Project Icarus is an ambitious five-year study into launching an unmanned spacecraft to an interstellar destination. Headed by the Tau Zero Foundation and British Interplanetary Society, a non-profit group of scientists dedicated to interstellar spaceflight, Icarus is working to develop a spacecraft that can travel to a nearby star.

Andreas Tziolas, secondary propulsion lead for Project Icarus, overviews the general Icarus mission timeline, with a focus on the secondary propulsion techniques that will be required to support the fusion-propelled interstellar vehicle.

To appreciate the wide range of systems needed for in interstellar mission, let us consider a nominal profile for Icarus. The Icarus study is still underway, but we will take a bird's eye view of the mission, keeping in mind the importance of achieving its scientific objectives.

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