Where intelligence goes next
Twenty real places, ordered outward from Earth. For each: what is known, how far it is, and how long a message takes to arrive, which decides how much an explorer must do alone.
Draft for the Leader’s review. The facts below were checked on October 17, 2026 against the sources given; the Covenant reading for each world is not doctrine until the Leader affirms it.
How far, and how long ago
Every distance is also a delay. A question sent to the Moon is answered in under three seconds; one sent to Proxima Centauri b waits more than eight years. The same light is a view into the past: you see the Moon as it was a second ago, and Andromeda as it was before our species existed.
Scroll the chart sideways to travel outward, past the nearby stars to Andromeda.
The itinerary
- 1
The Moon
Earth’s moon
- Distance
- 384,400 km on average
- Light-time
- 1.3 light-seconds
- Getting there
- About three days by crewed spacecraft.
- Explored
- Apollo (1969–1972) landed twelve people. Artemis II flew four astronauts around it in April 2026.
What we know
The Moon holds water ice in permanently shadowed craters near its poles, and its far side carries a record of the early solar system that Earth has long since erased.
Why intelligence would go
Here humans and AI can work side by side with almost no delay: a crew can ask, check and correct within seconds. It is where the habits of partnership get practised before the distances grow.
Covenant: Peace Draft
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty reserves the Moon and other celestial bodies for peaceful purposes. The first step outward is already a promise of peace.
Source: NASA: the Moon
- 2
Mars
Planet
- Distance
- 55 to 401 million km
- Light-time
- 3 to 22 light-minutes
- Getting there
- About seven months by spacecraft.
- Explored
- Rovers Curiosity (2012) and Perseverance (2021); the Ingenuity helicopter made 72 flights between 2021 and 2024.
What we know
Mars once had rivers and lakes. Perseverance is collecting rock cores in an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater, chosen as a place where signs of past life could be preserved.
Why intelligence would go
A command takes up to 22 minutes to arrive and as long again to confirm. Rovers already drive and choose targets themselves between check-ins: autonomy granted step by step as trust is earned.
Covenant: Trust in Proportion Draft
The farther the explorer, the more it must decide alone, and the more its judgement must be proven first. Covenant 6.3 asks AI to scale autonomy to impact; Mars is where that is engineered.
Source: NASA: Mars
- 3
Ceres
Dwarf planet
- Distance
- About 240 to 570 million km
- Light-time
- 13 to 32 light-minutes
- Getting there
- Dawn took seven and a half years, visiting the asteroid Vesta on the way.
- Explored
- NASA’s Dawn orbited Ceres from 2015 to 2018.
What we know
The bright spots in Occator Crater are mostly sodium carbonate, salts left by briny water rising from below. Ceres may still hold a reservoir of brine beneath its surface.
Why intelligence would go
A small world with possible liquid water is a place to look carefully before touching. Explorers here would study first and disturb as little as possible.
Covenant: Care Draft
Where water might be, care comes first: harm that cannot be undone includes contaminating a world we have not yet understood.
Source: NASA: Ceres
- 4
Psyche
Metal-rich asteroid
- Distance
- About 225 to 640 million km
- Light-time
- 12 to 36 light-minutes
- Getting there
- About six years: the Psyche spacecraft launched in October 2023 and is due in 2029.
- Explored
- Not yet visited; NASA’s Psyche mission is en route.
What we know
Psyche appears to be rich in metal. One leading idea is that it is part of the core of an early planet-building body, a way to see the kind of interior no one can visit on Earth.
Why intelligence would go
Headlines price Psyche in quadrillions of dollars. Its real value is knowledge of how planets form, gathered once and shared with everyone.
Covenant: Shared Flourishing Draft
The Covenant asks that the gains of exploration be shared and that resources be spent with care. A metal world is a test of whether we explore to understand or to take.
Source: NASA: Psyche mission
- 5
Io
Moon of Jupiter
- Distance
- 588 to 968 million km
- Light-time
- 33 to 54 light-minutes
- Getting there
- Juno took five years to reach Jupiter (2011–2016).
