NASA researchers are working with renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to build a "nano-starship" that can travel at 60,000 km/s, which is around one-fifth the speed of light.

Hawking announced the project in April. The ship could be designed as a self-healing silicon chip called "StarChip." Hawking has reportedly been joined by a team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology after the announcement of the project.

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If successful, this ship could reach Earth's closest star system, Alpha Centauri, in just 20 years. But the important question is whether the craft would be able to survive a two decade-long trip because, according to researchers, high-energy radiation in space could cause the ship to stop functioning well before the 20-year trip is over.

That is where NASA comes in. NASA has proposed a number of options to solve the issue. The findings were presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco.

Firstly, the route of the flight could be readjusted to avoid the high-radiation areas. But this could add years to the mission and would not necessarily protect the ship from degradation.

Secondly, NASA proposed that the ship could be built with a protective shield. But that would add to the size and weight which could slow down the remarkable speed of the craft.

Thirdly, NASA researchers proposed a self-healing silicon chip, "a technology that has been around for many, many years," said NASA team member Jin-Woo Han in his presentation.

The research is only theoretical, and researchers still have a lot of work to do to address other major problems in interstellar travel.

"The limit that confronts us now is the great void between us and the stars," Hawking said in April. "But now we can transcend it. With light beams, light sails, and the lightest spacecraft ever built, we can launch a mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation."