Interstellar Groups/Organisations

This includes any formal or informal groups, associations, organisations, companies (for-profit/non-profit) or divisions of university faculty that were set up with a large interstellar focus. It may be the case that some of these groups were not originally set up with that intention or but they later went that direction. Alternatively, it may be the case that the organisation has a broader mission scope (e.g. save humanity) but its activities indicate that it considers interstellar exploration and colonisation an important element of its work.

The inclusion/exclusion of specific organisations or groups is a subjective process. We are open to submissions from any group or others that want to argue for a groups inclusion. In general, we consider that the requirements for inclusion on this list meet at least two of the following criteria:

The group has produced or facilitated publications related to interstellar themes.
The group has organised or contributed to projects or programs on interstellar themes.
The group has hosted or assisted with meetings/workshops/conferences on interstellar themes.
The group has demonstrated advocacy and/or promotion of interstellar themes.

Finally, it should be obvious that interplanetary colonisation is on the roadmap to interstellar colonisation. With this in mind, we regard groups that are focussed on interplanetary colonisation strategies within our own solar system, as relevant to interstellar studies. Controversially therefore we have included several organisations that although don’t have interstellar as their focus, the output of their declared goals makes it more likely that we will become an interstellar civilisation, hence their inclusion. This includes groups like the Mars Society and Asgardia; the establishment of a mars colony or an earth orbital colony has clear implications for world ship technology. We do not however, include launch companies, despite the fact they also have relevance to the long-term roadmap; companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin may be included later once they go beyond launch technology and start to demonstrate planetary colonisation capabilities. These decisions will be under review subject to input from others. To take account of the subjectivity involved in what to include or not in this list, we have devised a category code to assign to each group, which is a measure of its focus on interstellar exploration and colonisation, as opposed to interplanetary ventures. The category code is as follows:

[H] = High interstellar focus in the mission of the group, expected to be approximately greater than 50% of the groups activities through explicit studies.
[M] = Moderate interstellar focus in the mission of the group, expected to be approximately greater than 25% of the groups activities, if not then through implicit studies.
[L] = Low interstellar focus in the mission of the group, where interstellar capabilities is mostly implied by the groups work.

In the list below we try to include some of the essential information about the group or organisation, inluding its name, legal status, mission, location, key founders, dates founded and its active status. Where it exists we also provide a link to the groups web site. The chart below shows the number of groups active at any time based on the best information we have managed to obtain.

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2020…

Interstellar Research Group, formerly Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. Founded: Aug 2020.

2019…

Limitless Space Institute, Mission: “inspire and educate the next generation to travel beyond our solar system and to support the research and development of enabling technologies”. People: Founded: Brian ‘BK’ Kelly, Harold ‘Sonny’ White, Kam Ghaffarian, Carl ‘Ray J’ Johnson, 2019. Status: Active. Access Website [H]
Interstellar Research Centre, Mission: “to conduct research which leads to a greater understanding of the universe, the place of human beings within in, and to visualise the future that awaits us”. A research division of the company Stellar Engines Ltd. People: Kelvin F Long. Founded: Jan 2019. Access Website [H]

2018…

none

2017…

Foundations of Interstellar Studies Workshop (FISW), managed by the Interstellar Research Centre. Mission: “facilitate intellectual discourse in matters relating to the technical challenges of interstellar flight so as to promote theoretical and experimental progress towards the attainment of the interstellar vision”, People: Kelvin F Long, Founded: 2017. Status: Active. Access Website [H]
Interdisciplinary Center for Interstellar Exploration at UCSB, hosted at the Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. Mission: “to develop an interdisciplinary center at UCSB to develop the theory and technology to launch probes, accelerated to relativistic speeds, outof the Solar System, to explore interstellar space and look for life on other worlds”. People: Philip Lubin, Joel Rothman, John Bowers, Jatila van der Veen, Michael Waltemathe. Founded: 2017. Status: Active. Access Website [H]
Asgardia, also known as Space Kingdom of Asgardia and Asgardia the Space Nation. This is a micronation that currently has a satellite in earth orbit and ultimately they want to establish an independent permament settlement on the Moon by 2043. People: Igor Ashurbeyli. Founded: 09 Sep 2017. Status. Active. Access Website [L]

2016…

Estes Park Advanced Propulsion Workshop, held at Estes Park YMCA in the Rockies in affiliation with California State University Fullerton and Space Studies Institute. The focus is on propellant-less propulsion. People: Heidi Fearn and James Woodward. Founded: Sep 2016. Status: Active. Access Website [H]

