Editing Proxima Centauri (section)

== Future exploration ==
{{Main|Proxima Centauri in fiction|Interstellar travel}}
Because of the star's proximity to Earth, Proxima Centauri has been proposed as a flyby destination for interstellar travel.<ref name="gilster">{{cite book |last=Gilster |first=Paul |url=https://archive.org/details/centauridreamsim00gils |title=Centauri dreams: imagining and planning |date=2004 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387-00436-5}}</ref> If non-nuclear, conventional propulsion technologies are used, the flight of a spacecraft to Proxima Centauri and its planets would probably require thousands of years.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Crawford |first=I. A. |date=September 1990 |title=Interstellar Travel: A Review for Astronomers |journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=31 |pages=377–400 |bibcode=1990QJRAS..31..377C}}</ref> For example, ''[[Voyager 1]]'', which is now travelling {{convert|17|km/s|mph|abbr=on}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Peat |first=Chris |title=Spacecraft escaping the Solar System |url=http://www.heavens-above.com/SolarEscape.aspx |access-date=December 25, 2016 |work=Heavens Above}}</ref> relative to the Sun, would reach Proxima Centauri in 73,775 years, were the spacecraft travelling in the direction of that star and Proxima was standing still. Proxima's actual galactic orbit means a slow-moving probe would have only several tens of thousands of years to catch the star at its closest approach, before it recedes out of reach.<ref name="longshot">{{cite web |last1=Beals |first1=K. A. |last2=Beaulieu |first2=M. |last3=Dembia |first3=F. J. |last4=Kerstiens |first4=J. |last5=Kramer |first5=D. L. |last6=West |first6=J. R. |last7=Zito |first7=J. A. |date=1988 |title=Project Longshot, an Unmanned Probe to Alpha Centauri |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19890007533_1989007533.pdf |access-date=June 13, 2008 |work=NASA-CR-184718 |publisher=U. S. Naval Academy}}</ref>

[[Nuclear pulse propulsion]] might enable such interstellar travel with a trip timescale of a century, inspiring several studies such as [[Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion]], [[Project Daedalus]], and [[Project Longshot]].<ref name="longshot" /> Project [[Breakthrough Starshot]] aims to reach the Alpha Centauri system within the first half of the 21st century, with microprobes travelling at 20% of the speed of light propelled by around 100 [[gigawatts]] of Earth-based lasers.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Merali |first=Zeeya |date=May 27, 2016 |title=Shooting for a star |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=352 |issue=6289 |pages=1040–1041 |doi=10.1126/science.352.6289.1040 |pmid=27230357}}</ref> The probes would perform a fly-by of Proxima Centauri about 20 years after its launch, or possibly go into orbit after about 140 years if [[swing-by]]'s around Proxima Centauri or Alpha Centauri are to be employed.<ref name="Heller Hippke 2023 k319">{{cite web | last1=Heller | first1=René | last2=Hippke | first2=Michael | title=Full braking at Alpha Centauri | website=Max-Planck-Gesellschaft | date=July 11, 2023 | url=https://www.mpg.de/11019256/full-braking-at-alpha-centauri | access-date=December 3, 2023}}</ref> Then the probes would take photos and collect data of the planets of the stars, and their atmospheric compositions. It would take 4.25 years for the information collected to be sent back to Earth.<ref name="Popkin2017">{{cite journal |last=Popkin |first=Gabriel |date=February 2, 2017 |title=What it would take to reach the stars |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=542 |issue=7639 |pages=20–22 |bibcode=2017Natur.542...20P |doi=10.1038/542020a |pmid=28150784 |doi-access=free}}</ref>