100-Year Starship initiative gains Bill Clinton

100-Year Starship initiative gains Bill Clinton

www.msnbc.msn.com

Former President Bill Clinton has lent his support to the 100-Year Starship initiative, a project started by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ) to research interstellar travel.

Interstellar travel will be necessary if humanity ever hopes to visit another habitable world. More than 800 planets have been discovered beyond our solar system, with some of them potentially hospitable to life.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
100yss.org
www.gizmag.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Is NASA Covering Up the 100-Year Starship? (just out)

This is just the start and don't be surprised if it all came together sooner than you might think. All we have to do is come up with is something entirely new in relation to our current technological curve.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) may already have what we need in one of the hidden black budget projects they have. I don’t believe DARPA would back something like this unless they truly believe it’s currently possible with some kind of technology that they already know about but are keeping from the public.


www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm all for it, provided bill and Hillary are on it when it leaves.

Excellent idea, this will make disclosure so much more simple!

Originally posted by JIMC5499
I'm all for it, provided bill and Hillary are on it when it leaves.

Bammy and Marie Antoinette should also go. Let them ride on the hull as shielding against meteorites.

Originally posted by JIMC5499
I'm all for it, provided bill and Hillary are on it when it leaves.

You know all Clinton is thinking about is gettin with some freaky green space chicks!
He's gonna go all Captian Kirk on the galaxy!

reply to post by meticulous


I believe that humanity takes small steps when going forward in terms of evolution. It takes a bit of time - generations even - to study a hypothesis, fund the technology and develop it to the point it's efficient, and then find out brave souls to pioneer these exploration adventures.

Personally, I hope this is the start of a movement where Earth is no longer a big limitation on humanity. While researching and working on the problem of space exploration and travel, we can find out solutions to other problems down here.

And even if we don't find them, there will be hope for travel to a better place. The same philosophy and goodness spirit that fueled the exploration of our own planet.

I miss the days when Sci-Fi magazines, and even popular magazines, were all about "going out there", exploration, adventure and that awesome sense of humanity being capable to achieve anything.

Not what we have today. The celebrity gossip, the always negative news, the constant fear and suffering demonstrations.

We need hope again. True, unbiased, inspirational...hope.

Originally posted by tvtexan

Originally posted by JIMC5499
I'm all for it, provided bill and Hillary are on it when it leaves.

You know all Clinton is thinking about is gettin with some freaky green space chicks!
He's gonna go all Captian Kirk on the galaxy!

I did not have sexual relations with that Alien!!!

You want conspiracy theorists/anti-establishment communities to support a govt. initiative that will swallow up a whole lot of money?

Make sure it has something to do with outer space!

Originally posted by meticulous


This is just the start and don't be surprised if it all came together sooner than you might think. All we have to do is come up with is something entirely new in relation to our current technological curve.

Yeah should be any year now.
This is exciting to talk about. We always imagine in the future of how cool it will be to travel space in massive ships. But I think im right in assuming not alot of people give a thought to the initial talks and plans that go into it decades earlier. That laying of the foundation being right at the start is something good to hold on to since were not going to buying tickets for a holiday on mars any time soon.

Bill Clinton's one single demand was....

The ship must be built in the shape of a cigar..

So what they are saying is we've had the tech for a good while now, We just figured we go ahead and tell you, since we have found something else that makes this look like childs play..

Originally posted by GarrusVasNormandy
reply to post by meticulous

 

...The same philosophy and goodness spirit that fueled the exploration of our own planet...

How'd that "philosophy and goodness spirit" work out for the Inca? The native Americans? Anyone, really, on the receiving end of that "philosophy and goodness spirit" of exploration throughout our history?

Sorry for being so snarky. I guess I could be misunderstanding what you meant to say. And I am all for our exploring and settling other planets and areas of space. We should do it as soon as possible, in fact, because until we get all of our eggs out of this one basket - Earth - we are at risk of being wiped out by anything from a big rock from space to some new super bug or disease.

I just think we should go into it with our eyes fully open and fully cognizant of the consequences to our actions.

I think the more correct term should be: "100 year ship in 100 years."

The current and obvious problem with our space program (in any league) is that the overwhelming majority of its R&D is done terrestrially.

That needs to change if we want to see any meaningful advances.

That means establishing more accommodating facilities on the moon (in comparison to the ISS; where the complete lack of gravitational influence wreaks havoc on our biology and, most importantly, waste excretion process) aimed at personnel support and construction.

From there, we move to larger platforms (a few kilometers in diameter) with centrifugal gravity simulation that can be used for more permanent manned experiments (those involving zero-G can be done in the center while those attempting to simulate higher G can be extended farther from the center of rotation) and construction. Special purposed ships could be set up to mine and process asteroids and other small bodies of material (preferably - these would be in solar orbit between Earth and Mars, at least the first generation).

Then, using these platforms to construct ships and manage personnel in a far more efficient manner, we could begin setting our sights on "100 year ships" and other such ideas to visit other star systems. Though, hopefully, we have enough sense to send some drones ahead of us at the start of this whole inner-system buildup and aren't sending manned explorations in completely blind.

But the idea of building a 'mobile' (in terms of space), high-endurance self-sustaining ecosystem (no matter how small in scale) that can, conceivably, persist for at least four generations (presuming average age of procreation is 30) while we have yet to create a space station that orbits our own planet capable of sustaining a few individuals for longer than a year at a time (-with- continual resupply; I'm just meaning can people live in the thing for longer than a year without needing to leave).... it's just silly.

Sure - keep your eye on the future... but don't put the cart before the horse.

Originally posted by JIMC5499
I'm all for it, provided bill and Hillary are on it when it leaves.

