In a still distant future, a gigantic cylindrical structure 58 kilometers long could travel through the cosmos, transporting hundreds of people in an epic journey to Proxima Centauri b, a potentially habitable exoplanet located 4.24 light-years away.

Far from being the premise of a new science fiction novel, this is the revolutionary concept of Chrysalis: a generational ship where more than a thousand people would live, be born and die on board during a four-century odyssey. This ambitious proposal was recently crowned with first prize in the Project Hyperion design competition, organized by the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is).

Chrysalis “ a name that evokes the metamorphosis phase of butterflies and moths “ is the result of the work of an interdisciplinary team of Italian researchers. His proposal stood out among hundreds of ideas from around the world thanks to its extraordinary systemic coherence and innovative modular design, according to the project jury.

The structure is truly colossal: 58,000 meters long (equivalent to more than 550 soccer fields) and a mass of 2.4 billion metric tons (equivalent to 369 Great Pyramids of Giza), according to the project documents. Its cylindrical design is no coincidence: the narrower front end is intended to minimize the risk of impacts with micrometeorites and reduce structural stresses during acceleration and deceleration phases.

A four-century journey to Proxima b

Chrysalis's destination would be Proxima Centauri b, located 4.24 light-years away, which is equivalent to traveling 40.1 trillion kilometers through the vacuum of space. To put this enormous distance into perspective, consider that the fastest spacecraft ever built, NASA's Parker Solar Probe, reaches speeds of up to 690,000 km/h. Even at that record speed, after 400 years of uninterrupted travel, the probe would still be 37.7 trillion kilometers from its destination, having completed just 6% of the journey

Thus, Chrysalis would have to reach a maximum speed of around 1.07% of the speed of light (17 times faster than the Parker probe) to complete its mission in approximately 400 years, after an initial acceleration period of one year and a final year of deceleration. Its propulsion system would be a direct fusion engine, fueled by helium-3 and deuterium isotopes, a technology still in the conceptual stage.

What would it be like to live on Chrysalis?

The ship would function as a self-sufficient space city, with capacity for between 1,500 and 2,400 people, although the designers consider a population of around 1,500 optimal to ensure sustainability.

The habitat would be organized into multiple modular levels that constantly rotate on an axis to create artificial gravity. From the outside in, these levels would specialize in different functions.

In the layer closest to the core, plants, fungi, insects, and livestock would be cultivated, even supporting entire biomes such as tropical or boreal forests. Beyond that, parks, schools, hospitals, and libraries would shape community life; This would then be followed by residential areas, and on the outer layers, industries, workshops, and warehouses that could largely be run by robots.

A unique feature would be the Cosmo Dome, located at the front, designed as a microgravity bubble that would offer passengers spectacular views of the cosmos while experiencing weightlessness.

Antarctic preparation and AI governance

The project contemplates fascinating aspects beyond the technical design. Before launch, the first generations of inhabitants would have to live and adapt in an isolated environment in Antarctica for 70 or 80 years, to ensure their psychological well-being and preparation for space confinement.

Births would be carefully planned to keep the population at sustainable levels, and governance would be done in collaboration with artificial intelligence to "enable resilience of the entire social system" and facilitate knowledge transfer between generations.

The Project Hyperion competition, launched on November 1, 2024, with a prize of $10,000, attracted hundreds of international teams. The winners were announced on July 23, 2025, with Chrysalis taking home the first prize of $5,000.

Participants had to meet specific requirements: each team needed at least one architectural designer, one engineer, and one social scientist. Their proposals had to demonstrate how to accommodate 1.000 people (give or take 500) for centuries, providing artificial gravity, robust life support systems, and mechanisms to preserve culture and knowledge.

Exploration or Escape? The Future of Humanity

Chrysalis is part of a long tradition of generation ship concepts dating back to 1918, when Robert H. Goddard wrote about “The Ultimate Migration.” Since then, as Universe Today summarizes, visionaries such as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, J.D. Bernal, and Robert Enzmann have proposed similar versions of these "space arks." While the project is purely hypothetical and requires technologies that don't yet exist, such as commercial nuclear fusion reactors, initiatives like this one "can contribute to expanding our current knowledge base and help engineers improve future designs," according to Live Science. However, beyond the fascinating technological spectacle that these generational ships represent, it's worth asking what narrative they really hide. Are we designing an adventure into the unknown or planning a desperate escape from a planet we've exhausted? Is it wise to entrust the fate of entire generations to artificial intelligence algorithms? And what kind of civilization might we build on an alien world, after centuries of space confinement?

As we contemplate these ambitious interstellar escape projects, perhaps it is worth remembering an inconvenient truth: after decades of exploring our cosmic neighborhood, we have yet to find anything that compares to the extraordinary wealth of life, beauty, and possibilities that Earth offers. Perhaps, before we dream of escaping to the stars, we should ask ourselves if it might be wiser to learn how to take better care of the only home we know works.