol...
- Age 15–18 : 08Aug25 www.rigb.org/whats-on/hol...

Led by @johninghamdavies.bsky.social & others

Project Lyra Mission Guide : a full data table

From 2024, here's the Project Lyra* mission guide by @adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social in a starship blog on our website.

i4is.org/project-lyra...

* Project Lyra is the study of missions to chase down the interstellar object 11/'Oumuamua, in order to determine once and for all what this thing is...

@nmadhu.bsky.social

This is everywhere in the news today ...

"The Cambridge group has found that the atmosphere seems to contain the chemical signature of at least 1 of 2 molecules... associated with life: dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide. On Earth ... produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria."

Again, a fusion-powered interplanetary spacecraft would be good for Interstellar precursor trips, and the technology could be developed for true Interstellar missions.

First European Interstellar Symposium: Building Our Home Amoung The Stars - YouTube Step into the future of space exploration with the First European Interstellar Symposium, hosted by the Interstellar Research Group in collaboration with Ini...

Here are videos from the recent Symposium...

"... keynote presentations ... tackling the challenges of humanity’s journey to the stars ... propulsion breakthroughs, astrobiology, long-duration missions ... dive deep into the technologies, ethics, and aspirations... "

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Advert text : Life as we don't yet know it

If you're in Oxford UK on April 23-24, here's an interesting event focusing on #Interstellar life and more.

If you're going to attend please contact our magazine editor @johninghamdavies.bsky.social < john.davies@i4is.org >, he'll be there reporting for us.

web.cvent.com/event/fa7350...

Many apologies to Adam, the correct spelling of his name is 'Hibberd' !

Here's an article by @universetoday.com referencing a paper by our member Adam Hubbard ( @adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social ) ...

www.universetoday.com/articles/rem...

You have three more days to apply !

Cover of Principium magazine : image of Kon Tiki raft plus text, including the following. Lead Feature: Building Our Home Among the Stars: A Report from the First European Interstellar Symposium Feature: Can Wormholes Be An Answer to the Ansible Problem? News Feature: 2024 International Astronautical Congress Interstellar

The new issue of Principium, P48, is now published, including reports from :
- the recent European Interstellar Symposium (Luxembourg)
- the Interstellar session at IAC2024 (Milan)
...and much more...

i4is.org/publications...

Ernst Öpik, long at Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, wrote about the Oort Cloud before Oort found it, & in several hundred papers discussed everything from binary stars to interstellar flight. Ahead of his time. Interesting figure! www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/02/25/e...

Render of a very long and spindly spaceship. At the front is a multi-layered whipple shield of quite distantly spaced square tiles. Just past this is the front plasma magnet. Near the back is the propellant, habitat, back plasma magnet, and fission reactor. The ship's exhaust, a vibrant red from the lithium it's doped with, shoots past this section from two long linear accelerators lining either side of the ship's main spine.

redesigned this ship again, it can now take 600 people from sol to proxima centauri in only 15.6 years. weighs ~416 kT dry and ~5,665 kT wet

I4iS November Newsletter Avi Loeb’s Statement A recent uptick in Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) has led the US Congress to launch a small investigation into the phenomenon. Abraham (Avi) Loeb, head of the Galileo Pro...

Our monthly newsletter is a member-only benefit, but we post them on LinkedIn a few months in arrears.
To receive the latest copy, join now ! www.i4is.org/members

Here's the Nov 2024 newsletter, covering Electric Propulsion, the Fermi Paradox, Wormholes + more.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/i4is-n...?

27 February 2025, 2:30-3pm EST
Tod Lauer of NOIRLab will be speaking on:
"A Demonstration of Interstellar Navigation Using new Horizons"
zoom.us/j/9731769763...
Meeting ID: 973 1769 7636
Passcode: 802327
Recordings are archived and posted at:
pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/...

If the Dark Forest theory is true, then life in the galaxy must be incredibly common. Here’s why:

Biomarkers, the chemical signatures of life, have existed on Earth for over a billion years.

Here's some great Artwork, just released!

Event Dates: October 12-15, 2025
Location: The University of Texas at Austin

Learn more: irg.space

For anyone travelling towards Orion, here is what you would see ....

Perhaps we don't need to travel to the stars, the material from them is coming to us ...
... but no, we still need to go there to be sure !!