You gotta be joking, spending that amount of time on a ship with a politician and his wife? I would rather chew my own testicles off

Originally posted by JIMC5499
I'm all for it, provided bill and Hillary are on it when it leaves.

Somebody should pack dog treats for Monica......

reply to post by 35Foxtrot


You did misunderstood what I meant, but I actually agree with all that you are saying.

But, to further explain what I really meant, it was relating to the true scientific endeavour our greatest explorers believed in. I think that what destroyed the relations with native people was the greed that came after the discovery of new territories.

Still, I believe that the wish of getting on a boat, going into somewhere unknown, was a demonstration of scientific and adventurous spirit. They did find out how our world ticked, or at the very least started to really want to find out.

That brought a lot of good things, the world might not be perfect but thing's weren't better centuries ago. We can communicate better, and achieve much more. It's the negativity and bad attitude that needs to go, in my opinion. We should all stick to the good values.

If that made us closer, then going into a new frontier might open our horizons. At least, that's what I hope for.

Space travel is a great idea...

The future of space travel cannot be all about governments and bureaucracies, though. It has to be about excitement and exploration. A whole new, limitless frontier.

I believe that if man is to gain mastery of interstellar travel, wether the mission be a hundred years long, or a colonisation that will take the better part of a thousand years and encompass every habitable rock between here and the galactic core, we will need to radically rethink our approach to propulsion.

With the recent confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson, new oppertunities and new methodologies are going to be presenting themselves to those involved in this project, assuming they have the foresight to recognise them. Because the Higgs bosons primary function (as far as it can be understood at this time) is to provide mass to other particles, controling its behavior may be the key to future space travel.

With a little imagination, it is clear that learning ways to manipulate mass in any given region of space would be a very good trick to learn, as it would allow for Warp Drive like travel through space. Because an increase in mass results in an increase in gravity, it is possible that control of the Higgs would allow future space vehicles to warp space in a way which all trekkies would find familiar, warping space ahead of the craft with an increase in gravity to draw the vessel forward, and an opposite effect behind to push the vehicle from behind as well, riding the wave between these two altered areas.

Currently, the most workable scenarios for near light or light speed travel involves ridiculous ideas like capturing black holes, and using them to do the job, which would require MASSIVE advances in material science, due to the requirement for human occupation of the vessel, meaning that the horrific levels of radiation that would be given off by such a black hole, would have to be shielded or diverted away from the crafts innards, to protect the crew. Currently there are not materials which would allow for this to happen, without resulting in the vehicle being so heavy and cumbersome, that it would have to output far too much thrust to be practical, and use so much energy that its use would sap the very universe to the point of heat death or some such thing.

By more subtle manipulations of space time, using some Higgs derived control factor, I believe the human race might have a better chance of achieving mastery over the byways of space. Rockets, electronic and nuclear propulsion, all of these are far too damned slow to be effective in the long term. Even if this one hundred year craft leaves the solar system, by the time it has gotten anywhere, it will have been overtaken by something using a Higgs derived propulsion system, of that I have no doubt.

What remains to be seen is if the money required to fund either the Hundred Year craft, or indeed the mass manipulator drive system that I am suggesting, can ever be found, or found in our lifetime. Frankly, the worlds financial systems are in such uproar that I would be very suprised if initial funding is anything like as comprehensive as it needs to be to get the job done effectively. If there is going to be a stumbling block in the way of our baby steps into the cosmos, then surely the funding of such a project would be the one to watch. I would HOPE that the human race, and all its regional controlers, understand the importance of this work, for all mankind, and are able to either set aside thier differences in order to make it happen, or at least set aside some funding to make it possible. But in such fractured times as these, I fear that there may be too little cohesion and too much tension to make it a priority for some.

Another poster mentioned that the human race is in desperate need of hope. Travel through the stars alone cannot achieve hope, not without root and branch change in the way governments treat thier people, and the way that people treat thier neighbors, both domestic and foreign. But if we can unify around the core need to explore, and gather round the travelers campfire long enough to realise our similarities, perhaps the craft of the future will be crewed by a focused and united people, united through common purpose, rather than common oppression. THAT is something we can hope for.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Bluntly - the Higgs Boson has yet to be confirmed.

Further - this is another instance of what I called, earlier, putting the cart before the horse.

The number one problem we face as we attempt to broaden our horizons beyond low earth orbit is that of sheer engineering and industrial capability. It's one thing to build a ship on the planet's surface. It's a completely different ordeal to get it into space. The challenges of designing a ship to remain intact within our atmosphere while it attempts to enter orbit are completely unnecessary - particularly since these ships will never again enter an atmosphere (in the majority of cases) - at least not with the intent to survive.

To be accurate, it is not that we have a lack of engineering potential - we have had the technology to 'colonize' space for decades. Not as mystical black projects - but as logical extensions of existing materials and manufacturing technology. We simply never put the focus on developing industry in the void suitable for further expansion into said void.

I hate to rain on everyone's parade - but it's absolutely ridiculous to talk of building space exploration vehicles while we have yet to do so much as build a child's play fort in orbit.

People seem to forget that we never "conquered" the moon. We sent a few boyscouts up there on a two week long trip where they were happy to be constipated and not have to poop into a bag (a problem that has yet to be resolved with space flight - gravity is necessary to properly detach feces from your body).

When you review the "to-do" list we have for practical space travel (to make it even remotely as appealing as the grungy and dirty star wars universe makes it out to be); you begin to see how comical it is that we are even discussing building a space ship. Everything else we've sent into space has been a glorified ballistic missile with people inside.

Our conquest of space is more a testament to the versatility of life as opposed to the accomplishments of man.