Mission Overview

In the 2093, an ambitious space mission launched to begin the dissemination of the human race outside of our own solar system. A thousand passengers were carefully selected to include a range of important skills and genetic traits. The aim of the mission was to travel to an Earth-like planet orbiting another star.

During the 21st Century it became increasingly obvious that the possibility of the long-term existence of human life in our own solar system was limited to only the next few hundred years. During the century a number of rapid improvements in technology and science allowed the dream of traveling to other star systems to become a reality, if an extremely ambitious one.

Most people on Earth failed to understand or believe the reality. Many people accepted the fact that they could live and die a normal lifespan on Earth, even if their great great great great.... grandchildren would eventually succumb to destruction of life on Earth. Many people were content to wait for future scientific advancements to save their descendants.

A few, a brave, ambitious few with the spirit of the explorers of history, chose to take the future of of our species into their own hands. They elected to take part in the first ever mission to attempt to colonise a planet orbiting a star other than our own sun. A mission that would take a generation.

Mission Phases

Phase 1: Transfer of crew onto main spacecraft that had been assembled in Earth orbit.

Phase 2: Training, ship testing and familiarisation of crew with the ship. Includes mining of near Earth object asteroids for resources and as practice for later in the mission.

Phase 3: Travel to the main asteroid belt

Phase 4 : Time spent in the main asteroid belt mining resources and completing manufacture and stocking of the ship.

Phase 5: Travel to the Kuiper belt.

Phase 6: Completion of fuelling for interstellar travel..

Phase 7: Interstellar travel (all crew in cryostasis). 10% light speed using harvested antimatter as fuel.

Phase 8: Arrival at new star system / planet.

The space craft that would do the job was built in orbit using materials and fuel mined from near-Earth asteroids. It would need to be able to carry not only the passengers but be able to produce food and oxygen to support them in an environment that would make the passing years bearable. It would also need to be able to transport the plants, animals and microbes required to terraform the planet on arrival.

Some of the ship sections needed include:

(1) A living environment based within a rotating cylinder of diameter 200m and length 300m, affectionately known as the toilet roll. The rotation would provide appearance of an Earth-like gravity on its inner surface, while up closer to the cylinders axis the "gravity" would be lower.

(2) A ring of cryochambers for storage of frozen life forms including humans appeared as a ring isolated  from the rest of the ship so that the cold of space would reduce the need for energy to keep it cool.

(3) A farm module using sunlight in a hydroponic system that would grow plants for food production as efficiently as possible.

(4) An asteroid mining module that would be used to mine resources from asteroids.

(5) A recycling centre. The ability to recycle almost all materials produced from activities on the ship was essential for survival.

Fuels produced from solar energy (splitting water into H and O) and mined from asteroids would be needed to travel through our own solar system but contained insufficient energy to gain the enormous and sustained acceleration required to approach light speed and allow interstellar travel. Antimatter was currently the only practical, energy-dense fuel able to achieve this. 

Antimatter was being produced on Earth but quantities were massively insufficient for the requirements of the mission. Especially as almost all production was being stockpiled by the military. However, scientists had discovered that large quantities of antimatter existed within the Kuiper belt and concentrated by the heliopause.

The mission therefore needed to reach the Kuiper belt using more conventional fuel sources. Along the way, time would need to be spent in the main asteroid belt to gather resources and build up a food supply to to supplement the lean periods that would occur as we got further from the energy-giving sun.

Emails, radio broadcasts, other voice conversations, videos, news reports, blogs, crew testimonies, designs, artwork and other sources of information tell the story of the most ambitious journey humans have eve made. These can be read on and added to the other pages on this site.

We expect a range of contributors from The Leigh Technology Academy to add small or large parts to the story. See the options in the categories listed or come up with your own idea. If you are a member of the Leigh Technology Academy and would like to add to any of the story, contact cst @ leighacademy. org. uk