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The idea for a 100-year starship has been tossed around recently, and now DARPA the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has put out a Request for Information (RFI) looking for ideas about how a long-term human mission to boldly go out to the stars could possibly happen. It’s been estimated that such a mission would cost over $10 billion, and the idea has gotten $100,000 from NASA and $ 1 million from DARPA – which means that as of now it is just that, an idea.
Pete Worden, the Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center announced the idea last fall, and it received plenty of coverage, but not much publicized research on how the idea could possibly come to fruition. Worden optimistically said he expected to see the first prototype of a new propulsion system within the next few years, but that seem unlikely given NASA’s frozen budget and a Congress that doesn’t seem very forward-looking in their vision for what NASA should be doing. But perhaps DARPA’s input could have some leverage.
There would be several technological obstacles to overcome, such as how to create an artificial gravity so that those aboard the ship wouldn’t experience the muscle and bone loss that astronauts on the ISS have after just six months in space. Then there’s how to manufacture food, and create other things the crew might need while they are out in the middle of nowhere. Those are just a few examples of what would need to be dealt with.
But anyway, a journey starts with a single step, and so if you’ve got any ideas, here’s DARPA’s RFI (hurry, you’ve only got until June 3, 2011!):
DARPA is seeking ideas for an organization, business model and approach appropriate for a self-sustaining investment vehicle in support of the 100 Year StarshipTM Study. The 100 Year StarshipTM Study is a project seeded by DARPA to develop a viable and sustainable model for persistent, long-term, private-sector investment into the myriad of disciplines needed to make long-distance space travel practicable and feasible. The genesis of this study is to foster a rebirth of a sense of wonder among students, academia, industry, researchers and the general population to consider “why not” and to encourage them to tackle whole new classes of research and development related to all the issues surrounding long duration, long distance spaceflight. DARPA contends that the useful, unanticipated consequences of such research will have benefit to the Department of Defense and to NASA, and well as the private and commercial sector. The information obtained will be used for planning and acquisition strategy development. DARPA will use the information obtained as a result of this RFI on a non-attribution basis. Providing data and information that is limited or restricted for use by the Government for that purpose would be of very little value and the inclusion of such restricted/limited data/information is discouraged. Responses as a single file in Adobe PDF electronic format can be submitted to [email protected] by 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern Time, Friday, June 3, 2011. For complete details of this notice, please refer to the attachment, “RFI – 100 Year Starship Study“.
On-board counselors to quell an angry crew who were welcomed at their destination by passengers who flew on the more advanced 50-year spaceship.
It’s already been developed. Revive Project Orion! Nuclear pulse and laser powered solar sails (maybe) are only propulsion systems known to create the energy/mass ratio necessary for interstellar travel with technology that will be available in the near future.
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRp3S8OOeZc
Manned interstellar space travel in the near future? Uh….
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
It’s politicians that keep manned interstellar travel from happening because it requires nuclear energy (bombs) for a near future one to fly. Back in the 1960’s, if Project Orion was allowed to continued forward, it would have already been done by now. Only thing not possible with DARPA proposal is only spending $10 billion. Read about it on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) It is totally doable technically.
.
It is fine to be aware of environmental concerns but I for one will not be the least bit concerned about a few microbes if Human Life needs the surface of another world to continue. We have found no particular evidence of life on Mars and I don’t think we need to turn over every rock in order to satisfy the requirement for sensitive human exploration. The whole universe might be pristine without our encroachment but if it serves no one, then have we simply relegated ourselves to our little rock for nothing?
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
There is absolutely no way a space mission of this incredible magnitude would cost 10 Billion. You are not building enterprises here.
Who estimates this stuff? Is it the same contractors as those working on JWST?
As we have discussed countless times here, a project of this enormity could never leave the drawing board. The brief circumstances that lead to the Apollo program have evaporated. It just couldn’t happen. Frankly, this would be such a titanic undertaking that a large chunk of the industrial output of planet would be needed. AIt would be akin to a WWII style industrial/political mobilization – only more global – for what?
We don’t even have a worthwhile destination!
I know what many of you are thinking. Yes it is highly probably we will discover and confirm the existence of Earth analogs. An exciting discovery of these planets might be realistic within a decade or two – much of the technology to get there isn’t. Of course, this didn’t stop the Apollo program when it faced a similar situation in the early 1960’s.
