Thanks to everyone for your incredible support!

We wish to thank everyone for their support of the Project Blue campaign. We'll be able to make important progress towards our technical goals and look forward to having you along for the journey.

And if you're visiting this page for the first time, there are still ways to support Project Blue such as through a direct donation or selecting BoldlyGo as your charity when shopping online at AmazonSmile!

Our Quest to See Blue

Finding the first planet like Earth beyond our Solar System would transform how we think about our place in the universe.

We believe a sister Earth could exist not too far from the place we call home, and that our generation has a unique opportunity to discover it. Ten years ago, we didn’t know if planets like Earth were common in the universe. Then NASA’s Kepler mission launched and discovered thousands of rocky planets orbiting stars, some of which are at a distance from their parent star where liquid water could exist on the surface. It’s estimated that there are more Earth-like planets in the universe than people alive today. Taking a picture of one of these rocky worlds orbiting another star is our next big challenge.

Thanks to recent breakthroughs, the technology now exists to capture a direct image of an Earth-like planet outside our Solar System. That's what we aim to do.

Project Blue brings together a consortium of leading space research organizations and aerospace companies to design, build, launch and operate a small, state-of-the-art space telescope in low-Earth orbit (like Hubble) to search for terrestrial-class exoplanets around our nearest stellar neighbor, the Alpha Centauri system. Project Blue’s goal is to capture an image in light visible to the human eye of any orbiting exoplanets. Seeing a 'pale blue dot' could indicate the presence of oceans and an atmosphere on such a planet, possibly with the potential to support life. It would be our first view of another world like our own. With a modest budget compared to other frontier space missions and a planned launch by 2021, this goal is tantalizingly close.

A rendering of the Project Blue space telescope in its low-Earth orbit observing the cosmos.

Today we know that Earth-size planets are common in our Milky Way. But we haven't yet directly photographed a planet like ours orbiting another star. New technological innovations make it possible for us to build a telescope that can locate and photograph a planet over a billion times dimmer than its star — from over 25 trillion miles away! Our goal is to take the first ever optical image of a ‘pale blue dot’ similar to the famous photo of Earth taken by the Voyager probe.

(L) Voyager's 'pale blue dot' photo of Earth from the edge of our Solar System; (R) A simulated image of a photo we aim to take of exoplanets around one of the stars in the Alpha Centauri system. (Credit: NASA JPL / Jared Males)

The Mission

With advanced optics technology, we’ll use a technique called 'direct imaging' to dim the light from the stars in Alpha Centauri, enabling us to see any surrounding exoplanets. By working in visible light, we hope to gather key details about their composition. Capturing an image of a planet — actually seeing it in visible light — will help us begin to characterize its atmosphere and surface characteristics, especially its potential for oceans.

The ~50-cm (or slightly less than 20-inch) diameter aperture telescope is small enough to fit on a coffee table, but powerful enough to detect a small, rocky exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system. The challenge is like trying to see a tiny firefly buzzing around two feet from a powerful lighthouse light from 100 miles away. And since Alpha Centauri has two bright stars close to each other, we have to suppress the light of both stars. Our specialized starlight suppression system consists of:

1) An instrument called a coronagraph to block starlight, using either the Phase Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) or Vector Vortex technique;

2) A deformable mirror, low-order wavefront sensors, and software control algorithms to manipulate the incoming light and achieve multi-star wavefront control (MSWC); and

3) Post-processing methods, called Orbital Differential Imaging (ODI), to enhance image contrast.

Such a system, including the MSWC and ODI features, has been proposed and published for suppressing the light from Alpha Centauri A and B simultaneously to detect surrounding exoplanets. In order for the telescope to accomplish such an amazing technical challenge, we have to send it to space, where it can operate outside the distorting effects of Earth’s atmosphere. We’ll launch it on a small satellite rocket, such as the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne or Orbital ATK Pegasus, and place it into a low-Earth orbit designed to provide stable conditions needed for making such precise measurements.

Campaign Goals

This mission won't get off the ground without the engineering design activities and scientific research you’ll support. 

We seek to raise $175,000 to get the ball rolling — that means establishing the detailed requirements for the mission, designing the system architecture, and then using computer simulations to test our design. These design and simulation efforts will involve university student participation.

