An interstellar journey for CubeSats

In Greek mythology, Icarus was the impulsive son who ignored his father's warning about flying too close to the sun but the students in the Drexel University chapter of Icarus Interstellar are much too dedicated to do anything that careless. Besides, they're aiming for a star located even farther away.

Those students went above and beyond to create the first chapter at any university of Icarus Interstellar, an international nonprofit foundation dedicated to achieving interstellar flight—travel to star systems beyond our own solar system—by the year 2100.

The research-oriented organization's mandate is to train the next generation of interstellar engineers, so the idea of a Drexel chapter organization wasn't very far-fetched.

Icarus is attempting to build the first-ever mission to Alpha Centauri, the star system located the closest to our solar system.

The timing of the project is especially important because no other similar missions are planned and the only mission that could reach a neighboring solar system—the Voyager spacecraft launched into space in 1977—will take tens of thousands of years.

Icarus' Project Tin Tin aims to reach the nearest star in about one-third of the Voyager's time, even though the Voyager will have received a 40-year head start.

Through Project Tin Tin, Icarus plans to create cost-effective technology and prototype CubeSats, or tiny cube-shaped research spacecraft nanosatellites, to test before sending to Alpha Centauri.

The Drexel students will contribute to the mission by designing, analyzing and building their own interstellar CubeSat.

"The idea is that this CubeSat will push the boundaries of what is possible with our current technology and will serve as a stepping-stone for future [faster] missions," said Damien Turchi, a pre-junior mechanical engineering and mechanics major and the president and founder of Drexel's Icarus chapter.

The group plans to send Icarus a project proposal by March 2014 to earn approval and start funding for the Drexel CubeSat, which will potentially be launched as early as 2016.

"By promoting specifically student involvement in interstellar research, the breakthroughs required for this endeavor may very well happen in our generation, because innovation tends to lie in the naïve," Turchi said.

Other activities planned for the Drexel chapter include discussions about Icarus' projects and the implications of long-term interstellar flight on human health and psychology.

The group is also planning a possible trip to the Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress in Texas and is looking into ways to aid other universities to create student chapters.