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The story
Starcloud, a company building AI data centers in space, is developing humanity’s first interstellar probe through a nonprofit effort by its co-founders called “Fermi Explorer.” If all goes to plan, it will launch in 2029 and head for Alpha Centauri, the star system nearest our own — though it won’t arrive for roughly 80,000 years. The thread lit up with a wide range of reactions: disbelief at the almost incomprehensible travel time, half-joking doubts about whether humanity will even still exist by then, and genuine scientific questions about whether the expansion of the universe might affect the probe’s arrival.
Joe Hindy (CNET News) Translation/editing: Editorial staff, September 3, 2026, 6:44 AM
US-based Starcloud is a company that builds AI-focused data centers in space. Its co-founders — Philip Johnston, Adi Oltean, and Ezra Feilden — have launched a nonprofit mission called “Fermi Explorer.”
They’re developing humanity’s first interstellar probe, which, if all goes according to plan, will launch in 2029 and head toward Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to our own. However, it won’t arrive for roughly 80,000 years.
Source: japan.cnet.com / Original article here
What people said
Are we trying to pick a fight with Centauri?
but really the main point is just escaping the solar system. Doesn't look like it has any way to actually home in on Alpha Centauri, or any comms gear for once it's outside the solar system.
Can hardly wait.
A rare on-topic hit for this board.
Will it actually make it there okay? (That's what you're worried about, huh?)
Will it really get there in 80,000 years?
Cosmic expansion only really starts to matter at much bigger scales — 10 million light-years or more.
Alpha Centauri is about a ten-millionth of that distance (and it still takes 80,000 years).
As long as you're inside the Milky Way's gravity well, expansion basically doesn't touch you.
Assuming humanity's even still around by then.
but then
turns out the thing is tiny, lol
Still, between that and the 80,000-year timeline, it's got a nice sense of romance to it.
However, it won't arrive for roughly 80,000 years.
However, it won't arrive for roughly 80,000 years.
so what's even the point?
Your bloodline might be dead, but humanity carries on.
Look at you go.
But then again, with an AI company's stock soaring the way it is right now, I guess this is their one and only shot lol
that just casually overtakes this thing while it's still cruising along on its leisurely 80,000-year trip.
because they know full well Earth won't be livable by then.
Forget this, just start building Daedalus already.
Seems like its position will drift way off course and it won't actually reach the target.
why isn't any national government doing this?
Only some scam-tier company would even have the nerve to bluff this big
Does that mean it's hopeless profit-wise?
Or is it that whatever's common knowledge to some "Galactic Federation"
would just be too harsh a truth for human society to handle?
Seriously, what is going on here.
Nuclear pulse propulsion
Wonder if the reason that project got shelved
will finally come out in Spielberg's new movie.
Feels like the probe would just break down along the way, though maybe there's less cosmic radiation since it's a neighboring star system.
Also, since it can't do reverse thrust at the end, if it ends up slamming into a planet, would it just burn up on arrival if there's an atmosphere?
Still, exploration like this has to start somewhere,
and it says something that America's the one willing to take the leap.
Background and Talking Points
Starcloud is a company originally known for its business building AI data centers in orbit; the interstellar probe project was launched separately by its co-founders as a nonprofit venture. The fact that this is a private, nonprofit effort rather than a national space agency effort ties into the question raised in comment #40 — “why isn’t a national government doing this?” It’s also worth knowing, as comment #7 points out, that earlier interstellar probe concepts like Breakthrough Starshot never actually made it to launch. As for the cosmic-expansion question raised in comment #11, comment #26 answers it: expansion only becomes a meaningful factor at distances on the order of 10 million light-years, and Alpha Centauri, at 4.37 light-years away, remains well within the Milky Way’s gravitational domain and is essentially unaffected — an easy point to get wrong. The probe also appears to lack any deceleration system, so even when it “arrives” in 80,000 years, it likely won’t be able to make a soft landing or enter orbit.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Science News+) thread “US Company to Launch Probe Toward the Star “Alpha Centauri,” Possibly by 2029.”
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