We’ll design the system architecture based on detailed requirements laid out by the Project Blue science team, known as the STAC (Science & Technology Advisory Committee), made up of leading exoplanet researchers. This architecture orchestrates how the telescope, coronagraph, spacecraft bus, and ground system all work together to acquire, store, transmit, and process the pictures that the Project Blue mission will take. After initial design, we’ll run mission simulations to predict performance, and will make a Mission Performance Simulator (MPS) available online for backers to run their own simulations. 

Setting the science requirements: The Project Blue science team will formalize the performance objectives of the observatory, create a science traceability matrix connecting the science goals to the engineering design, and generate a design reference mission. We will then draft the Science Requirements Document (SRD) that details the science investigation strategy and measurement techniques (e.g., achieve a particular contrast ratio to observe an exoplanet within a certain distance from the parent star), and identifies the capabilities, technologies and data processing needed to make the precision measurements.

Complete the opto-mechanical design and request industry letters of interest: Based on the SRD specifications, members of the Project Blue team will build upon our initial work previously published research to generate a medium fidelity end-to-end optical design of the telescope plus coronagraph, including ray tracing with ZEMAX and physics wave propagation for exploring polarization and other aspects of the design. Options for using a PIAA or Vector Vortex coronagraph will be explored. The goal is to have a comprehensive model of the telescope plus coronagraph that will allow the team to assess the system performance under realistic spaceflight conditions. Potential industry partnerships will be assessed through a Request for Information process.

Explore options with a Mission Performance Simulator (MPS): Building on an existing preliminary version, members of the science team will develop software to simulate mission performance as a function of different possible planetary system configurations, telescope primary mirror size, observing wavelength, spacecraft and image control (e.g., jitter, thermal variations), and post-processing algorithms required to distinguish the planet from residual light from the parent star and potential background sources. We will make a version of the MPS available online for interested supporters to conduct their own experiments.

Your support at this early stage is crucial to the overall success of Project Blue and includes you in our mission from the beginning. See our BoldlyGo SpaceBites episode on The Importance of Citizen Science.

Timeline

Because our telescope is customized specifically for observing Alpha Centauri, it will take just a fraction of the money and time of a larger space telescope designed to survey dozens or hundreds of stars.

Project Blue Team

Project Blue brings together scientists, technical experts and resources from BoldlyGo Institute, Mission Centaur, the SETI Institute, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and other institutions. Team members are top experts in the fields of exoplanet research, instrumentation, advanced optical telescope design, and space mission development, and have been working for years on the science investigation techniques and technology that Project Blue will use.

This team brings decades of experience delivering successful scientific programs. While there are challenges ahead and hurdles to overcome, our experienced team, combined with the support of our curious and engaged community of supporters (you!), makes us confident as we tackle this historic goal.

Why Alpha Centauri?

Hubble Space Telescope image of our target stars, Alpha Centauri A and B.

Our scientists will focus their observations on the Alpha Centauri system, Earth’s closest stellar neighbor at only 4.37 light-years away. Home to two stars (Alpha Centauri A and B)  that closely resemble our Sun, Alpha Centauri provides a compelling opportunity for hosting habitable exoplanets. The probability of finding a rocky exoplanet between 0.5 to 2 times the size of the Earth in one of their habitable zones, which can be resolved by the ~50 cm diameter Project Blue telescope, could be as high as 85%.

Artistic rendering of an Earthlike planet orbiting one of the stars in Alpha Centauri. (Credit: ESO/L. Calcada/N. Risinger)

Alpha Centauri is the focus of many publicly and privately funded research efforts in the scientific community because of its close proximity to Earth. When robotic and human exploration venture beyond our Solar System, this will be the first system we travel to — especially if there is a sister Earth waiting to be explored!

Why We Seek Another Earth

Whether you’re captivated by TV and movie far-view visions of space exploration, excited by the emergence of new space companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, inspired by the audacious efforts of the Breakthrough Initiatives, or motivated by Stephen Hawking’s call to expand our presence into space, there is a powerful collective dream to break through barriers, venture into the unknown, and search for meaning in the vast cosmos we inhabit.

“I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space,” writes Prof. Hawking. “We need to inspire the next generation to become engaged in space and science in general, to ask questions: What will we find when we go into space? Is there alien life, or are we alone?”

