100-Year Starship Project Forges Ahead With First Round of Funding - Polidicks

[QUOTE]An ambitious effort for an interstellar travel planning organization officially kicked off this week, after DARPA awarded $500,000 to form the 100-Year Starship initiative. Former astronaut Mae Jemison, whose proposal was selected earlier this year, will lead the new independent organization. The goal is to ensure that the capability for human interstellar travel exists within the next 100 years. It may not look like the starship Enterprise, but a real interstellar vessel is possible within that timeframe, Jemison said. “Yes, it can be done. Our current technology arc is sufficient,” she said in a statement. In its first year, the organization will seek new investors and develop new ideas for interstellar exploration, the new 100YSS website says. A public symposium is planned for September in Houston, where anyone from engineers to philosophers will be able to present papers and host talks about the challenges of such a project. The 100-Year Starship is not necessarily a ship per se, but an organization that can last 100 years and potentially carry out the vision of a real starship. It will look for input from scientists, engineers, doctors, sociologists, writers (!), ethicists and public policy experts. The 100-Year Starship project also has a new scientific research partner called The Way, an awesomely named spinoff that will focus on “speculative, long-term science and technology,” according to the project. We can't wait to see what they come up with.[/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-05/100-year-starship-effort-launches-first-round-funding[/url]

It'll be something my grandchildren can tell me about when I'm old and have dementia up the ass.

Finally! all they need is money. LOL

This project seems like a good target for funding. But I think that we should focus on more urgent projects. Like that mount Everest poop project.

Well, this certainly dashes my hopes of experiencing interstellar travel within my lifetime... So yay! but also aww...

Not going to happen in the next 100 years. Looking at the advances in propulsion and other necessary technologies from the last 10 years, I can crudely extrapolate that we won't reach anywhere near the level required for reasonable interstellar travel. I'm not even sure we can ever do that(again, in any reasonable/useful fashion). Even at the astonishing speed of .1c it would take about 45 years to reach alpha centauri(and that's if the probe could go in a straight line, in reality space travel doesn't work like that). Communication would take over 4 years per direction and even with gigantic dishes at both ends, bandwidth would be abysmally low. Even if we had the technology(and the patience), the chance of failure would likely be very close to 1.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36057664]Not going to happen in the next 100 years. Looking at the advances in propulsion and other necessary technologies from the last 10 years, I can crudely extrapolate that we won't reach anywhere near the level required for reasonable interstellar travel. I'm not even sure we can ever do that(again, in any reasonable/useful fashion). Even at the astonishing speed of .1c it would take about 45 years to reach alpha centauri(and that's if the probe could go in a straight line, in reality space travel doesn't work like that). Communication would take over 4 years per direction and even with gigantic dishes at both ends, bandwidth would be abysmally low. Even if we had the technology(and the patience), the chance of failure would likely be very close to 1.[/QUOTE] 100 years is a very long time. Who knows what can be invented that jumps ahead of expectations? And even if not, better to aim for 100 years and make it in 150 than to aim for 200 and take 200.

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;36057644]Well, this certainly dashes my hopes of experiencing interstellar travel within my lifetime... So yay! but also aww...[/QUOTE] Nah man, with all the medical advances and possible widespread transhumanism in the near futur, you and me will be able to conquer the stars!

[QUOTE=Scar;36057818]Nah man, with all the medical advances and possible widespread transhumanism in the near futur, you and me will be able to conquer the stars![/QUOTE] When I was little, I use to tell people I'll live forever because right now the life expectancy is 75 and by time I hit 75, it'll be 100, and by time I'm 100, it'll be 120, and by time I'm 120.... :v:

sounds like a good kickstarter project

Can't we just build a shitton of space colonies like in every gundam series?