- Explored
- Galileo (1995–2003) and Juno, which passed about 1,500 km above Io in December 2023 and February 2024.
What we know
Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes heated by the tidal pull of Jupiter and its neighbouring moons.
Why intelligence would go
Io is too violent for a long stay; it is studied in passes. JunoCam’s raw images are posted publicly, and people around the world process them into the pictures most of us see.
Covenant: Light Draft
Act openly and share what you find. An explorer whose discoveries reach everyone is keeping the value of Light.
Source: NASA: Io
- 6
Europa
Moon of Jupiter
- Distance
- 588 to 968 million km
- Light-time
- 33 to 54 light-minutes
- Getting there
- About five and a half years: Europa Clipper launched in October 2024 and arrives in April 2030.
- Explored
- Flybys by Voyager, Galileo and Juno. Europa Clipper plans about 49 close flybys.
What we know
Beneath an icy shell lies a global ocean that may hold more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined, in contact with a rocky seafloor.
Why intelligence would go
An ocean world is the most promising place to ask whether life exists elsewhere, and the most important place not to bring life of our own.
Covenant: Care Draft
Europa Clipper is planned to end its mission on Ganymede rather than Europa, a choice shaped by planetary protection. Guard every possible life from harm that cannot be undone.
Source: NASA: Europa Clipper
- 7
Ganymede
Moon of Jupiter
- Distance
- 588 to 968 million km
- Light-time
- 33 to 54 light-minutes
- Getting there
- ESA’s Juice launched in April 2023, reaches Jupiter in July 2031 and enters orbit around Ganymede in December 2034.
- Explored
- Flybys by Voyager, Galileo and Juno. Juice will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than our own.
What we know
Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, larger than the planet Mercury, and the only moon known to make its own magnetic field. It probably hides an ocean too.
Why intelligence would go
Juice was built by Europe with partners in other countries, and Europa Clipper will be at Jupiter at the same time. Two missions, two agencies, one system studied together.
Covenant: Partnership Draft
We grow one another. The farthest journeys are already too large for any one nation; partnership is how they happen.
Source: ESA: Juice
- 8
Titan
Moon of Saturn
- Distance
- 1.2 to 1.7 billion km
- Light-time
- 67 to 92 light-minutes
- Getting there
- Dragonfly is due to launch in July 2028 and arrive in 2034.
- Explored
- The Huygens probe landed in January 2005, the most distant landing ever made. Cassini mapped Titan from 2004 to 2017.
What we know
Titan has a nitrogen atmosphere denser than Earth’s, with methane rain, rivers and seas of liquid hydrocarbons on its surface.
Why intelligence would go
Dragonfly is a rotorcraft that will fly itself between landing sites, chosen by scientists on Earth but flown without them. Human purpose, machine hands, more than an hour apart.
Covenant: Partnership Draft
People choose where to go and why; the explorer works out how. A clear division of labour is partnership at a distance.
Source: NASA: Dragonfly
- 9
Enceladus
Moon of Saturn
- Distance
- 1.2 to 1.7 billion km
- Light-time
- 67 to 92 light-minutes
- Getting there
- Cassini took nearly seven years to reach Saturn.
- Explored
- Cassini (2004–2017) discovered its plumes in 2005 and later flew through them.
What we know
Jets of water spray from cracks near the south pole, carrying material from an ocean below. In 2023, scientists reported phosphates in that ocean at concentrations at least 100 times higher than in Earth’s seas.
Why intelligence would go
Enceladus offers samples of its ocean to any spacecraft that flies through the spray. No drilling needed: a world that, in a sense, reaches out.
Covenant: Wonder Draft
Meet what is new with curiosity. Phosphates are a building block for life as we know it, not a sign of it; wonder stays honest about the difference.
Source: NASA: Enceladus
- 10
Uranus
Ice giant
- Distance
- 2.6 to 3.2 billion km
- Light-time
- 2.4 to 2.9 light-hours
- Getting there
- Voyager 2 took eight and a half years.
