63 rd International Astronautical Congress, Naples, Italy. Copyright ©2012 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved. IAC-12-D4,1,7,x15192 Page 1 of 7 IAC-12-D4,1,7,x15192 INTERSTELLAR MISSION TO LALANDE 21185: POSSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE Ugur Guven University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, drguven@live.com Gurunadh Velidi University of petroleum and Energy Studies, India, guru.velidi@live.in Seetesh Pande Individual Collaborator, India, seetesh.pande@gmail.com Pavan Kumar Nanduri University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, nanduri.pavan@gmail.com One of the driving forces of mankind is the “le r`eve d'etoiles" or the “dream of stars", which has been the dynamo of our civilization. Since the beginning of the dawn of the civilization, mankind has looked upon the heavens with wonder and he has tried to understand the meaning of those twinkling lights. As human history has progressed, the understanding of those twinkling lights has progressed, as we now know a lot of information about stars. However, the dream of stars or the dream of reaching those stars always remains within the expectations of mankind. In fact, the needs of the civilization constantly drive for better knowledge and the capability of reaching those stars is one such way that knowledge and exultation can be achieved. This paper takes a futuristic case study of an interstellar mission to Lalande 21185, which is approximately 8.3 light years away from us. In terms of galactic distances, 8.3 light years is not much, but as far as present space technology capabilities are concerned, it is next to impossible for us to reach those distances. Several studies have been conducted on various missions to Alpha Centauri and other nearby stars such as Barnard's star and Wolf 359. However, taking a more distant star such as Lalande 21185 will help test the mankind's drive for interstellar exploration, as exotic means of travel are needed. This paper will take a futuristic case study of the event and various possibilities of space travel will be discussed in detail. Comprehensive tables and graphs will be given, which will depict the amount of time that will pass at each mode of travel and more importantly some idea on the cost in terms of energy as well as money will be discussed within today's context. In addition, prerequisites to an interstellar mission to Lalande 21185 will be given in detail as well as a sample mission which will take place to that particular destination. Even though the possibility of such a mission is probably nonexistent for the 21st century, it is essential to do these exercises so that mankind's understanding of the universe will be increased. In addition, this paper hopes to establish some general guidelines for such an interstellar mission. I. INTRODUCTION “Le R`eve D'etoiles" or the Dream of Stars has been a major dynamic force which has propelled mankind forward since the dawn of the civilization. Even with ancient civilizations such as Babylonians, Assyrians, Mayans and Egyptians; the stars always represented a means of reaching far into the heaves as the twinkling stars represented heavenly light and serious astronomical work was done in order to understand the meaning behind the stars [1]. Today, we know for a fact that billions of stars or more exist in our galaxy alone and it is hard to calculate the total number of stars, which may be present in the universe. Naturally, especially with the advancements after the second half of the 20 th century, it has become a realistic dream of mankind to visit those stars someday. While the idea of visiting stars has become a very common concept for the purview of science fiction; the real science is quite far behind achieving these objectives. Within today’s standards, even achieving a manned flight to any destination beyond the destination of Moon is a very important challenge, since it requires quite advanced mission planning that incorporates things such as protection from radiation exposure on prolonged missions, life support requirements such as food, water and exercise for multi year missions as well as sufficient power sources with backups to provide power for the internal systems of the spacecraft. Naturally, the objective is to make sure that the mission can be concluded within an acceptable time frame as every extra day that is added to the mission stage will cause severe problems with the above concepts and too long a period can easily cause the mission o be cancelled all together. Thus, as from above requirements, it can become almost impossible to mount a mission that can require several years to complete.