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36057664]Not going to happen in the next 100 years. Looking at the advances in propulsion and other necessary technologies from the last 10 years, I can crudely extrapolate that we won't reach anywhere near the level required for reasonable interstellar travel. I'm not even sure we can ever do that(again, in any reasonable/useful fashion). Even at the astonishing speed of .1c it would take about 45 years to reach alpha centauri(and that's if the probe could go in a straight line, in reality space travel doesn't work like that). Communication would take over 4 years per direction and even with gigantic dishes at both ends, bandwidth would be abysmally low. Even if we had the technology(and the patience), the chance of failure would likely be very close to 1.[/QUOTE] i really doubt communication with earth is going to be vital for interstellar travel i'm sure they'll have it but i don't see why it would be of any major significance. once they launch they're going to be on their own, and i don't see how anything coming from earth would matter much to them on their trip and i also doubt most of the passengers are going to be awake and moving around during the trip, and most of the crew probably won't be as well. it's not really feasible to imagine that there's going to be pilots manually controlling the ship as it goes through space, and most likely there'll just be a skeleton crew to make sure that nothing is going terribly wrong

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;36057735]100 years is a very long time. Who knows what can be invented that jumps ahead of expectations? And even if not, better to aim for 100 years and make it in 150 than to aim for 200 and take 200.[/QUOTE] The difference between, say, year 1900 and today is that in 1900 we didn't know what would and what would not be possible, whereas today we know enough to form an educated guess about future possibilities. So we can pretty comfortably say that we won't be inventing FTL travel, antigravity, reactionless drives or instant communications, ever. Just the fact that any data from an alpha centauri probe would INEVITABLY take over 4 years to arrive is a quite significant deterrent. Even at a fraction of the distance we would already have essentially ZERO controllability of the probe, necessitating capabilities for completely autonomous action. The faster you want to get there, the more deceleration propellant you need, making the craft heavier and thus needing even more propellant etc. All this on top of the gigantic communications device, ginormous telescopes(and other scientific payload). And to correct the trajectory of this humongous pile of stuff, you need another relatively giant amount of fuel. And then try to make all of it reliable enough to be even considered worth it. In fact, even if succesful, the scientific gains from such a probe would likely be negligible. [QUOTE=Valdor] i really doubt communication with earth is going to be vital for interstellar travel i'm sure they'll have it but i don't see why it would be of any major significance. once they launch they're going to be on their own, and i don't see how anything coming from earth would matter much to them on their trip and i also doubt most of the passengers are going to be awake and moving around during the trip, and most of the crew probably won't be as well. it's not really feasible to imagine that there's going to be pilots manually controlling the ship as it goes through space, and most likely there'll just be a skeleton crew to make sure that nothing is going terribly wrong [/QUOTE] First of all, there's no point for humanity to support a project that couldn't bring back the knowledge to Earth. Secondly, I wasn't even talking about a manned craft. That would bring a whole new slew of extreme problems.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36057664]Not going to happen in the next 100 years. Looking at the advances in propulsion and other necessary technologies from the last 10 years, I can crudely extrapolate that we won't reach anywhere near the level required for reasonable interstellar travel. I'm not even sure we can ever do that(again, in any reasonable/useful fashion). Even at the astonishing speed of .1c it would take about 45 years to reach alpha centauri(and that's if the probe could go in a straight line, in reality space travel doesn't work like that). Communication would take over 4 years per direction and even with gigantic dishes at both ends, bandwidth would be abysmally low. Even if we had the technology(and the patience), the chance of failure would likely be very close to 1.[/QUOTE] A little over a hundred years ago planes were called a 'novel idea that would ultimately have no real-world application' due to their inefficiency. Computers and the television simply didn't exist, and recorded media was a new trend. Diseases were killing off a lot of us. Look at the progress we made in 100 years, and I don't think it is a stretch of the imagination to say the advancements that will be made in the next 100 years is unfathomable to us.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058318]Even at a fraction of the distance we would already have essentially ZERO controllability of the probe, necessitating capabilities for completely autonomous action. [/QUOTE] Actually, one area where it's difficult to predict progress over the next 100 years is stuff like robotics, AI and control systems.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058318] First of all, there's no point for humanity to support a project that couldn't bring back the knowledge to Earth. Secondly, I wasn't even talking about a manned craft. That would bring a whole new slew of extreme problems.[/QUOTE] i never said there wouldn't be any communication, and who cares if there was an unmanned probe that took a while to bring data back to earth? if we're doing it out of curiosity then time shouldn't really be of the essence not to mention i really doubt we'll be able to continue our current rate of resource consumption (which can only continue to grow) for another hundred years on earth alone [editline]22nd May 2012[/editline] sure we'll be able to gather resources from our solar system but if we begin doing that we'll also probably begin interstellar travel as well

