‘…[H]ere in Orlando, not far from the launching site of the space program’s most triumphant achievements, the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, drew hundreds this month to a symposium on the 100-Year Starship Study, which is devoted to ideas for visiting the stars.
Participants — an eclectic mix of engineers, scientists, science fiction fans, students and dreamers — explored a mix of ideas, including how to organize and finance a century-long project; whether civilization would survive, because an engine to propel a starship could also be used for a weapon to obliterate the planet; and whether people need to go along for the trip. (Alternatively, machines could build humans at the destination, perhaps tweaked to live in non-Earth-like environs.)…’ (via NYTimes)
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Related:
- 100 year Starship Symposium considers mankind’s next step (charlotte.news14.com)
- DARPA’s 100-Year Starship Study sponsors research for interstellar travel (geek.com)
- These Are the Voyages… (Very OT) (theonlinephotographer.typepad.com)
- The 100-Year Starship: US Agencies Ponder Interstellar Travel (space.com)
- Visionaries gather to ponder 100-year starship (msnbc.msn.com)
- Starships In a Century? (science.slashdot.org)