Any manned mission to another star system will probably entail colonization of some sort. Colonization means sending thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of individuals in order to ensure the genetic integrity of the colonizing population. Even assuming we could develop the technology to put a portion of the crew into short term periods of hibernation, that’s still a heck of a lot of resources needed to cart along.
I am not a math expert, but even if we could utilize LC’s sail system, it would still likely need to be an enormous craft – with a huge power source. Not to mention the sub-relativistic impact/radiation shielding and autonomous systems.
This is of course assuming we are sure the destination is worthwhile. Pre-colonization robotic exploratory craft would be prudent. This means decades or centuries of waiting. By the time we are certain say Planet “Sagan” is the best candidate world for colonization, civilization on Earth could be over.
Sorry Sagan.
Some argue the benefits of colonization are not worth it. I disagree – to a point. European discovery of America and access to it’s resources coincided with a period of prosperity and development that continues to this day. However, it was also possible to trade with the Americas. Earth and it’s counterparts will likely have little contact – possibly forever. History can be a tough weather vane.
It would still be something worth thinking about, planning about. Yet make no mistake, such a project would be the most ambitious undertaking ever. Our propensity for singular monolithic projects is not high.
I tend to agree. I doubt anything like this will ever happen. It is just too much, and the scales are too colossal. Also to be honest, if this does happen I suspect that humanity will be long down the path of consuming much of the solar system, except maybe the gas giants. It fits in with ideas about ring worlds and Dyson spheres. I find these ideas to be gateways into silly speculations about “civilization types” one through four or five, where the final # 4 or 5 has us controlling the entire galaxy and some ideas about the entire universe — even creating new universes for ourselves! Hmmm, nope I don’t think so. Frankly it makes me think of a flea crawling up an elephant’s ass with rape on its mind.
LC
I tend to agree. I doubt anything like this will ever happen. It is just too much, and the scales are too colossal. Also to be honest, if this does happen I suspect that humanity will be long down the path of consuming much of the solar system, except maybe the gas giants. It fits in with ideas about ring worlds and Dyson spheres. I find these ideas to be gateways into silly speculations about “civilization types” one through four or five, where the final # 4 or 5 has us controlling the entire galaxy and some ideas about the entire universe — even creating new universes for ourselves! Hmmm, nope I don’t think so. Frankly it makes me think of a flea crawling up an elephant’s ass with rape on its mind.
LC
That’s the first time that I’ve seen you talk dirty!
I bring out the best in people!
It must/will happen, otherwise we are done. Think about what kind of knowledge we will gain in million or billion years or what kind of strategies we will choose to contaminate the universe; individually, massively or artificial womb with genetic material. We will probably try everything. The universe is asking for it just like it orders us to do it. 😀
The fact that you use the word “contaminate” sort of suggests one problem with this. I can see it now “Gusev Crater Condo and Strip-Mall Development.” I tend to ponder whether or not this is exactly the sort of thing I want to see.
As Uncle Fred points out the Apollo lunar program was conducted under rather unique circumstances. The US/USSR rivalry was almost a pure abstraction in a way. The division of Europe in the fall of Nazi Germany did put America and Russia in an eye to eye situation across the Elbe River, but the power balance situation and cold war was based on technical prowess, not on ethnic hatred. What is materializing today is a world that is fragmenting more and more on ethnic and religious hatreds, and this is a much nastier kettle of fish. It is not one which really inspires the sort of grand ideas behind the 1960s space race. It also must be pointed out that our species generally organizes itself into grand programs that involve killing each other in very large numbers, or the preparations for such. The space race of the 1960s was a technological showcase involved with demonstrating a power for political and economic domination of the world and for the ultimate threat of World War III. It was not done out of a noble Star Trek ideal to “Go where no man has gone before.”
That forms certainly one backdrop for a limitation on the space future. The prospects for human footprints on Mars are fading very fast, and America’s return to the moon project is on life support. The Chinese might send a few missions to the moon so they can prove themselves to the world, and they have some incentive to do that. They have some incentive to demonstrate their rising power over the world. The US of A is struggling to hold on to the position it has, and is frankly losing. The Chinese then will send taikonauts to the moon for much the same reason America sent Apollo astronauts to the moon; it’s a matter of demonstrating national power to the rest of the world.
Now scale this up to a problem that is a million times the scale of landing on the moon. Will humanity ever have access to the energy, resources, economy and not to mention the sort of political will to engage in something this grandeur? Are we humans that collectively intelligent, or are we really just 7 billion ground apes on an exponential rampage?
