Icarus Interstellar

Icarus Interstellar is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation dedicated to achieving interstellar flight by the year 2100. The organizations was founded in 2011 and received its tax exemption status in January 2013. The organization grew out of Project Icarus, which is a five year design study for a fusion powered starship that began on September 30th 20... 09 and was launched jointly by the British Interplanetary Society and the Tau Zero Foundation. Icarus Interstellar was founded in Alaska, however it's members live in many nations across the globe, with a high concentration of members in the US and Europe. To understand the structure of Icarus Interstellar please see our team members page, which provides a good overview regarding how we are organized. What is your mission statement? The mission of Icarus Interstellar is to realize interstellar flight before the year 2100. We will accomplish this objective by researching and developing the science and the technologies that will make interstellar flight a reality, igniting the public's interest, and engaging with all those prepared to invest in interstellar exploration. Why did you choose fusion based propulsion for Project Icarus? There are several reasons why we selected fusion. Firstly, this project was inspired by Daedalus, whose engine was a pulsed fusion propulsion design. Since Icarus is the successor to Project Dadealus, it made sense to utilize fusion for the bulk of the boost period. Add to this the fact that fusion is arguably a well-understood and mature field of research, and selecting this over less developed areas adds credibility to the design. About a million times more energy is liberated from fusion processes when compared to chemical reactions, and so when we finally learn to harness this energy effectively it will make an ideal energy source for interstellar travel. Do you anticipate a design quite different from Project Daedalus? We plan to go through successive iterations of the Daedalus design, with the hope of ultimately coming up with a more ...Read More