[QUOTE=FreakyMe;36058343]A little over a hundred years ago planes were called a 'novel idea that would ultimately have no real-world application' due to their inefficiency. Computers and the television simply didn't exist, and recorded media was a new trend. Diseases were killing off a lot of us. Look at the progress we made in 100 years, and I don't think it is a stretch of the imagination to say the advancements that will be made in the next 100 years is unfathomable to us.[/QUOTE] As I tried to explain in my most recent post, you can't really compare the lack of knowledge of the future 100 years ago to the current situation. Aside from a few fundamental explanations(why is there gravity, nature of dark matter/energy etc.), we pretty much know how the universe works. 100 years ago nobody could say how strong the strongest possible material is. Modern chemistry and material science could probably give a good estimate, thus restricting future innovations. We know of the universal speedlimit, 100 years ago FTL travel was still on the table. [QUOTE=Uber|nooB;36058424]Actually, one area where it's difficult to predict progress over the next 100 years is stuff like robotics, AI and control systems.[/QUOTE] I would say that those areas are just the ones where we can predict the most progress. Still, it'd be difficult to trust an AI to have the judgment of an Earthful of scientists.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058552]As I tried to explain in my most recent post, you can't really compare the lack of knowledge of the future 100 years ago to the current situation. Aside from a few fundamental explanations(why is there gravity, nature of dark matter/energy etc.), we pretty much know how the universe works. 100 years ago nobody could say how strong the strongest possible material is. Modern chemistry and material science could probably give a good estimate, thus restricting future innovations. We know of the universal speedlimit, 100 years ago FTL travel was still on the table.[/QUOTE] you're assuming that we're not going to learn anything new in the next 100 years that's a terrible way to look at it, and people in a hundred years will probably be saying how we didn't know what would and wouldn't be possible

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058552]As I tried to explain in my most recent post, you can't really compare the lack of knowledge of the future 100 years ago to the current situation. Aside from a few fundamental explanations(why is there gravity, nature of dark matter/energy etc.), we pretty much know how the universe works. 100 years ago nobody could say how strong the strongest possible material is. Modern chemistry and material science could probably give a good estimate, thus restricting future innovations. We know of the universal speedlimit, 100 years ago FTL travel was still on the table.[/QUOTE] Who are you to say we won't have any groundbreaking discoveries in the next 100 years that open up new possibilities that make FTL travel possible through some unforeseeable loophole? In the past 100 years we've gone from this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/IZgi2.gif[/img] To this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/0RF63.jpg[/img] Yes, that's a unmanned, autonomous flying plane designed for the atmosphere of [i]another planet[/i]. This thing is actually being worked on. Every generation thought they were at the apex of technology. Yet the stuff we take for granted right now would be seen as impossible then.

[QUOTE=Dr.C;36058152]Can't we just build a shitton of space colonies like in every gundam series?[/QUOTE]two gamefuls of Mass Effect taught me that building colonies in space equals asking for serious trouble

[QUOTE=Valdor;36058583]you're assuming that we're not going to learn anything new in the next 100 years that's a terrible way to look at it, and people in a hundred years will probably be saying how we didn't know what would and wouldn't be possible[/QUOTE] I'm not saying we won't learn anything. We'll definitely learn a lot. What I am saying is that we won't learn enough to make interstellar travel an attainable goal.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36057664]Not going to happen in the next 100 years. Looking at the advances in propulsion and other necessary technologies from the last 10 years, I can crudely extrapolate that we won't reach anywhere near the level required for reasonable interstellar travel. I'm not even sure we can ever do that(again, in any reasonable/useful fashion). Even at the astonishing speed of .1c it would take about 45 years to reach alpha centauri(and that's if the probe could go in a straight line, in reality space travel doesn't work like that). Communication would take over 4 years per direction and even with gigantic dishes at both ends, bandwidth would be abysmally low. Even if we had the technology(and the patience), the chance of failure would likely be very close to 1.[/QUOTE] Quantum entanglement is being worked on right now, instant zero lag communication anywhere.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058690]I'm not saying we won't learn anything. We'll definitely learn a lot. What I am saying is that we won't learn enough to make interstellar travel an attainable goal.[/QUOTE] I don't see why you'd think interstellar travel isn't going to be possible. So far the only restraint you've really given is our current level of knowledge, and given how fast that's growing I wouldn't even think it unreasonable to achieve interstellar travel in under a hundred years. [editline]22nd May 2012[/editline] Sure it won't be perfected by then, but I don't see how you're making the connection that it's impossible.