LC
It’s not important which word I use. Contaminate, spread, whatever. With condos and malls on Mars, I don’t know where is the problem, that’d suggest a great progression and that that it’s easy.
Then, you are describing current problems of humanity which are not important. I’m talking about million or billion years. Also, it’s not like that that there must be a war to invent technology. Think about what can be done with cooperation.
Elon Musk wants to put man on Mars in 10 or 15 years. We will see. Then, you are talking about the USA struggling and Chinese rising, what can I say? OK? Where is the problem? Time goes forward and problems will be solved. It’s not like there are only idiots on this planet.
The last paragraph rises some good questions. the first question, yes, no doubt, I don’t believe that we will degenerate forever and the question is if we really are going backwards now. The second one, we have been to the Moon. We have the ability to travel in a space. It looks like we are the final complexity on this planet with ability to travel in a space and there is no need to evolve something much better, but the question is what is a human and what will be considered post-human and if it will be needed. There are mostly people with IQ 100, but it looks like you just need not many people with IQ 150 to go forward, think about Einstein, but there are also people with IQ 200. It looks like we just need a time to develop a better technology.
Well, :D, do you know what is the most frightening thing? You, Mr. LC. 😀 You seem to have a great language and mathematical skills, but with your kind of thinking we are already dead.
You might ask yourself the question whether or not any system that exponentially expands and uses more energy accordingly can persist indefinitely. I think it is highly questionable, and strange attractor physics indicates that such systems at some point enter into chaotic dynamics. These scenarios which have our species exploiting the world, or the universe on ever larger order of magnitudes are not commensurate with much we observe in the world, whether physical or biological. Such trends tend to be attenuated, or as in physics nature abhors diverges and biology exponential population trends eventually collapse. I suppose my way of thinking is that we human beings are not exempt from these types of patterns. It is a minority position, where politics and religion has our species, or our nation, as something unique and extra-natural, or of some divine nature and so forth.
Of course this goes entirely against the socio-economic thinking of our age. It is in a sense bad for business, and capitalism can only work if there is exponential growth. The entire system involves interest rates, percentage rates of shareholder returns and so forth. If that can’t work capitalism as we know it simply would cease to exist. So there are some of these extrapolations which propose we humans will expand further into space, eventually populating space by the billions, maybe even the trillions, and we go exponentially racing onwards. If you calculate this out and assume we figure out how to travel faster than light, our species will consume the entire observable universe in about 5 million years. By consuming it is meant we will convert it into some maximal entropy form. We are doing that already here on Earth. I think it does not take a great leap of thought to presume this will not happen. It is likely the limitations we will run into are coming now, long before we might realize any space colonization fantasy ideas.
It is my suspicion that our species is heading rapidly for a global collapse by the middle of this century or I think certainly before the end of the century. This is unless maybe we have some collective epiphany about our situation here, but I think that is unlikely. Exponential growth is not indefinitely possible in a system or environment that has a finite extent. Exponential trends, such as population growth and the demand for energy and resources time compress things, so our ability to adjust to change is made more difficult. This is seen by the rate that things change and are discarded, where now things that matter have all the meaning and life of a twitter message. Even the rise and fall of nation states and empires has become shorter, where Bronze aged empires lasted a thousand years, and now the US position is tottering after less than a century, China might have a few decades at the top, and then the so called rise and fall of nations will echo Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame. We may already see problems with any prospects for changing the energy basis our civilization depends upon because of time compression. At the same time the stocks of these resources are finite and the demand generation is exponentially ramping up. It does not take a whole lot to think this might result in some sort of serious difficulty — economic collapse, war etc.
The US will not fix its problems. We can’t for the simple reason that we have a political structure which insures that we can’t. I do not particularly want to delve into politics, but the caliber of leadership is questionable and frankly I think we are seeing a rise in the number of people who are borderline personality disordered or out right sociopathic rising to the front these days. We also have a bizarre media system of psychopathic wackos who cheerlead like minded people onwards.
I would not bet a lot of money on Space-X getting boots on Martian soil in 15 years. The Falcon rocket is impressive, and this development has much more prospects for space science than the Virgin Galactic suborbital joyride stuff. However, this is a far cry from getting astronauts to Mars. Space-X could in fact bankrupt itself if it devotes itself to such a Martian effort. Elon Musk should take heed of the Greek tragedies, where the hero after initial victory ends up falling due to their hubris.
