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The next 50 years of spaceflight will carry many
challenges and surprises for explorers hoping to extend their reach into
the cosmos. But it will also likely hold untapped riches for space
science and spinoff technology that could, one day, catapult human and
robotic explores beyond our own solar system and outward to other stars.
CREDIT: NASA/Glenn Research Center
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Shooting for the stars will first require a lot of down-to-Earth elbow
grease, as NASA's new 100-Year Starship project illustrates. The effort,
to journey between stars in the 2100s, began with a workshop and now is
in the study phase.
NASA's Ames Research Center and the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) are collaborating on the $1 million 100-Year Starship
Study, an effort to take the first step in the next era of space exploration.
The study will scrutinize the business model needed to develop and mature technologies needed to enable long-haul human space treks
a century from now. Kick-started by a strategic planning workshop in
January, the project has brought together more than two dozen farsighted
futurists, NASA specialists, science fiction writers, foundation
aficionados and educators.
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But for the moment, put aside all those Vulcan mind melds and get a grip. Launching a truly interstellar human voyage is a goal that will require sustained investments of intellectual and financial capital from a variety of sources.
"The year-long study aims to develop a construct that will incentivize
and facilitate private co-investment to ensure continuity of the lengthy
technological time horizon needed," according to DARPA thinkers.
Self-sustaining enterprise
Dave Neyland, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said that
the 100-Year Starship name was chosen because it would require a
long-range sustainable effort to get our species to other stars.
"Looking at history, most significant exploration, like crossing oceans
or continents for the first time, was sponsored by patrons or groups
outside of government," Neyland said in a DARPA statement. [Video: Warp Drive and Wormholes]
Neyland said that the focus of the endeavor is to identify a mechanism
that gets such a long-range project "out of the government, and make
sure it is an energized and self-sustaining enterprise."
The mission of the workshop was to steer efforts to develop a business
model, establish a charter and develop the organizational construct
needed to affect a long-term strategy. Over the course of two days,
participants met and thrashed out the requirements for seeding research
that would enable interstellar flight. Planning is underway for follow
on-activities, with the study scheduled for completion by the end of
2011.
The long-haul starship plan
One participant in the workshop was former NASA scientist Marc Millis, a
leading authority on breakthrough propulsion physics concepts that
might make interstellar hops a doable proposition.
"The meeting and the DARPA funding is about creating an organization
that could last for 100-years, rather than about the technological and
sociological advancements necessary toeventually create starships,"
Millis said. "In fact, the funding is not allowed to be spent on any
research or educational activities related to interstellar flight, but
instead can only be used to define that organization. As much as I
really like the name, '100-year starship,' this study should instead be
called the '100-year organization study.'"
Millis pointed out that the overall goal of the organization is to
sustain research that will lead to the creation of a starship in roughly
100-years, and to inspire students along the way. By asking
“why-what-how,” it was hoped to flesh out some substance to define that
organization, he said.
An interstellar challenge
"I find this new initiative to be more of a self-serving earmark using
good-old-boy networking," Millis told SPACE.com of the study.
He said leaders of the new study need to first consider what other
organizations have done in the past and are now accomplishing, such as
the Tau Zero Foundation, the British Interplanetary Society and The
Planetary Society.
Millis said that, as head of the Tau Zero Foundation, he picked the
topic of interstellar flight "to seek game-changing advancements beyond
what others even contemplate and to operate beyond the entrapments of
all the competition and legacy constraints of nearer-Earth space
activities. And now those entrapments are encroaching into the progress
being made on interstellar flight."
"I challenge DARPA/Ames to a fair and open competition," Millis said.
"If given the same amount of funding, labor, and time, let’s see who can
make more progress toward the real challenges of interstellar flight!" [Vote: The Greatest Space Innovators of the 21st Century]
Unforeseen breakthroughs
Another workshop attendee was Harry Kloor, an author, scientist and
science technology consultant whose has written for "Star Trek: Voyager." Kloor said there should be no rush for the project, but that its aim should be true.
"There are a lot of steps between now and then," Kloor told SPACE.com. "Nobody came forward with the idea that we won’t be trying to reach for the stars. If you don’t aim for it, how are you ever going to hit the target?"
Kloor’s crystal ball calls for unforeseen breakthroughs … be they in
medicine, communications, lifespan extension, radiation survival, data
transport, even energy generation.
"Also, I’m banking on within five years, 10 years at the most, that we will find nearby, say within 20 light-years, an Earth-like planet."
Given such an eye-opening discovery, Kloor said that public
consciousness will change. By finding such a nearby habitable world,
humanity could then start to envisage the feasibility of a stellar trek.
"It will be the same as when people were imagining what’s on the other side of our world," Kloor said.
Kloor considers interstellar travel a necessity.
"If we don’t eventually spread out – I’m not saying tomorrow or even
100 years – but if we don’t get off planet it is inevitable that we
would go extinct, just like the dinosaurs," Kloor said. "Either a
natural or unnatural event will occur that will wipe us out."
In terms of the recent 100-Year Starship study strategic planning
workshop, Kloor saw the gathering as laying the seeds of future efforts
that could lead to something.
"The point of the workshop," Kloor concluded, "was to start the conversation moving forward."
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more
than five decades. He is past editor-in-chief of the National Space
Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines and has written for
SPACE.com since 1999.
To overcome space travel challenges for exploring the cosmos, we will need to develop technologies for propulsion in deep space in order to overcome the inherent limits of the current expelling-mass rockets.
One option that I think could produce initial results in order travel in deep space is the phase-shifted electrodynamic propulsion. http://tinyurl.com/nuclear-fusion-starship
What we would need at Earth to start this:
1. An artificial intelligence (AI) that is capable of independent decision making and able to control the ship as well as worker robots.
2. An artificial womb to take the DNA as computer code, convert it to a fertilized egg and nurture it to full term.
3. A propulsion system. Lots of options here: perhaps an initial boost with expendable rockets, followed by on board engines to get the ship out far enough to use a light sail powered by lasers on the Moon.
4. The ship itself. It would need multiple redundant systems, especially for the DNA code. However, since there would be no life support system, the size of the ship would be much smaller. It would need a shield to protect the ship as much as possible, perhaps a combination of a magnetic/electric field and armor to stop the particles that are not moved by a magnetic/electric field.
When the ship arrives, the solar sail is deployed to act as an initial brake, followed by aero braking in the atmosphere of the outer planets and final braking by the onboard engines.
The AI would find a suitable asteroid and mine it for material to make a space station in orbit around the planet. The artificial womb would then create the first generation of people as well as plants for a hydroponic garden for food.
The first people would be raised by the AI, so it would have to be able to be both mother and father to the children. As the first generation matures, they would take over the role of parents.
Since the DNA of the people would need to be converted to code, genetic defects might as well be edited out at this time. Assuming the 'nature vs nurture' issue has at least some of the personality from nature (e.g. DNA has an effect on personality), it might be best to edit the DNA so that the first generation have personalities suitable for close contact with others i.e. no 'loners'.
The planet will need to be studied in great detail to determine if Earth life can survive and whether or not it will need to be terra formed. That process can be done from the space station while the population of the settlers is growing.
After that planet is well established, the next wave of ships can be sent on to colonize the star systems farther away from Earth.
I see step 2 as potentially the hardest. Nanotechnology is just beginning to be developed, so that has the most unknowns. If this proves too difficult, then fertilized eggs with a LOT of shielding could be sent.
Tom :)
What we would need at Earth to start this:
1. An artificial intelligence (AI) that is capable of independent decision making and able to control the ship as well as worker robots.
2. An artificial womb to take the DNA as computer code, convert it to a fertilized egg and nurture it to full term.
3. A propulsion system. Lots of options here, perhaps an initial boost with expendable rockets, followed by on board engines to get the ship out far enough to use a light sail powered by lasers on the Moon.
4. The ship itself. It would need multiple redundant systems, especially for the DNA code. However, since there would be no life support system, the size of the ship would be much smaller. It would need a shield to protect the ship as much as possible, perhaps a combination of a magnetic/electric field and armor to stop the particles that are not moved by a magnetic/electric field.
When the ship arrives, the solar sail is deployed to act as an initial brake, followed by aero braking in the atmosphere of the outer planets and final braking by the onboard engines.
The AI would find a suitable asteroid and mine it for material to make a space station in orbit around the planet. The artificial womb would then create the first generation of people as well as plants for a hydroponic garden for food.
The first people would be raised by the AI, so it would have to be able to be both mother and father to the children. As the first generation matures, they would take over the role of parents.
Since the DNA of the people would need to be converted to code, genetic defects might as well be edited out at this time. Assuming the 'nature vs nurture' issue has at least some of the personality from nature (e.g. DNA has an effect on personality), it might be best to edit the DNA so that the first generation have personalities suitable for close contact with others i.e. no 'loners'.
The planet will need to be studied in great detail to determine if Earth life can survive and whether or not it will need to be terraformed. That process can be done from the space station while the population of the settlers is growing.
After that planet is well established, the next wave of ships can be sent on to colonize the star systems farther away from Earth.
I do like the forward thinking in regards to this project. It's what space exporation needs. Sure we are no where near doing this now, but it's a workable goal. Sure new technologies will have to be invented, but that is also how we got to the Moon, "within the decade."
You probably mean "interstellar" travel; however it did just occur to me that travel to a distant Milky Way cluster or quadrant (instead of a specific star) could be considered "intragalactic" travel...
Not sure who it is, but someone on this site has a tag that reads "Let the Meek inherit the Earth, for the Bold will inherit the Stars."
Relying on our former arch enemy to put our own astronauts in space is completely unacceptable. All money should go to developing US manned launch vehicles either with Dragon or other commercial operators or under NASA with it`s options like Orion(and it`s commercial providers). We must take things step by step. If you want to see humanity live in space and travel enormous distances, then we first solve all the smaller problems with missions within our Solar System. Like Long term Health/Radiation Protection, Large Energy power sources like large Nuclear space modules, Growing large amounts of Foods in Space, etc..etc..All these things are a requirement for a Moon or Mars base as well. So lets`s first invest our money within our Solar System. Not on far away dreams while we continue to fall further behind the rest of the world. Even India is now working on it`s manned launch vehicle. So get your head out of the sand and support a realistic approach.
However, they all suffer the "Botany Bay" problem. The timescales are so long that any mission launched now will be overtaken by a missiion launched 10, 20, 50, or 100 years from now when better propulsion is devised. However, if you keep thinking that way, you will never launch a mission at all.