I just binge watched this on Netflix and I knew the premise sounded familiar. I wonder if this series was inspired by the Frederik Pohl short story "The Gold at Starbow's End"? First published in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, March 1972. It also was also published in magazine form as "Alpha Aleph" and expanded to a complete novel, Starburst, in 1982. Here's a quick synopsis of the story.
http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf1033
Not really--after all, Fred Pohl's ship actually went somewhere. There was simply no planet there when they got where they were supposed to be going. Pohl's 1972 story was later expanded into a full-length novel, which was published in 1982 under the name Starburst.
This mini-series is, however, a clear rip-off of a tale called Thirteen to Centaurus (1962) by J.G. Ballard. It's been much published and shouldn't be difficult to find if you're interested in looking it over.
It is common knowledge that "Ascension" was inspired by famous Soviet 1974 movie called "Big Space Voyage". While "Ascension", being conceived as a series, expands a lot on the original, the core idea is the same. Several recognizable shots in "Ascension" are deliberately staged to pay homage to the original.
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