Today we celebrate three years in space

On the first of May three years ago we launched Project Poxima the world's first internet based space mission.

Project Proxima is a hypothetical, light-speed space mission to the Proxima Centauri star system. The aim is to create a teaching tool that helps explain the vastness of interstellar space (it's big, reaaally BIG!).

Today Proxima has traveled nearly 28 trillion km - that's about 70% of the total distance.

A lot has happened in the time since launch: perhaps most notably are the rise of Trump and the British referendum on Brexit. Most interestingly, however, that since launching the Project Proxima mission, scientists have discovered an earth-like planet in orbit around the Proxima Centauri system.

You can get involved in the mission by following on Twitter, or tracking the progress on the website.

You can also become an official supporter and sign up for email alerts.

Want to read more about Project Proxima?

Try these other posts from this blog.

Today we celebrate two years in space

On the first of May two years ago we launched Project Poxima the world's first internet based space mission.

Project Proxima is a hypothetical, light-speed space mission to the Proxima Centauri star system. The aim is to create a teaching tool that helps explain the vastness of interstellar space (it's big).

Today Proxima has traveled nearly 19 trillion km - that's about 47% of the today distance.

A lot has happened in the time since launch: perhaps most notably are the rise of Trump and the British referendum on Brexit. Most interestingly, however, that since launching the Project Proxima mission, scientists have discovered an earth-like planet in orbit around the Proxima Centauri system.

You can get involved in the mission by following on Twitter, or tracking the progress on the website.

You can also become an official supporter and sign up for email alerts.

Want to read more about Project Proxima?

Try these other posts from this blog.

Today we celebrate one year in space

On this day exactly one year ago we launched the world's first hypothetical Internet space mission.

Project Proxima is a light-speed space mission to the Proxima Centauri star system. The aim is to create a teaching tool that helps explain the vastness of interstellar space.

Today, Proxima has travelled over nine trillion km - that's 23% of the way to Proxima Centauri.

A lot has happened in the time since launch: the conservative party won the UK election; we have said farewell to countless well-loved legends of music and screen; Ireland voted for same-sex marriage; liquid water was found on Mars; all countries agreed to reduce carbon emissions; the WHO announced an outbreak of Zika virus, to name a few.

You can get involved in the mission by following on Twitter, or tracking the progress on the website.

You can also become an official supporter and sign up for email alerts.

Here are some nice things people have said about the project:

An interesting thought experiment, wish I'd heard about it before launch.

Travel to Proxima Centauri was (the) theme in Carlsagan Contact nook which my self and my daughter loved very much. To relive the experience is exciting.

Supercool!! Can't wait for launch!

Some other popular Project Proxima posts from last year:

Launch Alert

Create your own solar system

100000 stars

Traversing the solar system at the speed of light

The size of the Universe

A collection of videos demonstrating the size of the Universe that you will gain geek experience points for just watching.

The Known Universe by the American Museum of Natural History is the world’s most complete 3D map of the universe, maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the Hayden Planetarium.  This video takes us from the Himalayas, beyond Earth, through the Milky Way galaxy and beyond my home planet (Planet X05) to finally bathe in the light of the Big Bang.




The original 1977 Powers of Ten video written and directed by Charles and Ray Eames. Travel from Chicago to the depths of inter-galactic space, then back to Chicago and into the sub-atomic world inside a white blood cell.  Each stage of the journey increases or decreases in scale by a power of ten, every ten seconds.





Project Proxima - from Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Intended to demonstrate the vastness of interstellar space, Project Proxima is a hypothetical voyage to the nearest star.  At the time of writing, this thought experiment has managed to achieve 12% of its journey.


Some other interesting posts on this blog:

Journey through the Universe at the speed of light

Introducing Project Proxima

Explore the Solar System

Create your own Solar System

#projectproxima #universe #space #science #lightspeed #leeds

Launch alert

We are getting ready to go to space!

Click the image to launch.

