Starship Daedalus. Artist's impression of Daedalus, a space vehicle designed in 1978 by the British Interplanetary Society to visit Barnard's Star. The vehicle has a mass of 50,000 tonnes and is powered by nuclear explosions. Frozen pellets of deuterium and helium are released into a 'combustion' chamber 250 times per second. A laser 'ignites' each fuel pellet to create a series of small fusion explosions. The plasma formed by these repeated explosions is released via the exhaust nozzle, providing thrust. With a 450- tonne payload, Daedalus would travel at 12% of lightspeed and take about 50 years to reach its objective some six light years from Earth.