Finding out our closest stellar neighbors
- List of nearest stars, but not what is close to them
- SolStation.com allows you to determine which stars are close to a given star - i.e., it is not Sol centric.
- Stars and planetary systems in fiction lets you know how other authors have used the systems.
I was trying to decide where the first interstellar probe would be going in this fiction and also trying to get a handle on a timeline.
Epsilon Eridani has planets, at least as far as we know. Tau Ceti is likely to have asteroid belts. And Epsilon Eridani is about 5.5 ly from Tau Ceti.
As far as a timeline, Project Daedalus proposed 50 years to get to Barnard’s Star (5.9 light years away). And Project Longshot would take 100 years to go to Alpha Centauri, at 4.39 light years. Both craft with technology currently not available.
So the impact on the timeline is that I’m envisioning that the next 100 years or so would see the exploration and development of the Solar system. At some point, the first exploration ships would go out to Alpha Centauri. I’m going to speculate a journey of 20 years. And the first ship would be an asteroid. Note that the production facilities would have to be able to be regeared from time to time to take advantage of discoveries.
In the meantime, other asteroids would be sent out - some with longer flight times. I.e., the one to Tau Ceti would be close to 60 years and the one to Epsilon Eridani would be closer to what, 50 years.
These would be the first generational ships and whole families would be sent - by this I mean adult siblings. In some cases the crew might be from the same station or nationality. In others they would be a hodge-podge.
In some, additional ships would be sent out in 5 year intervals.
After a time, a primitive form of suspended animation would be available, and cordwood crews would be sent as well as the generational crew.
Cloning and nanotech learning would be discovered. Hmm, this could be the basis of one of the experimental asteroid ships.