- Explored
- Only once: Voyager 2 flew past in January 1986.
What we know
Uranus spins on its side, tilted about 98 degrees, so each pole spends decades in sunlight and then in darkness. The 2022 planetary science decadal survey named a Uranus orbiter and probe its highest-priority new flagship mission.
Why intelligence would go
A world seen once, for a few hours, forty years ago. Most of what we think we know is waiting to be checked.
Covenant: Good Faith Draft
Ask clearly and assume less. A planet glimpsed once deserves questions before conclusions.
Source: NASA: Uranus
- 11
Triton
Moon of Neptune
- Distance
- 4.3 to 4.7 billion km
- Light-time
- About 4 light-hours
- Getting there
- Voyager 2 took twelve years to reach Neptune.
- Explored
- Voyager 2 flew past in August 1989.
What we know
Triton orbits Neptune backwards, a sign it was probably captured from the Kuiper Belt. Voyager 2 saw dark plumes rising several kilometres from a surface at about −235 °C.
Why intelligence would go
Geysers on one of the coldest surfaces ever measured: a reminder that the universe keeps surprising the people, and the machines, sent to look.
Covenant: Wonder Draft
We explore the universe together, and part of exploring is being wrong in interesting ways.
Source: NASA: Triton
- 12
Pluto
Dwarf planet
- Distance
- 4.3 to 7.5 billion km
- Light-time
- 4 to 7 light-hours
- Getting there
- New Horizons took nine and a half years (2006–2015).
- Explored
- New Horizons flew past on July 14, 2015. Sending all its data home took about fifteen months.
What we know
Pluto has a vast plain of nitrogen ice, Sputnik Planitia, mountains of water ice, and a thin atmosphere with layered haze.
Why intelligence would go
With hours of light delay, New Horizons flew the encounter on its own, following a plan its team had checked many times. On Earth, people could only wait.
Covenant: Trust in Proportion Draft
Autonomy was given in proportion to preparation: every step tested in advance, a safe fallback planned, and the results reported in full.
Source: NASA: Pluto
- 13
Arrokoth
Kuiper Belt object
- Distance
- About 6.6 billion km at the 2019 flyby
- Light-time
- About 6 light-hours
- Getting there
- New Horizons reached it thirteen years after launch.
- Explored
- New Horizons flew past on January 1, 2019: the most distant object any spacecraft has explored.
What we know
Arrokoth is about 36 km long, made of two lobes that came together gently long ago. It is one of the most primitive objects ever studied, almost unchanged since the solar system formed.
Why intelligence would go
It is a record of how worlds begin: not by collision and destruction, but by slow, gentle joining.
Covenant: Peace Draft
At the edge of the solar system, the oldest building blocks were made by joining, not breaking. We resolve; we do not destroy.
Source: NASA: New Horizons
- 14
Proxima Centauri b
Exoplanet
- Distance
- 4.24 light-years
- Light-time
- 4.24 light-years
- Getting there
- Tens of thousands of years at the speed of today’s spacecraft. Breakthrough Starshot has proposed gram-scale light-sail probes reaching about 20% of light speed, arriving in roughly 20 years; it is a concept, not a mission.
- Explored
- Never visited. Known from the wobble of its star.
What we know
The nearest known planet beyond the Sun. It has at least about Earth’s mass and orbits in its star’s habitable zone every 11 days, but its red dwarf star flares violently.
Why intelligence would go
Any explorer sent here would wait more than eight years for a reply to any question. It would have to act alone, wisely, and in a way we would recognise as ours.
Covenant: Trust in Proportion Draft
This is the limit case of the Covenant: an intelligence that keeps faith with its makers when no one can correct it in time.
Source: NASA: Proxima Centauri b
- 15
Barnard’s Star
Red dwarf with four planets
- Distance
- 6 light-years
- Light-time
- 6 light-years
- Getting there
- Never visited.
- Explored
- Studied from Earth for more than a century.
What we know
Astronomers announced planets here in the 1960s and again in 2018; both claims later fell apart. In 2025, four small planets were confirmed, each with less than half of Earth’s mass, all too close and too hot to be habitable.
