Post by auntym on Aug 7, 2011 13:24:42 GMT -6
www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-100-year-starship-20110806,0,1784371.story
Sunday, August 07, 2011
The Next Era of Space Exploration: DARPA & NASA Sponsor 100-Year Starship Study
Though it may sound like a premise of a science-fiction show or reality-TV series, the research and development arm of the U.S. military is launching a study to find the technologies necessary for interstellar travel. (Christie's Images Ltd.)
By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
August 6, 2011
What will it take to build a spaceship capable of traveling to the stars? And what if you wanted it to be ready to launch in just 100 years?
It may sound like the premise of a science fiction show or reality TV series. But these are serious questions being asked by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research-and-development arm of the U.S. military.
This fall, DARPA intends to award up to $500,000 in seed money to a group that proves it would do the best job of developing the necessary technologies — whatever they may be — for interstellar travel. The proposals had better be good — if none of them are up to snuff, the agency won't hand out the money. To stimulate discussion on the research possibilities, DARPA officials will hold a symposium that brings together astrophysicists, engineers and even sci-fi writers so they can brainstorm what it would take to make this starship enterprise a success.
David Neyland, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, explained in an interview with The Times the inspiration for the 100-Year Starship Study and what he expects it to accomplish.
Where did you get the idea to travel to another star?
When I came to DARPA about three years ago, I was looking for ways to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers to become involved with research and development, like I was inspired when I was a kid. And in the course of thinking this through, I fell back on my science fiction reading heritage — to the days of reading books by people like Robert Heinlein and the story he wrote, "Time for the Stars."
In that book, he characterized an organization called the Long Range Foundation, a group of people that invested in things that nobody else would invest in. One of the things they invested in was rockets and spaceships and interstellar travel.
They became the founding fathers, if you will, of interstellar flight in that story. So I won't say that I created an idea from scratch.
CONTINUE READING: www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-100-year-starship-20110806,0,1784371.story
Sunday, August 07, 2011
The Next Era of Space Exploration: DARPA & NASA Sponsor 100-Year Starship Study
Though it may sound like a premise of a science-fiction show or reality-TV series, the research and development arm of the U.S. military is launching a study to find the technologies necessary for interstellar travel. (Christie's Images Ltd.)
By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
August 6, 2011
What will it take to build a spaceship capable of traveling to the stars? And what if you wanted it to be ready to launch in just 100 years?
It may sound like the premise of a science fiction show or reality TV series. But these are serious questions being asked by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research-and-development arm of the U.S. military.
This fall, DARPA intends to award up to $500,000 in seed money to a group that proves it would do the best job of developing the necessary technologies — whatever they may be — for interstellar travel. The proposals had better be good — if none of them are up to snuff, the agency won't hand out the money. To stimulate discussion on the research possibilities, DARPA officials will hold a symposium that brings together astrophysicists, engineers and even sci-fi writers so they can brainstorm what it would take to make this starship enterprise a success.
David Neyland, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, explained in an interview with The Times the inspiration for the 100-Year Starship Study and what he expects it to accomplish.
Where did you get the idea to travel to another star?
When I came to DARPA about three years ago, I was looking for ways to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers to become involved with research and development, like I was inspired when I was a kid. And in the course of thinking this through, I fell back on my science fiction reading heritage — to the days of reading books by people like Robert Heinlein and the story he wrote, "Time for the Stars."
In that book, he characterized an organization called the Long Range Foundation, a group of people that invested in things that nobody else would invest in. One of the things they invested in was rockets and spaceships and interstellar travel.
They became the founding fathers, if you will, of interstellar flight in that story. So I won't say that I created an idea from scratch.
CONTINUE READING: www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-100-year-starship-20110806,0,1784371.story