In a reality akin to a sci-fi novel, a team of international interdisciplinary scientists have launched a competition to design a ‘generation ship’ that, if built, would allow humanity to leave Earth for other solar systems – and arrive there still thriving.

Known as ‘Project Hyperion’, the competition – organised by the Initiative for Interstellar Studies – aims to use global ingenuity and interdisciplinary collaboration to generate ideas for sustaining a human population through 250 years of space travel.

With a $10,000 prize fund, the recently launched competition has piqued the interest of researchers across the world – and with the deadline fast approaching, there’s no better time than now to grab your fellow experts and get sketching.

The project brief asks its participants to think beyond the practicalities of launching a whole society into space, and consider how a space-borne human society might function and thrive while journeying through outer space:

“Going beyond the classical examination of the problem of interstellar propulsion and structural design, for a voyage lasting multiple centuries, what might be the ideal type of habitat architecture and society in order to ensure a successful trip?”

With the team requirements spanning an engineer, a social scientist, and an architectural designer, the project challenges researchers to think outside of the box to create a spacecraft (or ‘generation ship’) that encompasses a city in which its inhabitants can live semi-regular lives.

Given the lengthy duration of travel to other solar systems (potentially 1,000 years) there are multiple generations to think of: how will they eat, stay mentally and physically healthy, fall in love, and create new families?

“The idea behind a generation ship is that the initial crew would live, reproduce, and die on the ship, with their descendants continuing the journey until reaching the destination. This type of ship is often envisioned as a self-sustaining ecosystem, featuring agriculture, habitation, and other necessary life-support systems to ensure survival across multiple generations.”

While it is clear that the winning designs won’t come to fruition any time soon, the competition is designed to help shape the development of interstellar travel, as well as raising awareness and public interest in the possible futures of space travel.

The competition has some highly specialized requirements, with submitted designs expected to withstand 250 years of space travel at extremely high velocities. It must protect the inhabitants from high levels of solar radiation as well as potential meteor impacts.

Its other technical requirements include a method of maintaining gravity equivalent to that found on Earth.

However, the main focus of the project is on the safety and welfare of the people on board. The ship should allow its inhabitants to continue to produce and acquire food and clothing throughout the duration of the journey, with essentials such as water and breathable air consistently and easily available.

The brief specifies that between 500 and 1,500 people should be able to live comfortably on the ship, to allow for population fluctuations, with the physical environment easily adaptable from the inside, should the requirements of the population change.

And, importantly, since they are potentially populating another planet or even solar system, the mission aims to promote diversity. As such, the brief explains that different languages, food preferences, cultural and family structures, religions and more should all be catered for aboard the Generation Ship, with the uniqueness of Earthly cultures maintained.

Most importantly, the project asks its designers to make sure that the ship’s inhabitants will have a way of retaining all the key knowledge – through the generations – to ensure that the ship can continued to be crewed safely, its people healthy, with all the Earthly and interstellar knowledge required to set up a new society so far from home.

It’s a tall order, but with that prize money at stake the entries will surely be high.

In just a few months’ time, when the competition closes, we could get our first glimpses of an eventual future of space travel.

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