Spaceship Designers Tasked with Creating Star-Hopping Generation Ships

If you’ve ever dreamed of designing a spacecraft to carry humans to another star system over centuries, now’s your chance. The Project Hyperion Design Contest encourages teams to develop Generation Ship concepts—self-sustaining vessels built for long-term interstellar travel.

Colonizing other planets has often been proposed as a safeguard against extinction-level events like asteroid impacts. However, with no habitable options within our solar system, the focus shifts to planets in other star systems. The challenge is immense: the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, lies 4.246 light years away. For perspective, Voyager 1, humanity’s farthest spacecraft, would take 70,000 years to get there—and it’s not even heading in the right direction.

Without hypothetical technologies like warp drives, realistic interstellar travel relies on Generation Ships. Originally envisioned by rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, these massive, self-sustaining spacecraft would function as closed ecosystems, supporting life for centuries or millennia. Yet, constructing such a vessel remains a monumental task, requiring breakthroughs in power generation, ecological sustainability, and spacecraft durability.

Navigating Social Challenges: Ensuring Harmony and Stability on a Century-Long Voyage

Beyond technical hurdles, social stability aboard the ship poses another challenge. Ensuring mental health, preventing conflicts, and fostering a cooperative society for hundreds of years would demand unprecedented social engineering.

To tackle these issues, Project Hyperion launched a global contest to design a Generation Ship for a 250-year voyage. Multidisciplinary teams—featuring architects, engineers, and social scientists—must create a habitat for 1,000 people using validated technologies. Designs will be judged on artificial gravity, radiation shielding, adaptability, and societal resilience.

Submissions include a 30-page booklet, technical diagrams, and renderings. Phase 1 closes February 2, 2025, and Phase 2 on May 4. Winners, announced June 2, 2025, will share cash prizes, with $5,000 awarded to the grand prize winner.

Read Original Article: New Atlas

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