Project Blue is part of this quest, both to inspire and as a step towards answering whether we’re alone in the universe. Finding a planet similar in its size and orbit to the Earth in the Alpha Centauri system would be truly profound, and could ignite our commitment to journey to the stars. And we believe unequivocally that such exploration brings us together as a people and makes us appreciate even more the precious blue marble that we inhabit and our need to take care of it!

Mission Poster Design Unveiled 

We are excited to introduce the final design of our Project Blue poster designed by Chop Shop! This museum quality and inspirational print is designed for framing, and will look great at home, in your office, or wherever you celebrate space exploration. It also makes a great gift for friends and family. Find it in numerous perks, including the poster perk and the Phase A Swag Bag.

Project Blue in the News

"The potential payoff for this mission would be incredibly profound. By directly imaging another planet in the closest star system to our own, Project Blue could gather vital data that would indicate if any planets there are habitable. [...] If [the mission] should prove to be successful, Project Blue would allow for some of the greatest scientific finds in history." - Matt Williams, Universe Today

“Named Project Blue, the privately funded mission aims to launch the telescope into orbit in just a few years — a tiny amount of time in terms of space telescopes.” - Mary Beth Griggs, Popular Science

“Telescope to Seek Earthlike Planet in Alpha Centauri System” - Kenneth Chang, The New York Times

“Scientists are building a telescope to seek another Earth — and you can help.” - Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post

"The telescope will spy on our interstellar neighbor Alpha Centauri and image any Earth-like planets that might orbit the star system." - Samantha Mathewson, Space.com

Project Blue has received extensive positive coverage and interest from publications including:

FAQs

Why does the Earth look blue from space?

To answer this we happily defer to the eloquent words of Carl Sagan:

"And why that cerulean color? The blue comes partly from the sea, partly from the sky. While water in a glass is transparent, it absorbs slightly more red light than blue. If you have tens of meters of the stuff or more, the red light is absorbed out and what gets reflected back to space is mainly blue. In the same way, a short line of sight through air seems perfectly transparent. Nevertheless – something Leonardo da Vinci excelled at portraying – the more distant the object, the bluer it seems. Why? Because the air scatters blue light around much better than it does red. So the bluish cast of this dot comes from its thick but transparent atmosphere and its deep oceans of liquid water. ”

— Carl Sagan, in “Pale Blue Dot – A Vision of the Human Future in Space"

Image of Earthrise over the lunar surface by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)

What’s so special about Alpha Centauri?

Alpha Centauri, centered directly above the volcano, is a familiar sight to southern hemisphere stargazers. (Credit: Eduardo Bendek, Volcan Villarica, Chilean Patagonia 2016)

• Alpha Centauri is our closest neighboring solar system at only 4.37 light years away. The close proximity allows us to design a small telescope and keep the mission cost down, making our mission more affordable than a project that would use similar technology to conduct a survey of star systems further away.
• Alpha Centauri has two stars (Alpha Cen A and B) similar to our Sun in size, brightness and temperature. This is an incredible opportunity for the Project Blue mission because offers two chances for discovering a planet in a habitable zone.
• Alpha Centauri is the focus of many research efforts because of its proximity to Earth. The quest to detect planets around the Alpha Centauri stars has been ongoing and spans the entire range of detection methods including ‘wobble’ (radial velocities, astrometry), photometric and direct imaging techniques. Project Blue is unique in pursuing a dedicated coronagraphic space telescope mission, but is one of numerous efforts seeking to improve on past attempts.
• A small, rocky planet was recently discovered in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, called Proxima b. Proxima Centauri is the third star in the Alpha Centauri system, though it is much smaller than Alpha Cen A or B. The exoplanet Proxima b was detected indirectly; scientists measured a small ‘wobble’ in the motion of the star due to the gravity of the planet in its orbit. Although Proxima b orbits in the habitable zone of its parent star, the star is such a small, dim star (called a red dwarf) its habitable zone and Proxima b’s orbit are incredibly close — nine times closer than Mercury is to our Sun. This is why Project Blue is not trying to image Proxima b. It would take a much larger telescope to resolve the star from the planet, and not even the largest space telescopes being planned could do so in visible light. But the good news is that we now know that there’s a terrestrial-class planet orbiting one of the stars in the Alpha Centauri system. This makes us optimistic that there could be other rocky planets orbiting Alpha Cen A and B.

