Textbook: The Physics of Interstellar Travel

A comprehensive guide to the physics of getting an uncrewed spacecraft to nearby stars, suitable for both students and researchers.

What is the physics behind getting a spacecraft to the nearest stars? What science can it do when it gets there? How can it send back data over enormous distances? Drawing on established physics, Coryn Bailer-Jones explores the various challenges of getting an uncrewed spacecraft to a nearby star within a human lifetime. In addition to propulsion methods such as nuclear rockets and laser sails, this book examines critical issues such as navigation, communication, and the interstellar medium. Starting from fundamental concepts, readers will learn how a broad spectrum of physics – ranging from relativity to optics, and thermodynamics to astronomy – can be applied to address this demanding problem. Assuming some familiarity with basic physics, this volume is a comprehensive and self-contained introduction to interstellar travel, and an indispensable guide for studying the literature on deep space exploration.

This book will be published by Cambridge University Press in around March 2026 It will be available both as open access as a PDF (ISBN: 9781009700429) and to purchase in printed form (ISBN: 9781009689328). Click here for the table of contents.

For many years I have taught an undergraduate lecture course on this topic at Heidelberg University (see here). I will next teach this as a seminar course in summer semester 2026.

I have also published a couple of papers on this topic. The first concerns the use of the sundiver concept to accelerate a solar sail to a large escape velocity. The second looks at using a stellar catalogue to enable us to navigate autonomously within interstellar space using relatively simple measurements.