SMRTR AISep 1, 2026MIT Technology Review

How AI plotted an interstellar journey to Alpha Centauri

SMRTR summary

A nonprofit called the Fermi Explorer Mission plans to launch a $15 million spacecraft toward Alpha Centauri by 2029, using a flight path discovered by an AI system from a startup called Physical Superintelligence. The AI found a creative route using repeated close passes around the sun to build speed, something the human team had missed. The mission also aims to explore why, in a galaxy this old, we have never detected other intelligent life.

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