Space Research

There are a few well-established institutions searching for extraterrestrial intelligence and identifying life-sustaining satellites:

Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (http://www.seti.org/) - monitors and analyzes electromagnetic waves from space searching for signs of intelligent design in cosmic radiation.

Kepler (http://kepler.nasa.gov/) - a NASA-funded program currently seeking proposals designed to search out earth-sized planets with the ability to support life.

Terrestrial Planet Finder (http://tpf.jpl.nasa.gov/) - a NASA-funded program that surveyed and produced a list of stars suspected to support life, sorted by probability.

HabCat - a catalog of star systems which conceivably possess habitable satellites developed under SETI.

Christopher is headed to a star known as 18 Scorpii, roughly 45.7 light years from Earth. It is often called our solar twin, as its composition, age, energy output, and topography nearly mirror our own. It is one of the top ten candidates identified by the TPF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18_Scorpii

To reach 18 Scorpii in any reasonable time, Christopher will require an enormous amount of fuel. Jupiter is the nearest gaseous planet, composed of 88-92% hydrogen and 8-12% helium. This will be Christopher's main source of fuel. Ammonia crystals are present in Jupiter's upper atmosphere and can be used as a navigational propellant.