What is your strategy for building the complete mission?

With a planned launch in 2021, we aim to construct the Project Blue observatory within a ~$50M budget profile. We believe this is possible by strongly leveraging the advances made in the small satellite industry. The emergence of sophisticated, low-cost private sector space imaging systems for Earth observation along with cheaper access to space through new small launch vehicle providers are highly enabling for Project Blue.

How do you plan to raise the rest of the money?

Project Blue lies at the confluence of bold science, advanced technology, commercial enterprise and increasing private support for discovery research. Our mission has enormous education and public engagement potential, and aligns with national strategic goals for space, including as a pathfinder for future large space telescopes. We’ve already made initial progress in our fundraising, and in the vigorous efforts that we’re embarking on we’ll seek out a broad spectrum of supporters including major research foundations, individual and family foundations, corporate sponsorships, and in-kind partner contributions.

But make no mistake: Even while carrying out other fundraising efforts, we're doing this crowdfunding campaign, and expect to do more in the future, as a means of engaging curious and passionate people who support space science and exploration. This is part of what compels us to pursue this mission and its science. And it’s an exciting prospect that this campaign will play an important role in the initial stages of the mission development.

Are you working with NASA on Project Blue?

Yes! The BoldlyGo Institute  and NASA have signed a Space Act Agreement to cooperate on Project Blue, a mission to search for potentially habitable Earth-size planets in the Alpha Centauri system using a specially designed space telescope. The agreement allows NASA employees – scientists and engineers – to interact with the Project Blue team through its mission development phases to help review mission design plans and to share scientific results on Alpha Centauri and exoplanets along with the latest technology tests being undertaken at NASA facilities. The agreement also calls for the raw and processed data from Project Blue to be made available to NASA within one year of its acquisition on orbit via a publicly accessible online data archive. The Project Blue team has been planning such an archive for broadly sharing the data with the global astronomical community and for enabling citizen scientist participation.

What are the risks and challenges associated with this mission?

• Capturing an image of a planet sounds like a straightforward goal, but it’s an incredibly challenging task. Despite Alpha Centauri’s close proximity and that it presents two opportunities to host planets around Sunlike stars, suppressing the light from a star sufficiently to reveal any orbiting terrestrial class exoplanets ranks as one of the most difficult measurements to make in modern astrophysics. We’re taking advantage of the latest technologies to make it possible, including our telescope and coronagraph design, techniques for suppressing the light from both stars, and sophisticated data processing techniques.
• There may be no planets to be found around Alpha Centauri A and B. The Kepler mission has taught us that exoplanets can be found throughout our galaxy — and small, rocky planets like the Earth appear to be very abundant. Statistical arguments can be used to estimate the probability of finding exoplanets across a range of sizes, say, from 0.5 to 1.5 Earth radii in the habitable zones around Alpha Cen A and B, but ultimately we must play the hand that nature has dealt us. We’re compelled to find out whether there are one or more Earthlike planets around Alpha Centauri, and are heartened by the discovery of a rocky planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, a third, though much smaller, star in the Alpha Centauri system.
• Launching and commissioning a spacecraft is risky — sometimes the unexpected happens. The space environment also presents risks, such as maintaining telescope stability under extreme temperature swings and other hazards. But our team has decades of experience designing and building instrumentation for space, and we will work with experienced industry partners to maximize our chances for success. Dealing with risk is hard, but it’s part of why working on space missions is so exciting and rewarding.

In the spirit of exploration, we approach these challenges head on and are excited to share this journey with you!
 

Note to donors:

Many donor “rewards” are contingent on successful Project Blue construction, launch, operation and direct imaging of any planets, if found, around Alpha Centauri. Any issues or disputes regarding eligibility for and delivery of rewards will be resolved solely by BoldlyGo Institute, Inc. BGI is an IRS-certified 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to scientific research. All donations to this campaign are tax deductible. Reward recipients are solely responsible for any tax implications of the rewards. For U.S. donors the tax deductible portion is the amount of the donation minus the fair market value of any reward that may be received by the donor. If applicable, donors should assume sole responsibility for their own travel expenses associated with attending any event specified in a particular reward, such as the launch or other educational or mission development event or activity.

Thank you for supporting and being part of Project Blue.