An initial crew of just 98 people might be all that is needed to survive a trip to another star. It turns out this is the minimum number needed to maintain a healthy population during a six-millennia-long trek to Proxima Centauri b , the closest Earth-like exoplanet.

Imagining such a mind-bending scenario led Frédéric Marin, an astronomer at the University of Strasbourg, France, to simulate the long-term population dynamics of people living in a starship.

His computer model takes into account biological factors like fertility rates, life expectancy, and even the …