A new interstellar concept called Chrysalis sketches a 36 mile long rotating habitat designed to carry 2,400 people on a one way, 400 year trip. The destination is Alpha Centauri, about 25 trillion miles from Earth, a distance that rules out resupply once the ship leaves.
The plan treats the vessel as a closed society that must feed itself, educate children, care for the sick, and manufacture what it needs while coasting between stars.
It proposes layered habitats for farms, homes, schools, industry, and storage, all made livable by rotation that supplies gravity.
The Chrysalis plan
Dr Andreas Hein is executive director of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (I4IS).
The group convened experts to see whether architecture, engineering, and social systems could be woven into a practical multi-century mission.
The team behind Chrysalis proposes a long training phase on Earth. Early generations would live in isolated Antarctic stations for 70 to 80 years to build the habits, culture, and mental resilience needed for life off planet.
Chrysalis uses a nested shell layout around a central spine. Inner-zones grow plants, fungi, microbes, insects, and some livestock in controlled farms, mid layers hold parks, clinics, schools, and libraries, and outer shells host workshops and storage.
Dwellings sit between community space and light industry to keep daily life close to work and services. The outermost storehouse would be robot heavy to cut human labor and risk.
Alpha Centauri and Proxima b
Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system, which shortens the voyage by every realistic metric.
The likely landing zone is Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-size exoplanet reported to orbit in a temperate zone that could allow liquid water under some conditions.
Once the ship enters the system, shuttles housed in the central core would ferry crews and equipment to the planet. The design treats that arrival as the beginning of settlement rather than the end of the mission.
The proposal aims to arrive with full knowledge systems, from agriculture to medicine to materials science. It assumes no external logistics, so onboard manufacturing and repair are treated as basic survival needs.
Artificial gravity and health
Chrysalis relies on artificial gravity from steady rotation to keep bodies closer to Earth normal.
Rotation-based gravity is a studied countermeasure for cardiovascular and musculoskeletal deconditioning, as summarized in a review that evaluated centrifuge experiments in humans.
Spin introduces tradeoffs like Coriolis effects that can disturb balance if rotation is too fast. The nested layout helps tune spin and radius so living areas feel stable while still providing adequate effective gravity.
Radiation exposure is another core risk for a centuries long voyage. The concept leans on structure and materials, using mass in the habitat shells to reduce particle flux rather than relying only on specialized shields.
Health care sits in the communal layer near schools and parks to keep services accessible. That placement supports daily routines and reduces travel time for patients and caregivers.
Chrysalis power and propulsion
For power and thrust, the team points to nuclear fusion as the long term energy source. Fusion plant concepts and timelines remain under development and have been mapped and evaluated extensively.
The authors propose a 20 to 25 year construction window once industry can deliver the required systems. They treat in-space manufacturing as a mission essential capability to replace worn parts and build upgrades during cruise.
Energy production, recycling, and life support appear across multiple layers to avoid single points of failure. Heavy maintenance and logistics live at the outer edge where robots can operate with fewer human safety constraints.
The population would be planned to hover near 1,500 to balance resources, education, and health. That cap sits below the ship’s maximum berth count to leave margin for emergencies.
Why competitions like this help
Chrysalis won first place in the 2025 competition, and the jury praised both technical breadth and attention to people.
“Chrysalis impressed the jury with its system-level coherence and innovative design of the modular habitat structure but also overall depth of detail,” wrote the Project Hyperion jury.
“Chrysalis is a living spaceship where humans, robots and artificial intelligent agents share information, experiences and decision-making processes,” stated the Chrysalis team, explaining that their starship was more than hardware.
“We asked participants to integrate architecture, technology and social systems to conceptualise a functional society spanning centuries, and the outcome was beyond expectations,” said Dr Hein executive director of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies.
Concept work cannot replace flight hardware, yet it shapes the questions future engineers must answer. It also documents social and cultural choices that matter as much as engines when people live their whole lives off Earth.
How Chrysalis would prepare for arrival
The core would carry compact shuttles sized for surface hops, cargo, and emergency evacuation. Pilots and maintenance crews would train during the cruise so landings do not depend on a single cohort.
Food systems would keep a mix of biomes, from tropical to boreal, to preserve biodiversity and stabilize diets. That diversity lowers the risk that one crop failure cascades across the whole ecosystem.
Knowledge transfer shows up in how learning is embedded in daily life. Schools would be near labs, workshops, and farms so students practice skills early and keep them across generations.
Governance would be transparent, with planned births, shared resources, and collaborative decision tools. The aim is to prevent shocks to a small population where every loss hurts community resilience.
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