U.S. Agency Wants to Pay You for a Plan to Send People to the Stars

Source

A government agency that helped invent the Internet wants to award an organization $500,000 in seed money to begin studying what it would take to send people to the stars.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, wants a study that would take a look at what it would take organizationally, technically, sociologically, and ethically to send people to a star, the New York Times reported.

NYTimes

Send robots first, build space stations along the way. Where's my 500 thousand dollars?

Interesting enough the date for the grant award is 11/11/11.

I'm not going if the accomodation is less than a Galaxy class accomodation level.
Although we might need a planetwide evacuation soon or later.

Seriously though, it's too dangerous for humans to do it the first time, robots are definitely a requirement. But what kind of robots, remote controlled robots, or autonomous robots? If it's remote robots, mankind has to invent interstellar communication technologies first. This is highly recommended, anyway.

there have been a few reward schemes like this in the past.. for individuals or organizations to build/design, rockets/spacecraft.. i cant think of a specific example but there have definitely been a few..

Okay, I have a suggestion. It's cheap, elegant and solves two problems at once.

Recreate this experiment: Up Up and Awayyyyy!

Okay, re-run the experiment from above with a throne fit for a king afixed to the top of the steel plate. Invite your favorite politician to take a load off and relax. They do so much hard work, don't they?

Politely excuse yourself...move off to a safe distance and watch history made!

Thanks (deep bows to all) I'll take that in Euros and Dollars please, delivery instructions to follow.


Seriously though... Aren't we about 4 decades beyond the point where they should just START asking this in serious ways? It seems to me the HOW is not a real hard question. Any one of us can probably sketch out a solid and viable plan with minor corrections from someone who knows the field. It's the WILL to actually DO it we seem to have lost all together.

Originally posted by Misterlondon
there have been a few reward schemes like this in the past.. for individuals or organizations to build/design, rockets/spacecraft.. i cant think of a specific example but there have definitely been a few..

I had to star this b/c for some reason I was thinking the same thing: these type of schemes are routinely announced every 6 months or so...keyword: scheme. I don't know if the government actually awards the money or if they just plain steal the ideas.

Best way I can see and given this company made the internet would be to create some sort of network in space. Communication on other celestial bodies, space stations, resource hot spots along the way. Solar power would only be a reliable power source until we get farther from the sun. Robots would have to pave the way most likely as well.....this is just at first thought though without taking much of anything into consideration.

Who needs robot's, when you have a faster than light starship on your hands. It has to be a simple scientific equation somewhere in somebody's [ space aliens?] mind; for us to be able to build a flying saucer capable of breaking the speed of light barrier for interstellar travel.,

Cheers,

Erno86

Couple of quotes from the same NYT story- by Dennis Overbye-

nytimes.com/science

Science News. Space Shuttle News - Space... New York Times


"The awarding of that grant, on Nov. 11-- is planned as the culmination of a yearlong Darpa-NASA effort called the 100 year Starship Study, which started quietly last winter and will include a three-day public symposium in Orlando Fla., on Sept. 30 on the whys and wherefores of interstellar travel.

The agenda ranges far beyond rocket technology to include such topics as legal, social and economic considerations of interstellar migration, philosophical and religious concerns, where to go - perhaps most important - how to inspire the public to support this very expensive vision.

But there are plenty of reasons that humans will eventually summon the political will to make the trip, scientists say, if not for human restlessness that has taken us out of the caves and across the oceans, than to escape being wiped out when the killer asteroid appears or the Sun boils the oceans, which it will do in a couple of billion years.

Another lure could be the discovery of a habitable planet elsewhere."

I should say so its all over the internet

Look the last person that wanted to do this was Tesla.
And look how far he got.
These people are taking our jobs for no good reason.

I just might book a flight to the Sept. 30, Orlando, Fla. three day public symposium meeting. It sounds exciting!!!

Still... I might have to put up with the "giggle" factor.- LOL

Foofighter's

Erno86

Originally posted by TeslaandLyne
I should say so its all over the internet

Look the last person that wanted to do this was Tesla.
And look how far he got.
These people are taking our jobs for no good reason.

Can you please explain why- "These people are taking our jobs for no good reason."

Thanks,

Erno86

Originally posted by Misterlondon
there have been a few reward schemes like this in the past.. for individuals or organizations to build/design, rockets/spacecraft.. i cant think of a specific example but there have definitely been a few..

Theres been lots of these and a notable one that ive seen is the xprize, saw it a few years ago on discovery.

space.xprize.org...

Originally posted by Erno86

Originally posted by TeslaandLyne
I should say so its all over the internet

Look the last person that wanted to do this was Tesla.
And look how far he got.
These people are taking our jobs for no good reason.

Can you please explain why- "These people are taking our jobs for no good reason."

Thanks,

Erno86

No one knows how space travel is done.
If some one says the right thing, which the suppressive agents know already,
they will not be awarded a thing.

check here

they dare not mention Tesla and they will get paid for not mentioning him. Figure it out, the Tesla waves move gases and soon enough they can not be moved and the ship moves. Thats the way to go through space.

ED; Perhaps its an agent payoff scheme.
They have been writing non science for so long they need ever more money.