Project Icarus: A Review of the Project, Spacecraft Concepts and Design Process

R. Swinney, R. Freeland, M. Lamontagne, K. F. Long

jbis-078-05-0143

DOI https://doi.org/10.59332/jbis-078-05-0143

The 1970s British Interplanetary Society Daedalus study aimed to show that interstellar travel was feasible. It produced the famous Daedalus (‘ICF’) fusion powered 2-stage probe, still arguably one of the most complete designs for such an endeavour. In 2009 the BIS members, in collaboration with colleagues from the US, planned to ‘re-do’ Daedalus taking in to account some 30 years of fusion research to design a new, credible Icarus interstellar probe – a son of Daedalus. Stretching far beyond its original 5-year plan, in this paper we review the complete Project Icarus, the design process, and the subsequent concepts and designs. We show how the direction of the project was laid down comprehensively in Terms of Reference, goals, and an 85-page Project Plan Document. This planned 10 project phases with 20 modules and led to fruitful years of research and trade studies, many published in journals such as the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS) and Acta Astronautica, but also in-house reports. We highlight how switching from the research phases to actual designs proved challenging, but eventually interesting designs were presented for a concept design competition, and further evaluated at a later detailed design workshop. We discuss some of the issues which prevented the project team from completing the project in accordance with the original project plan. Subsequently, little progress was made to a few of the designs (‘Ghost’, ‘UDD’, and ‘Zeus’) but two designs have continued to progress over the following years far beyond the originally envisaged life of the project. Pegasus was the closest in evolution from Daedalus, and the Firefly variant perhaps the most detailed, using a completely different method of fusion. Both designs are discussed in detail in companion papers, and here we conclude the review of the design and project. Finally, as one of the primary aims, we conclude that the study outlined credible pathways that a mainly fusion-based design could decelerate a large scientific payload into orbit around a nearby star in under 100 years of mission duration. This is a contribution of the Project Icarus Study Group.

Keywords: Project Icarus, Interstellar Studies, Fusion Propulsion, Project Daedalus