  During the 1970s members of the British Interplanetary Society embarked on a
landmark theoretical engineering design study to send a probe to Barnard's
star. Project Daedalus was a two-stage vehicle employing electron beam driven
inertial confinement fusion engines to reach its target destination. This paper
sets out the proposal for a successor interstellar design study called Project
Icarus. This is an attempt to redesign the Daedalus vehicle with similar terms
of reference. The aim of this study is to evolve an improved engineering design
and move us closer to achieving interstellar exploration. Although this paper
does not discuss prematurely what design modification are likely to occur some
indications are given from the nature of the discussions. This paper is a
submission of the Project Icarus Study Group.
