Imagine a giant space "cocoon" 36 miles long (that's almost 58 kilometers!) capable of carrying 2,400 people on a one-way trip to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. This project, called Chrysalis ("Cocoon"), is not fiction from Interstellar, but a real concept developed by engineers for future interstellar missions.
A ship is not just a capsule, but a whole floating world. Inside there are libraries, rainforests, agricultural areas, residential areas, and even production facilities for repairing and creating new components. All of this works under artificial gravity, created by rotating a huge structure — like in the movies, but now it's a calculation, not a fiction.
The distance to Alpha Centauri is about 4.37 light—years, or 40 trillion kilometers. Chrysalis is designed to overcome it in about 400 years. This means that the first passengers will die on the way, and their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will be the ones who land on the new planet. For them, Earth will be just a legend, and the ship will be their home.
Engineers emphasize: This is not a tourist mission, but the archives of humanity, transported into space. Chrysalis is conceived as the "last chance" for the survival of the species — in case of disaster on Earth. It must be self-sufficient: produce food, water, oxygen, and even support culture and education on board.
Yes, the technology for such a ship does not yet exist. But the very fact that people are already designing space cities for interstellar flights says that humanity is beginning to think not as inhabitants of the planet, but as inhabitants of the universe.
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