2015…

Interstellar Group, hosted by Astrophysical Sciences Group, Princeton University, set up by a group of academics to do research on interstellar travel for the Breakthrough Initiatives prior to the launch of Project Starshot. More information is being sought about this group.[H]
Breakthrough Initiatives, Mission: “to explore the universe, seek scientific evidence of life beyond Earth, and encourage public debate from a planetary perspective”, People: Yuri Milner, Julia Milner & Pete Worden. Founded: Jul 2015. Status: Active. Access Website [H]

2014…

Institute for Interstellar Studies LLC, Legal non-profit company in the United States. Mission “to foster and promote education, knowledge and technical capabilities that lead to designs, technologies or enterprise that will enable the construction and launch of interstellar spacecraft”. People: Kelvin F Long, Robert Kennedy III. Founded: 2014. Status: Active. [H]

2012…

Initiative for Interstellar Studies Ltd, Legal not-for-profit company in the United Kingdom. Mission “to foster and promote education, knowledge and technical capabilities that lead to designs, technologies or enterprise that will enable the construction and launch of interstellar spacecraft”. Founded: 2012. People: Kelvin F Long, Rob Swinney. Status: Active. Access Website [H]
100 Year Starship, re-launched under new owners the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence. Access Website [H]
Positron Dynamics, for-profit company based in San Francisco, USA. The company is pursuing theoretically and experimentally the design of a new type of space propulsion based on anti-electrons that may enable fast travel beyond the solar system. People: Ryan Weed, Josh Machacek, Bala Ramamurthy. Founded; 2012. Status: Active. Access Website [H]

2011…

Icarus Interstellar, legal non-profit company in the United States, incorporated in the state of Alaska Set up to pursue interstellar flight this century. People: Richard Obousy, Andreas Tziolas, Kelvin F Long, Pat Galea, Adam Crowl, Robert Freeland. Founded: 2011. Status: Active. Access Website [H]
Stellar Engines Ltd, Founded: 2011. Status: Active. Access Website [M]
100 Year Starship, US government competition run by NASA and DARPA. It was won by three organisations as a single team (i) Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence (ii) Icarus Interstellar (iii) Foundation for Enterprise Development. People: Oct 2011. Status: Closed 2012 after competition ended and IP/award transferred. Founders: Pete Worden and David Neyland. [H]
Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (TVIW), Founded: 2011. Status: Active. [H]
Starship Century, association of people that supports participation in the interstellar community from the proceeds of a published book affiliated with NASA/DARPA 100YSS meeting in 2011. People: James and Gregory Benford. Status: Active. Access Website [H]
Eagleworks Laboratories, or Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory, research division of NASA Johnson Space Centre, US. People: Harold ‘Sonny’ White. Founded: 2009. Status: Active under LSI (2016). [H]
Innovative Advanced Concepts Program, NASA program for development of far reaching, long-term advanced concepts. This was essentially a revised NIAC program. Founded: 2011. Status: Active. [M]

2009…

Richard Obousy Consulting LLC, US for profit company. People: Richard Obousy, Location: Texas. Founded Mar 2009. Status: Active. [M]
Project Icarus Study Group, International research group designing a starship based on fusion fuel. It originated out of the British Interplanetary Society. Eventually led to the formation of Icarus Interstellar in 2011 and then diverged from it later. People: Kelvin F Long, Richard Obousy. Founded: 2009. Status: Active. [H]

2007…

Horizon Aerospace Research, UK association. Mission “pursue interstellar spaceflight”, People: Kelvin F Long, Location, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Founded: 2007. Status: Closed 2008. [H]
Lifeboat Foundation, a legal non-profit incorporated in the US. Mission: “dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the singularity”. It was created from an earlier group called ‘alliance to rescue civilization’ which had plans to estabilsh a record of the human species on the Moon. People: Eric Klien. Founded: 2007. Status: Active. Access Website [L]

2006…

Tau Zero Foundation, US non-profit company. Mission: “develops the technologies required for human flight to other star systems within a single lifetime. We see that interstellar flight is possible within physics we know now, and we work to make it practical. We take an incremental approach, focusing on steps we can take today, to develop breakthrough propulsion physics, improve and lower costs for energy requirements, propulsion technologies for precursor missions, robotic probes and to participate in the near term developments of human space flight capabilties”. People: Marc Millis. Location, Ohio, USA. Founded: 24 Apr 2006. Access Website [H]