LC
The number of people going would not have to be that many. More women than men would be needed but as for ensuring the genetic integrity we could send frozen human eggs and sperm from hundreds of different doners and use artificial insemination on the women who went. The frozen genetic materials would take up alot less space then tens of thousands space pioneers.
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
The number of people going would not have to be that many. More women than men would be needed but as for ensuring the genetic integrity we could send frozen human eggs and sperm from hundreds of different doners and use artificial insemination on the women who went. The frozen genetic materials would take up alot less space then tens of thousands space pioneers.
Where do they state the goal is heading to another star? The goal is a long duration vessel capable of being self sufficient. They don’t need to leave the local system for that. Also, if nobody ever does the research then you are correct, it will never happen. The situation with Apollo was NOT unique. All it takes is people willing to do the research needed to find the solution(s), and once those solutions are found and developed the project can go forward.
No, I’m not saying it will happen in the next decade. However, if we all followed your near-sighted advice, humanity would still be living in mud huts (assuming we had the technology to build them).
The hundred year vessel mission time frame is indicative of more lofty interstellar intentions.
I’m not advocating for stalling progression; I’m just being realistic. To really built this craft would be a colossal project that would need a level of international political and industrial effort never attempted. That’s a hard sell with no clear return other than the technology developed itself.
The Apollo program was very unique. America was on a Cold War footing, in a competitive space race with the USSR, and approaching the heights of its post-war prosperity. Government taxes at the higher income brackets and corporate levels were far higher than today. Perhaps more importantly, the social spending burdens that consume most of government budgets hadn’t began in earnest yet (not diminishing their obvious benefits). Moreover, technology and the future had a more utopian outlook culturally. The ability to start these projects are there industrially, but politics, economics culture and plain historical circumstance has moved on. It’s a constraint on reality we must find a way to progress under.
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
Where do they state the goal is heading to another star? The goal is a long duration vessel capable of being self sufficient. They don’t need to leave the local system for that. Also, if nobody ever does the research then you are correct, it will never happen. The situation with Apollo was NOT unique. All it takes is people willing to do the research needed to find the solution(s), and once those solutions are found and developed the project can go forward.
No, I’m not saying it will happen in the next decade. However, if we all followed your near-sighted advice, humanity would still be living in mud huts (assuming we had the technology to build them).
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
So basically, “I’m no math expert..but there is absolutely no way a space mission of this incredible magnitude would cost 10 Billion. We don’t even have a worthwhile destination! …a project of this enormity could never leave the drawing board.” Nay…nay…nay…nay… Thank Zod, Queen Isabella didn’t have a counselor like you… lol!
Except that Columbus hit upon the Americas by blind luck. The chances of randomly running into an unknown star, having falsely calculated that Alpha Centauri is only one light-year away, are slimmer.
@ Uncle_Fred I think the more to the point purpose of this “project” is to foster a renewed vigor to create new technology. Some of our greatest stuff has come out of the space programs and military programs. By investing some $10 billion into new technology that could possibly allow us to travel farther through space, then I see nothing but possibilities.
And let’s not forget today’s smart phone could have easily flown the Apollo missions and still played Angry Birds, so in the next 40 years I’m certain many more things are technologically possible.
I, for one, am stoked!
At near-light speed the expense of such a trip will be “astronomical”. Maybe it will cost more dollars than there are particles in the universe…
Assuming we ever develop the technology to travel at near light speed. This is hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years away.
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
We already have the technology. Nuclear Pulse engines were developed in the 1960’s. Will get you to about 10% to 15% light speed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
Maybe some of that DE pulling at our universe could propel us further. But thats a different $10 billion dollar story.
Nice idea, but manned interstellar travel is centuries, if not millenia in the future. New technology creation can result without this type of expenditure, particularly when we have no clear destination, as Uncle Fred points out. Nice to dream about, however……
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
Oh, I disagree strongly! We don’t need to build a ship with life support for
thousands…we just have to find a way to cryogenically store and resuscitate
people, which could very well be achieved within two decades (assuming we
develop advanced molecular manufacturing within that time frame…also a
distinct possibility). Then we could simply send frozen bodies to the
destination of choice, using lightweight and efficient ships also based on the
same technology. while this does require the use of technology yet to be
invented, we’ve already passed too many of the milestones necessary to achieve
that tech to dismiss out of hand.
