NASA's Radical Propulsion Concept for Interstellar Travel in Record Time.

A new propulsion system called 'pellet-beam' has been proposed that could theoretically send a heavy spacecraft outside our Solar System in less than 5 years, compared to the 35 years it took Voyager 1. The concept involves shooting a beam of microscopic particles at the spacecraft, which would be heated up by lasers and melted into plasma, accelerating the pellets further. The system requires two spacecraft, one that sets off for interstellar space and one that goes into orbit around Earth. The project has been awarded an early-stage NASA grant for further development.