2005…

Parkin Research LLC, for profit company in the US. Mission: “invent game-changing technologies in the field of astronautics and reduce them to practice”. People: Kevin Parkin. Location: San Francisco. Founded: 2005. Access Website [M]

2001…

Ad Astra Kansas, US non-profit company. Mission: “advance the Kansas state motto by promoting space science and education in Kansas”. People: Jeanette Steinert. Location: Kansas, USA. Founded: 2001. Status: Active. Access Website [M]

1998…

Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), NASA program for development of far reaching, long-term advanced concepts. Managed by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) a private non-profit corporation in Washington D.C. Mission: “creating breakthroughs, radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts”. Founded: 1998. Status: Ended 2007 but restarted in 2011. [M]
Mars Society, US non-profit company. The organisation seeks to “organize public outreach with the aim of fostering a deep interest in mars; promote broad international support for government-funded mars research and exploration; and advocate the establishment of commercial space ventures that will help achieve mars exploration and settlement”. People: Robert Zubrin. Status. Active. Access Website [L]

1997…

Society for Life in Space (SOLIS), also known as The Interstellar Panspermia Society. Mission: “dedicated to securing and expanding life in space through directed panspermia”. People: Michael Mautner. Founded: 1997. Status. Active. Access Website [H]
Living Universe Foundation, the organisation was formed as the evolution of the earlier First Millennial Foundation after its founder had exited. Although it was a non-profit legal entity the board allowed it to lapse in 2003 due to the lack of activity and it became an unincorporated association in the state of Colorado. People: Tom Hanson….Founded: 1997. Status. Active. Access Website [M]

1996…

Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program, NASA funded program. People: Marc G Millis. Founded: 1996. Status: Closed 2002. [H]

1991…

Interstellar Propulsion Society, People: Marc G Millis, Robert Forward, Robert Frisbee. Founded: 1991. Status: Closed 1992. [H]
EarthTech International Inc, for-profit company in Austin, Texas, USA. Mission: “Shaping the future by innovating breakthroughs that inspire new modes of space transportation and new sources of energy”. Striving to be an innovative leader in breakthrough energy and propulsion physics to advance the frontier of space exploration. People: Hal Puthoff, Eric Davis: Founded: 1991. Status: Active. Incorporates the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin so is the same organisation. Access Website [M]

1990…

Space-Coupling Propulsion and Power Working Group, NASA research group based at Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center). People: Marc G Millis, Founded: 1990. Status: Closed 1991. [H]
Vision-21: Space Travel for the Next Millenium, organised by NASA Lewis Research Centre, Ohio, USA, first meeting held 3-4 Apr 1990. Chairman Marc Millis, Geoffrey Landis.

1987…

First Millennial Foundation, became a full legal non-profit in 1992. It was set up to execute on the plan detailed in the book ‘The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps’. Principal Leader: Marshall T Savage. Launched 1987. Status: The group was wound up in 1997 after Savage quit, but it evolved into the Living Universe Foundation. [M]

1985…

Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, for-profit company in Austin, Texas, USA. Pursues ideas related to energy generation and space propulsion. People: Hal Puthoff: Founded: 1985. Status: Active. Later incorporated under EarthTech International Inc in 1991. Access Website [M]

1984…

The SETI Institute, Mission: “explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe, and to apply the knowledge gained to inspire and guide present and future generations”, Founders: Thomas Pierson and Jill Tarter. People: 1984. Status: Active. Access Website [M]

1980…

The Planetary Society, Mission: “empowering the world’s citizens to advance space science and exploration”, Vision: “know the cosmos and our place within it”, People: Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, Louis Friedman, US non-profit based around Pasadena, California. Founded: 1980. Status: Active. Access Website [M]

1977…

Space Studies Institute, Mission: “to open the energy and material resources of space for human benefit within our lifetime”. People: Gerard K O’Neill. Founded: 1977. Status: Active. Access Website [L]

1975…

L5 Society, People: Carolyn Meinel, Keith Henson, Gerard K O’Neill. Launched: 1975. Status: merged with National Space Institute to form National Space Society in 1987. [L]

1933…

The British Interplanetary Society, Mission: “to promote and advocate for advances in astronautics”. Founded: 1933. Status: Active. Access Website [M]

Collection of organisation Logos Below:-

The logos are listed in approximate chronological order, with the newest ones at the top and the oldest ones at the bottom.