The Way... wait a second . [IMG]http://t5ak.roblox.com/8ebd86e429b99345b1b52cae101abc48[/IMG]

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058552]why is there gravity[/QUOTE] you really shouldn't speculate on the possibilities of space travel and assert its impossibility when you haven't even taken high-school physics yet

[QUOTE=Novangel;36058734]Quantum entanglement is being worked on right now, instant zero lag communication anywhere.[/QUOTE] No. Quantum entanglement communications are science-fiction. Instant communications are against the laws of physics. Rigorously tested and proven laws of physics. [QUOTE=cccritical;36058908]you really shouldn't speculate on the possibilities of space travel and assert its impossibility when you haven't even taken high-school physics yet[/QUOTE] What? Nowhere in high-school physics, or university physics have I been explained what is the fundamental cause of the gravitational force. We know how gravity behaves, but that's it. If you know something, you're up for a Nobel. Also, what I've been saying since my first post is that interstellar travel won't happen within the next 100 years. I'm not saying it's impossible, or that it will _never_ happen.

[QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058552]As I tried to explain in my most recent post, you can't really compare the lack of knowledge of the future 100 years ago to the current situation. Aside from a few fundamental explanations(why is there gravity, nature of dark matter/energy etc.), [B]we pretty much know how the universe works.[/B] [/QUOTE] Isn't "The more we learn the less we know about the universe" a pretty common thing that scientists say? Or something like it at least. I think you seriously underestimate how little we actually know about how the universe works. [editline]23rd May 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=StackOfPoo;36058909]No. Quantum entanglement communications are science-fiction. Instant communications are against the laws of physics. Rigorously tested and proven laws of physics. [/QUOTE] Our current laws of physics doesn't always apply when you go to quantum level. And Quantum Entanglement is a proven thing. Which actually does have the capability to give instant distance independent communication.

[QUOTE=Joazzz;36058641]two gamefuls of Mass Effect taught me that building colonies in space equals asking for serious trouble[/QUOTE] I have never played Mass Effect, what has it taught you about space colonies that is asking for trouble?

[QUOTE=OvB;36058627]Who are you to say we won't have any groundbreaking discoveries in the next 100 years that open up new possibilities that make FTL travel possible through some unforeseeable loophole? [/QUOTE] Because Einstein's theories have been proven to enough decimal places that any new groundbreaking discovery is about 1000 times more likely to confirm it and thereby make FTL even [i]more[/i] impossible. I'm a real fan of rocket engineering and hard sci-fi, but the 'well a hundred years ago we thought [x] so anything's possible!' argument is not valid. Any new theory that renders relativity (the main obstacle to FTL) obsolete will have to account for the experiments that seemed to demonstrate relativity quite conclusively. Relativity has been shown to be one of the most reliable, predictable, accurate models of the workings of our universe, and the chance of that being magic'd away by a wondrous new discovery is zero. Not even sure why we're talking FTL, going to other planets is a much more important hurdle and equally useful. We all want He-3 miners on the rings of Saturn, don't we? [editline]23rd May 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Fear_Fox;36059054]Our current laws of physics doesn't always apply when you go to quantum level. And Quantum Entanglement is a proven thing. Which actually does have the capability to give instant distance independent communication.[/QUOTE] Quantum entanglement does not actually allow FTL, there's an understandable explanation [url=http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=612]here[/url] that is worth reading.

[QUOTE=Fear_Fox;36059054]Our current laws of physics doesn't always apply when you go to quantum level. And Quantum Entanglement is a proven thing. Which actually does have the capability to give instant distance independent communication.[/QUOTE] it doesn't work like that