At 12:00 noon (UK time) on Friday the 1st May, we will launch Proxima, the first web-based, hypothetical, light-speed space voyage.  Proxima will travel through the solar system at 300,000,000 m/s visiting the orbits of every planet in the solar system before altering course and making a bee-line for Proxima Centauri.

Even at the speed of light, the voyage will take over four years.

Project Proxima is a teaching tool and time capsule, designed to help explain the vastness of interstellar space.  You can follow Proxima using the hashtag #ProjectProxima, or the Twitter profile @proximaspace.

Over the following four years follow Proxima as it crosses the Oort Cloud and clears the Heliopause, then join the celebration as we finally reach the Sun's nearest neighbour.

"The stars, my destination" - Alfred Bester.

Project Proxima - from Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Create your own solar system

Project Proxima, the hypothetical voyage from Leeds to Proxima Centauri, launches in two weeks today, so we will celebrate with some more space-related posts.

Here we look at solar system simulators.  

My solar system from PhET 

As you might expect from PhET, this simulator is pretty good.  You can choose from a number of preset conditions including binary stars with planets, slingshots, ellipses etc.  Plenty of fun can be had by changing the mass, position and velocity of the preset conditions, or just play God and make your own.

The 'Slingshot' chosen from one of many presets.

Solar System Builder
A nice and simple solar system simulator.  Create planet trajectories by clicking and dragging.  Feel the need to hurl Jupiter at the inner solar system to see what happens - no problem!

Pick up Jupiter and hurl it at the inner solar system.

Planet Families
Planet Families from the Space Science Institute is a sandbox universe for you to simply drop your planets in an watch it go.  Planetary collisions are accompanied by satisfactory sound effects.

Drag, drop then watch them crash and burn.  Good stuff.

Solar System Builder - Building the Known Universe
This Solar System Builder from The National geographic is as good as they come.  One nice feature is the ability to set the camera to follow any one of your solar system objects.

Fully customised planet construction.

Solar System Maker
The solar system maker mrnussbaum.com is suitable for children aged 8 to 11.  It does not quite have the same sophistication with regards to its Physics, however fun can be had by designing and printing your own solar system.

Create new planets to your own design and given them a name.

Solar System builder in Scratch
Here is a solar system simulator built using the excellent MIT Scratch.

Solar systems built in Scratch

I hope you enjoyed these solar system simulators.  If you did, then you might like to follow Project Proxima:

From Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Project Proxima is a hypothetical voyage to our nearest stellar neighbour - Proxima Centauri.  The spacecraft, Proxima, can travel at the speed of light and is set to launch in 16 days (on the 1st May 2015).  #ProjectProxima #Science #Space

Followers can track the progress of Proxima's four year voyage on the website and through Proxima's Twitter page @proximaspace.  You can sign-up to become a registered follower to get your name on the website, and receive news via email.

Proxima will travel at the speed of light from Earth to Proxima Centauri taking it on a path that first visits the inner solar system and the sun. It will then continue through the solar system until it is far beyond the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud, the depths of interstellar space and then finally, in four years time, it will reach Proxima Centauri (in 2019).

100,000 stars

Today's countdown to the Project Proxima launch introduces 100,000 Stars, an interactive visualization of the stellar neigbourhood created for the Chrome browser. It shows the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. Zooming in reveals 87 major named stars and our solar system and Oort cloud.  Zooming out reveals an artist's rendition of the whole galaxy.

Launch 100,000 stars now.

The closest stars to the Sun.  Drag, zoom and explore this 3D simulation.

So much to explore.

Our stellar neighbourhood.

An artist's rendition of the galaxy.  Rotate through 3 degrees of freedom.

Some of the 87 named closest stars.  Clicking zooms in to beautiful close-up detail.

From Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Project Proxima is a hypothetical voyage to our nearest stellar neighbour - Proxima Centauri.  The spacecraft, Proxima, can travel at the speed of light and is set to launch in 16 days (on the 1st May 2015).  #ProjectProxima #Science #Space

Followers can track the progress of Proxima's four year voyage on the website and through Proxima's Twitter page @proximaspace.  You can sign-up to become a registered follower to get your name on the website, and receive news via email.

Proxima will travel at the speed of light from Earth to Proxima Centauri taking it on a path that first visits the inner solar system and the sun. It will then continue through the solar system until it is far beyond the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud, the depths of interstellar space and then finally, in four years time, it will reach Proxima Centauri (in 2019).

Time until Launch:

Explore the solar system

As the countdown to the launch of Project Proxima, the hypothetical voyage to Proxima Centauri reaches 16 days and 20 hours, we celebrate with some links to useful solar system simulators.  #SolarSystem #ProjectProxima #space #science

Astro Tour from gunn.co.nz

Solar system tour from gunn.co.nz - explore the solar system with this fully customizable simulator.

Nine Planets solar System Tour

A beautifully imagined solar system simulator.  Click on a planet to get more information, or set the planets in motion.

Project Metis

Beautifully rendered planets come alive in this solar system simulation.

From Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Project Proxima is a hypothetical voyage to our nearest stellar neighbour - Proxima Centauri.  The spacecraft, Proxima, can travel at the speed of light and is set to launch in 16 days (on the 1st May 2015).

Our goal, the closest star, Proxima Centauri.

Followers can track the progress of Proxima's four year voyage on the website and through Proxima's Twitter page @proximaspace.  You can sign-up to become a registered follower to get your name on the website, and receive news via email.

Proxima will travel at the speed of light from Earth to Proxima Centauri taking it on a path that first visits the inner solar system and the sun. It will then continue through the solar system until it is far beyond the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud, the depths of interstellar space and then finally, in four years time, it will reach Proxima Centauri (in 2019).

Time until Launch:

Traversing the solar system at the Speed of Light

This video was the inspiration for the Project Proxima space mission.  As we count down to the launch of Proxima on the 1st May please enjoy this video which shows what it would look like if you could travel at the speed of light away from the Sun (ignoring special relativity, or course).

From Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Journey through the universe beyond the speed of light

As we count down to the launch of Project Proxima the hypothetical voyage to Proxima Centauri, introducing a series of space-related posts. First, a documentary about an imaginary trip through space.

Project Proxima - from Leeds to Proxima Centauri

#ProjectProxima

Countdown to Proxima Launch - from Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Introducing Project Proxima

Project Proxima is a hypothetical voyage to our nearest stellar neighbour - Proxima Centauri.  The spacecraft, Proxima, can travel at the speed of light and is set to launch in 21 days (on the 1st May 2015).

The Proxima Spacecraft @proximaspace ready for launch.

Proxima is a teaching tool, intended to help explain the vastness of interstellar space.

Followers can track the progress of Proxima's four year voyage on the website and through Proxima's Twitter page @proximaspace.  You can sign-up to become a registered follower to get your name on the website, and receive news via email.

Proxima will travel at the speed of light from Earth to Proxima Centauri taking it on a path that first visits the inner solar system and the sun. It will then continue through the solar system until it is far beyond the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud, the depths of interstellar space and then finally, in four years time, it will reach Proxima Centauri (in 2019).

Proxima is also a timecapsule. On the launch date, I will archive the current world news to help followers better understand the distance between our solar system and our nearest neighbour.

Proxima never stops! Once it reaches Proxima Centauri it will continue through the galaxy for as long as I can maintain this server.

Visit Project Proxima now!

Proxima will launch from Earth on the 1st May 2015, travelling at the speed of light it will visit the orbits of every planet in the solar system.  Track Proxima in real time to get information about its journey.  It will then embark on a four-year journey to Proxima Centauri.

The nearest stars to the sun.  After visiting every planet in the solar system on day one, Proxima will take several months to travel through the full extent of the Oort Cloud, before finally heading out to Proxima Centarui.