PEP Assignment 1

Written by

lawrencel

in

For this project me and my group decided that we will be targeting our exploration towards the Proxima Centauri B which is a n exoplanet orbitting the dwarf star Proxima Centauri. When it comes to the specific reason of why we are selecting contains these categories below

1: Human Exploration

Proxima Centauri B is only 4.24 light years away from us, making it the closest potential habitable exoplanet. Moreover, it is Earth sized and rocky, there are promising water resources on this planet and most importantly, it is considered as the most promising candidate for supporting life beyond Earth.

2: Potential

Proxima Centauri b has a solid surface instead of gas. Furthermore, it is located at a habitable zone from the star which is also known as the “Goldilocks Zone” where the temperature is just fine for Liquid water to exist and for human as well. It is located 7.5 million km away from it’s star, Although the distance between Proxima Centauri b and it’s star is much smaller than the distance between Earth and Sun but considering the point that it’s star is a dwarf star which release less energy and heat which will make it suitable for biological activity as well

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What Opportunities present themselves on PCb

The most valuable opportunity that appeared on this planet is mostly exploring resources that can develop human’s technology level

1: Resource development and Scientific investigation

While exploring the planet it is possible that we can find valuable resources. Some of them might actually adress to problems we have on Earth currently. Moreover, as a planet formed near a “Red Dwarf” We can have some furtherexploration on Red dwarf stars to expand our knowledge in order to have a better understanding of the universe.

2: Potential life out of the Solar system

When it comes to exploring a planet, I think the point that everyone cares about is whether there are life appearing on that planet, especially when the target is Proxima Centauri b. According to the ALMA radio telescope, detecting the dust belt, and it seemed like there might be delivery of water. Furthermore, PCb is very similar to Earth in terms of size and that gives a posibility of having solid surface and even Oceans

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What chllenges will I face

1: Distance

Distance is one of the most significant aspect of the challenge for this plan, how to bring human to a place that is 4 light years away from us

2: Radiation

As stated that Proxima Centauri b is located near a red dwarf star which will likely be emitting solar flares that is extremely deadly.

3: Tidal Lock

Due to the distance between the two stars, there might be a tidal lock scenario. This means that the planet stops spinning and only one side gets star light while the other side don’t which will cause extreme weathers.

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How to design the vehicle

1: Radiation shielding

Due to the problem of radiation, a good method is to add a Radiation shield to protect the human and the mechine from the high radiation environment and ensure that all the machines will be working, I would suggest using lead and synthetic polymers to help protect the vehicle stops operating due to the strong radiation and more importantly to protect human from the strong radiation that will be likely causing serious damage towards our body.

2: Temperature and cross- country setting

First of all, it is extremely siginificant to have thermal material to lock the heat in from flowing out in order to keep the instruments in the vehicle work instead of collapsing in extrmeme temperatures, moreover is to keep human warm and safe from some extreme weathers. Additionally, it is definitely cruecial to design the vehicle with the speciality of cross country. Since there isn ‘t any road obviously, therefore, the condition of the surface we are moving cannot be determined. In this case, a strong, reliable system that can endure harsh roud conditions is neccessary.

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How we know about the planet

1:European southern observatory’s telescopes in Chile

This is the first human telescope that actually discovered this planet and concluded that it is 4.24 light years away from us by using a radical velocity method. They also establish the conclusion that the distance between Earth and Proxima Centauri is the closest exoplanet from us. Moreover, they also identified the flares and chromospheric activity of the star and that gives the scientist a hypothesis of the possibility that an exoplanet might be orbitting it.

2: Pale Red Dot project

This is a project launched to prove the existence of Proxima Centauri b and they soon confirmed the theory that said that an exoplanet orbitting the Proxima Centauri b does exist by using the HARPS which is also known as the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher which is a part of the ESO telescope.

3 Sources

A project determined the radius, the internal structure and indentified what kind of planet PCb is. Another project simulated how the planet will work with some variables.

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APA format citation

Brugger, B., Mousis, O., Deleuil, M., & Lunine, J. I. (2016). Possible internal structures and compositions of Proxima Centauri b. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 831(2), L16. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/831/2/L16

Cermak, A., & Cermak, A. (2025, July 30). Proxima Centauri b – NASA Science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/proxima-centauri-b/

[email protected]. (n.d.). The Pale Red Dot campaign. ESO. https://www.eso.org/public/images/ann16002a/

Martin, P. (2019, January 21). Planet Proxima Centauri b. exoplanet.eu. https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/proxima_centauri_b–4042/

Noqtis. (2025, March 4). Proxima Centauri b: Earth’s nearest exoplanet neighbor. Starvium. https://starvium.com/planets/proxima-centauri-b

Wikipedia contributors. (2025, November 13). Proxima Centauri b. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri_b

Wu, Y., & Wang, Z. (2024). Progress in ionizing radiation shielding materials. Advanced Engineering Materials, 26(21). https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202400855

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Use of AI

CHATGPT

Comments

2 Responses to “PEP Assignment 1”

  1. mcrompton Avatar
    mcrompton

    OK, Lawrence. From my perspective, this isn’t bad but it lacks detail and really needs proof reading. You have a long list of articles that I hope you have read, but most of the information in your post seems to come from your first AI chat question. I like that you followed up with questions like asking it to explain the concept of a planet being tidally locked, but I think that you can go deeper. It meets the minumum requirements for the assignment but I would like you to fix two things. Please proof-read your post. You could use AI to do this. I would give the AI the url to your post, and ask it for suggestions to fix the writing in your post. Don’t ask it to re-write the post. You learn nothing that way, but do ask it for suggestions and help. Secondly, your bibliography has to be in alphabetical order by author’s last name. Please fix that. Your current first article is written by European Southern Observatory, not [email protected] and was released on Janury 15, 2016. You can make that particular citation better! Once you’ve made these adjustments, please resubmit.

    Reply
    1. mcrompton Avatar
      mcrompton

      OK. While not perfect, you have cleaned up a lot of the grammar issues and your post is much easier to understand. I would encourage you to continue to use AI in the future to help proof-read your writing before you publish.

      Also, the citation for “[email protected]” is this:

      European Southern Observatory (2016, January 15). The Pale Red Dot campaign. https://www.eso.org/public/images/ann16002a/

      Reply

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