And sending frozen passengers is only one of several options. My favorite is
sending a robot manufacturing ship instead, which would build a receiving
station at the destination, and then we disassemble people and beam the info via
laser to the receiving station, and have robots assemble an exact copy. Low
risk, relatively low cost, and I’d bet achievable within 2-4 decades (plus robot
ship travel time).
Assuming it’ll take hundreds or thousands of years to make it to the stars
requires ignoring likely technological advancements.
There is always the suggestion in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove
General “Buck” Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn’t that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious… service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
The article I presume involves $10 Billion spent on various developments. A piloted starship would cost more than the entire economic capacity and value of the entire human sphere we call the world.
First off the thing would be huge. For a 100 year mission there would have to be a sufficient amount of space, or starcraft “real estate” so that life is at least moderately tolerable. It might require the “bio-domes” in the movie “Silent Running” in order to satisfy our bio-philos requirements — we need contact with the natural biological world. Further, this living space would be a small fraction of the volume and mass of the craft, where the rest of it would involve power systems, provisions, replacement parts (lots of them for 100 years) and so forth. So this thing would be at least the size of Manhattan Island. It might involve taking a sizable asteroid and converting into this craft
Heinlein wrote the novel “Methuselah’s Children” about this sort of thing. Somehow the subsequent generations on the craft lost the knowledge that they were on a space ark. The movie “Independence Day,” which was a very campy take off on other sci-fi films, had the nasty aliens come to Earth on a sort of space ark that was about the size of the asteroid Ceres.
To use Star Trek here, Spock kept saying something to the effect the universe involved infinite combinations and possibilities. We are now getting a glimpse at some of the stellar systems in our neck of the cosmic woods. We are pretty clearly finding that these stellar systems are very different from our own, and likely these planets are radically different from Earth, with few analogues or parallels. Further, even if there are biologically active planets we identify in the future, it is likely they would prove to be very inhospitable to us. The biology there could be so utterly divergent on a molecular level from Earth biology as to make the bio-surface of the planet down right toxic to us. Further, our immune systems are not evolved to counter what ever micro-organisms there would be there. We might end up being as vulnerable to them as a loaf of bread is to mold.
We seem to be bumping up against the growing evidence that there is nothing out in space for us water bags of lipids, saccharides and polypeptides. It makes for interesting science and exploration, but honestly it looks pretty inhospitable to us. I wish this were directed towards sending probes to other stellar systems. I have very serious doubts that anything like this will ever be built.
LC
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
Yes, but is it not the case that those alien micro-organisms would have evolved to specialize in only infecting life-forms indigenous to those planets?
Suppose your immune system were turned off. Then you are a walking lump of nutrients for any microbe. This is something HIV ends up doing. In fact AIDS patients often died of molds that would start to grow on their brains. We do not normally have mold infections, but if your immune system is turned off you are fair game for anything out there. Most infections have evolved some molecular machinery to circumvent our immune systems. There is a sort of molecular arms race which is established in the co-evolution of a host and parasite. Usually this ends up in some sort of molecular biological truce or cold-peace, where the host prevents the microbe from running amok, but the microbe still manages to make some sort of “living.”
If you stepped off your spacecraft onto an alien biological landscape you would be exposed to an array of micro-organisms that might be able to start “munching away,” while your immune system would be going, “what is this?” It might be comparable to turning your immune system off here on Earth. It might take a bit of temerity to step out onto the surface of some other biologically active planet.
LC
Hmm… yet another reason to send robots rather than humans to other planets!
Or our biology might be utterly poisonous to them. It cuts both ways…
That is a good point. I doubt we could kill off a planet with our biology, but it might be a perturbation that causes some sort of eco-spasm. This is in fact one reason I am opposed to sending humans to Mars. We will contaminate the region we explore. This does not make sense if we are interested in finding Martian life, for that is a noise added to data signal. We also could permanently perturb the planet if our prokaryotes are able to compete with Martian microbes in the subsoil.
LC
I agree, however I find it difficult to believe that Mars hasn’t been contaminated already by terrestrial rocks containing at least some surviving microorganisms.
I suppose it’s a very open question.
If we find life on Mars we may never know for sure if it is cross fertilized from Earth. If the molecular biology is radically different from earth biology that might lend some support for independence. If Martian is close, particular if it is close enough to draw up clades then that would suggest cross fertilization.
If Gliese 581d has life that would support complete independence. It is best not to contaminate Mars just yet. As it is said with backpacking into the wilderness; pack it in and you must pack it out. I wonder if that would be done, for it will up the cost to lift it off the surface.
