Spacecraft designed that could reach solar system 25 trillion miles away

The spacecraft, called Chrysalis, would be around 58 km (36 miles) in length

Have you ever heard of Alpha Centauri? It's the star system closest to our own, and engineers now think they could make a spacecraft that could take people there in the future.

But, there's a twist - it would be a one way trip!

The journey would take around 400 years, so people would spend their entire lives on the spacecraft and it would be their descendants who eventually arrive at the new solar system.

Alpha Centauri is an incredible 25 trillion miles (40 trillion kilometres) away, so the majority of the potential passengers would only know life on the spacecraft.

Alpha Centauri on the left, is the closest star system to the Sun

It sounds more like the plot of a sci-fi film than real life, and there are currently no plans to actually construct the spacecraft.

The design was made as part of a competition for scientists to think of ways that people could carry out interstellar travel.

This entry - called the Chrysalis project - won first place.

The team behind it have estimated that if they were to make it in real life, around 2,400 people could live on the spacecraft, and it could theoretically be constructed in 20 to 25 years.

The project would require initial generations of ship inhabitants to first live in and adapt to an isolated environment in Antarctica for 70 to 80 years to make sure they could cope with life on the craft.

What would the journey to be like?

The design suggests that people could live in tall columns with lots of floors that could be used for different things

Chrysalis would be designed to house several generations of people.

As many passengers would be living onboard for their entire lives it wouldn't be any ordinary spacecraft - more like a city in space.

The design has plans for everything from parks, schools, hospitals and libraries to farms, gardens, homes and warehouses.

They've even thought about how they could grow two different kinds of forest and provide the right environment for insects and livestock, as well as other kinds of food production.

After the vessel eventually reaches the Alpha Centauri star system, it would then shuttle people to the surface of a planet known as Proxima Centuri b - which is an Earth-sized exoplanet that experts think could have the right conditions for humans to live on.

Would you like to travel into space? What do you think of travelling to different solar systems?

Let us know in the comments below...