A private group announced the Fermi Explorer mission, aiming to launch a small spacecraft to Alpha Centauri by 2029 using existing technology. The project, led by mathematician Philip Johnston of Starcloud, seeks to raise $15 million for a vessel carrying a 1 kg payload. The goal is to reach the nearby star system in fewer than 80,000 years.

This mission was conceived to address the Fermi paradox by testing if interstellar travel is feasible. The team initially struggled with propulsion limitations beyond Jupiter. However, they partnered with physicist Alex Wissner-Gross and his AI company, Physical Superintelligence, to overcome these hurdles.

The AI-generated a technical assessment proposing a novel trajectory: the spacecraft will perform retrograde arcs near the Sun for over a decade to gain velocity via the Oberth effect before departing for Alpha Centauri. By leveraging solar proximity and existing solar-electric propulsion, the mission aims to be a.