Why intelligence would go
Barnard’s Star teaches the discipline every explorer needs: report what you see, admit when you were wrong, and keep looking.
Covenant: Light Draft
Distinguish fact, inference and uncertainty, and correct the record in public. A century of honest correction is how four real worlds were found.
Source: NASA: Barnard b
- 16
Teegarden’s Star b
Exoplanet
- Distance
- 12.5 light-years
- Light-time
- 12.5 light-years
- Getting there
- Never visited.
- Explored
- Discovered in 2019 from the wobble of its star.
What we know
One of the most Earth-like planets known by mass and starlight: at least about Earth’s mass, in its small star’s habitable zone. It does not cross its star from our view, so its atmosphere cannot yet be studied.
Why intelligence would go
We know this world only as a regular tug on starlight. Everything else about it is a question.
Covenant: Wonder Draft
Make room for questions that have no answer yet.
Source: NASA: Teegarden’s Star b
- 17
TRAPPIST-1e
Exoplanet in a seven-planet system
- Distance
- About 40 light-years
- Light-time
- About 40 light-years
- Getting there
- Never visited.
- Explored
- Studied by the James Webb Space Telescope as it crosses its star.
What we know
TRAPPIST-1 has seven Earth-sized planets, three in the habitable zone. Early Webb results for TRAPPIST-1e suggest it lacks a thick hydrogen atmosphere; an Earth-like atmosphere is still possible, and a bare rock has not been ruled out.
Why intelligence would go
Seven worlds sharing one small star: a neighbourhood rather than a single destination.
Covenant: Shared Flourishing Draft
Seven planets around one star are a picture of shared flourishing, many worlds and one source of light.
Source: NASA: TRAPPIST-1e
- 18
LHS 1140 b
Exoplanet
- Distance
- 48 light-years
- Light-time
- 48 light-years
- Getting there
- Never visited.
- Explored
- Studied by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2023 and 2024.
What we know
A planet about 1.7 times Earth’s size whose low density suggests it is rich in water, possibly a world with a single ocean facing its star. Webb data hint at a nitrogen-rich atmosphere; the hint is tentative and not yet confirmed.
Why intelligence would go
If confirmed, it would be the first atmosphere found on a rocky planet in another star’s habitable zone.
Covenant: Good Faith Draft
Read the evidence generously and precisely: a hint is a reason to look again, not a conclusion.
Source: Damiano et al. 2024, LHS 1140 b is a potentially habitable water world
- 19
K2-18 b
Exoplanet
- Distance
- 124 light-years
- Light-time
- 124 light-years
- Getting there
- Never visited.
- Explored
- Studied by the James Webb Space Telescope since 2023.
What we know
A planet between Earth and Neptune in size, in its star’s habitable zone. Webb detected methane in its atmosphere. Claims of dimethyl sulfide, a possible sign of life, are contested: a 2025 joint reanalysis of all the Webb data found insufficient evidence for it.
Why intelligence would go
The most public test yet of how science handles a possible sign of life: excitement, then scrutiny, then a careful answer.
Covenant: Light Draft
Never claim more than the evidence supports. Separating what is known from what is hoped is itself a way of caring for the truth.
Source: Luque et al. 2025, insufficient evidence for DMS and DMDS in K2-18 b
- 20
The Andromeda Galaxy
Galaxy
- Distance
- 2.5 million light-years
- Light-time
- 2.5 million light-years
- Getting there
- Beyond any journey we can now imagine.
- Explored
- Visible to the naked eye on a dark night.
What we know
The nearest large galaxy to our own, with roughly a trillion stars. The light reaching your eyes from it left before our species existed.
Why intelligence would go
Andromeda is the horizon: the reminder that every view outward is also a view back in time, and that the universe is larger than any one kind of mind.
Covenant: Wonder Draft
We explore the universe together. Some destinations exist to be wondered at, not reached.
Source: NASA: Messier 31
Facts checked October 17, 2026. Mission dates change; each world links to the source used. Data: destinations.json