{"slug": "inside-humanitys-first-trip-to-another-star-and-its-sooner-than-youd-think", "title": "Inside humanity’s first trip to another star – and it’s sooner than you’d think", "summary": "The Fermi Explorer Mission, a non-profit initiative co-founded by Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston, plans to launch a probe to Alpha Centauri in 2029 on an 80,000-year journey, aiming to become the first human-made object to visit another star system. The 155kg solar-powered probe, carrying human DNA samples, will cost an estimated £11,000,000 and target Alpha Centauri A and B.", "body_md": "In 2000, S Club 7 asked the world to reach for the stars – and this non-profit wants humanity to finally do just that.\n\nAlpha Centauri is our rather cool-sounding cosmic neighbour, a three-star system just 4.37 light-years away.\n\nIf that sounds small, it’s not. Alpha Centauri is 25trillion miles from Earth, so it would take you roughly 45million years by car to get to.\n\nIt would also take 80,000 years by spacecraft, an interstellar trip that [The Fermi Explorer Mission](https://www.fermiexplorer.org/) will do in 2029, the non-profit tells **Metro**.\n\nPhilip Johnston, the CEO of [Starcloud](https://www.starcloud.com/), a deep-tech company that wants [AI ](https://metro.co.uk/tag/artificial-intelligence/)[data centres in space](https://metro.co.uk/2026/02/12/elon-musk-wants-build-a-satellite-catapult-moon-26848872/), helped co-found the mission in stealth last year.\n\nHIs team plans to launch a probe to visit the star system in 2029, kicking off its 80,000-year-long journey to becoming the first human-made object to visit another star system.\n\n‘Why should we go to another star? Everyone has their own reasons,’ Johnston says.\n\n‘For some, it is the human spirit of exploration and adventure. For others, they view this as one of the most significant moments in the life of the universe.’\n\n## What is Alpha Centauri? And is it even worth going?\n\nWe’ve had three interstellar visitors – drifters from other star systems – enter our cosmic backyard since 2017, the[ latest being 3I/ATLAS in 2025](https://metro.co.uk/2025/12/28/3i-atlas-just-a-comet-defended-aliens-24851735/).\n\nHumans have yet to do any interstellar visiting of our own. [Nasa ](https://metro.co.uk/tag/nasa/)has sent out spacecraft, such as the Voyager probes, into interstellar [space](https://metro.co.uk/tag/space-and-time/), but none aimed at any particular star.\n\nBut if it were to point to one, the nearest star system would be the most obvious place to go.\n\nAlpha Centauri has long inspired sci-fi filmmakers (and Johnston) of a lush [alien](https://metro.co.uk/tag/aliens/) world with three suns.\n\nThe trio includes Alpha Centauri A and B, which circle one another every 80 years. A faint red dwarf, Proxima Centauri, is then doing laps around them.\n\nThe system is home to the car-shaped [robots](https://metro.co.uk/tag/robots/), the Transformers, and the Na’vi, the 10-foot-tall blue aliens of the Avatar film series.\n\nIn real life, astronomers and [space officials have long dreamt of sending a probe](https://metro.co.uk/2017/12/20/nasa-planning-mission-alpha-centauri-will-find-aliens-nearest-star-system-planet-earth-7173102/) to explore Alpha Centauri, on the[ off chance life could be there](https://metro.co.uk/2025/02/19/alien-life-is-only-a-matter-of-time-if-theyre-not-out-there-already-scientists-say-22585868/).\n\n‘Our solar system has one star, so the view from a planet there could be spectacularly different,’ says Johnston.\n\n‘You might have two suns in the sky. We still know very little about the planets themselves.’\n\nThe probe would set its coordinates to Alpha Centauri A, which is slightly larger than the sun, and the slightly smaller Alpha Centauri B.\n\n## Will any astronauts be on board?\n\nNo humans will be aboard the fridge-sized probe, but it will contain samples of human DNA – you never know who might be there to greet it, Johnston says.