{"id":361767,"date":"2025-08-21T09:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/361767\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T09:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:54:11","slug":"why-would-you-even-want-to-go-readers-react-to-the-hypothetical-400-year-voyage-to-alpha-centauri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/361767\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Why would you even want to go?’: Readers react to the hypothetical 400-year voyage to Alpha Centauri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would you be willing to leave Earth on a one-way trip to our nearest star system? In a Live Science poll, we asked our readers whether they would board a spacecraft that takes 400 years to reach Alpha Centauri<\/a>. The poll was in response to a hypothetical spacecraft called Chrysalis<\/a>, which won first place in a contest to design a multigenerational ship capable of housing thousands of people for a journey to Proxima Centauri b<\/a> \u2014 an Earth-size exoplanet that is thought to be potentially habitable.<\/p>\n

More than 3,300 readers responded to the poll, which was published Aug. 13. And at the time of writing, the results show that 45% of responders were willing to take the trip through deep space, no questions asked, while 30% gave a solid “no.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The rest? Well, it depends on the details, so we asked them what had them sitting on the galactic fence.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

“It would depend on the living arrangements, as well as the work required and the rec facilities,” Jason P. Harris<\/a> wrote.<\/p>\n

For some, the decision came down to comfort and recreation. “If I could go by myself, and if the ship had a racetrack, and I could bring a motorcycle with me, I would sign right now,” S. Ravenscroft<\/a> wrote.<\/p>\n

And the chance to sleep the 400 years away was a deal-maker too. “If there was hypersleep then yes I’d go,” Chris K X24<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Others tied their decision to Earth’s future. “I guess if Earth was becoming uninhabitable I would,” Captain Awesome<\/a> wrote. “But it doesn’t sound like fun, my ping back to Earth would just get worse and worse until gaming becomes impossible.”<\/p>\n

Get the world\u2019s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Gavin Chapple<\/a> noted that technology could significantly advance in those 400 years, writing: “The silly part is, once they finally arrive, there will already be humans there who beat them to it with near light speed technology.”<\/p>\n

So what do you think? After weighing up all the options, would you be willing to leave Earth behind for Alpha Centauri? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2014Oops! Earendel, most distant star ever discovered, may not actually be a star, James Webb Telescope reveals<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014Scientists think they detected the first known triple black hole system in the universe \u2014 and then watched it die<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014Uranus has a new, hidden moon, James Webb Space Telescope reveals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Would you be willing to leave Earth on a one-way trip to our nearest star system? In a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[70,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-361767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115066153433448669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}