\n\nAfter all, the mission is named after the physicist Enrico Fermi. He was [behind the Fermi Paradox](https://metro.co.uk/2026/03/09/aliens-may-trying-contact-humans-years-no-idea-27323298/), or the contradiction between the high likelihood of aliens existing and the lack of evidence for that existence.\n\nDespite having a long, long journey ahead of it, the Fermi Explorer won’t be nuclear powered.\n\nInstead, the non-profit is designing a ‘flight-proven electric propulsion system’ that will rely on solar power, according to its [website](https://www.fermiexplorer.org/faqs).\n\nThe 155kg probe will cost an estimated £11,000,000.\n\nIts 1kg payload will, at the least, include the Voyager Golden Record, which contains the sounds of Earth, recorded greetings and a mix of music.\n\nOnce up in the cosmos, it will do a ‘perihelion pump’, skirting past the sun to use its gravity as a slingshot, a feasibility study [said](https://fermiexplorer.github.io/PSI.pdf).\n\nThe spacecraft will remain functional for the first 12 years of the mission before becoming a celestial time capsule.\n\nIf all goes well, the probe will cruise at 24km/s for 79,800 years, according to the mission’s plan posted on the open software platform [GitHub](https://fermiexplorer.github.io/).\n\nStill, the team doesn’t expect their probe to be the first to Alpha Centauri.\n\nA lot can happen in a few years, let alone tens of thousands, and rockets may be advanced enough that one launched in the future will easily overtake the Fermi Explorer.\n\nIf a future generation makes a propulsion system even 20% faster than the Fermi Explorer, it would get there 15,000 years before it. (The mission’s website politely asks scientists not born yet to kindly let them at least get ‘close’ first.)\n\n‘We will be both the first to leave and the last to arrive at Alpha Centauri,’ Johnston adds.\n\nThe science fiction Alpha Centauri has inspired remains just that – science fiction – but Johnston sees it as a blueprint of what humanity will achieve.\n\nHis next stop will be Andromeda, our nearest galaxy two million light-years away.\n\n‘A later mission of the Fermi Explorer Mission will be to send a spacecraft to Andromeda,’ Johnston adds.\n\n‘We estimate that with today’s technology and around £73million, we could send a spacecraft that arrives at Andromeda in about one billion years, and this will be our next mission after the Alpha Centauri mission.’\n\n**Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.**\n\n**For more stories like this, **[ check our news page](https://metro.co.uk/news/).\n\nMORE: [Solar storms could expose holiday-makers to ‘a month’s worth of radiation in one hour’](https://metro.co.uk/2026/08/30/solar-storms-expose-holiday-makers-a-months-worth-radiation-one-hour-29404173/?ico=more_text_links)\n\nMORE: [Inside Elon Musk’s vision for SpaceX’s new $100,000,000,000 spaceport](https://metro.co.uk/2026/08/28/inside-elon-musks-vision-spacexs-new-100-000-000-000-spaceport-29473568/?ico=more_text_links)\n\nMORE: [Lunar eclipse coming to UK will turn moon dark red – and you won’t need glasses](https://metro.co.uk/2026/08/27/see-partial-lunar-eclipse-sturgeon-moon-turns-dark-red-29466067/?ico=more_text_links)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-humanitys-first-trip-to-another-star-and-its-sooner-than-youd-think", "canonical_source": "https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/01/inside-humanitys-first-trip-another-star-sooner-think-29467574/", "published_at": "2026-09-01 10:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-01 10:22:39.323808+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Fermi Explorer Mission", "Starcloud", "Philip Johnston", "Alpha Centauri", "Proxima Centauri", "NASA"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-humanitys-first-trip-to-another-star-and-its-sooner-than-youd-think", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-humanitys-first-trip-to-another-star-and-its-sooner-than-youd-think.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-humanitys-first-trip-to-another-star-and-its-sooner-than-youd-think.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-humanitys-first-trip-to-another-star-and-its-sooner-than-youd-think.jsonld"}}