LC
I do think it is a bad idea to colonize inhabited planets, but not because of potential infections.
Our adaptive immune system makes a good work of pathogens all by itself. It may be too slow for some bugs that will slip through since our innate system isn’t adapted to them.
But that isn’t the large problem, it is nutrition and poison. We will get the wrong amino acids et cetera. So we have to invade the biosphere with our own plants, which is not good for either the original or invading ecology.
As for Mars specifically, if it had time to come up with life (and why not) and robust life (and why not), it would make short business of non-adapted invaders which it would crowd out. So I don’t expect successful transpermia for the Earth-Mars pair specifically.
Probably not with phylogenetically established clades, but with genetic clades surely. The DNA LUCA is very specific, basic and interlocked into place. (Genetic machinery which changes only under special circumstance like in mitochondria.)
If it happened at the RNA world stage any bets are off, unfortunately. 4 Gy is a lot of time to accumulate “radically different” molecular biology.
Highly divergent life on mars is no guarantee that it is not related to Earth life in the far past.
LC
Been thinking about your immune system point a fair bit today.
LC, in your option, is there any was to determine if a planet with a biosphere is toxic to us without sending a probe complete with a surface laboratory?
Probably not. An optical interferometer might detect atmospheres we would expect of a bio-active planet, oxygen with trace methane etc. But how are you going to run a southern blot to sequence genes across 10 or 20 light years? We will have to plant a robotic station on such a planet.
LC
Ok. Off the top of my head after a full minute of consideration I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space break.
Sorry. Computer went all funny. I’ll try again. Ok. Off the top of my head after a full minute of consideration I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space break. It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was a drive. But operates very well as a kind of sky hook. I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators along its length. Each switched on in sequence to push space hydrogen behind the ship. The fields stretching miles into space. Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ok. Off the top of my head after a full minute of consideration I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was a drive. But operates very well as a kind of sky hook. I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving wave. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
I know it’s already been said but… 10 billion dollars? What? Was the “mission” you were referring to the request for ideas? That would make more sense, although it would be pretty expensive. For an excellent sketch of what would be involved in achieving interstellar travel, I suggest the Tao Zero foundation and their project Icarus study (http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/index.php ) on the design of an unmanned flyby probe of a nearby star (the likely first step for interstellar travel).
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
Dont know about interstellar travel, but building a self sustaining habitat is an interesting idea.
If humans are to live in space then we need an ecosystem using earth biomass and for that you need lots of water. My approach is to use asteroids to built mini planets. Using reaction thrusters one could (form) the planets core by steering it on an close orbit with the sun, super heating an iron rich asteroid into a molten sphere by induced spin. then as its orbit regresses from the sun bombarding it with smaller asteroids with unique minerals including Ice rocks. As it cools you should get stratification occurring, mix your ingredients right and you end up with a small world with a magnetosphere and lots of water.
Once cooled introduce marine organisms to make oxygen for us.
When finished you have gravity, a magnetosphere and an atmosphere. 🙂
Ok, its just an idea, and will probably take a long time to cook. But I think that if you were making a mini planet to order there are interesting possibilities inherent. Perhaps something similar could be created using lenses or lasers in space. Either way one needs to Melt a huge amount of nickel iron and spin it up.
As far as propulsion is concerned, I would suggest a tether connecting the planets surface with a mass proportional to our moon. Lets not forget that if one is to use earth organisms, then they rely on the tidal dynamics that are inherent in a two body planetary system. Done to scale one should be able to replicate this dynamic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodynamic_tether
This acts as propulsion, power and spaceport for our colony.
Further (fictional) advancements might include programmable self organizing nano-aerosols in the atmosphere for temperature control and radiation shielding and solar power harvesting.
We still have little idea of how a planets core operates, Dan Lathrop’s artificial planetary core using molten sodium has shown that its possible in principle.
A space colony however will need a different social system for its citizens, so if this proposal is serious, then another ARK (like) project exploring this aspect could begin on earth today. Its sole purpose to explore technologies and social systems for such an undertaking.
Damian
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
I
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to Contacts
To: [email protected]
Hello Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
From: “Wayne Smith” Add sender to ContactsTo: [email protected] Darpa,
I think you should take a look at Robert Zubrins space brake.
It didn’t work as intended. Originally it was supposed to be a solar sail composed of an electromagnetic field. However, it produced too much drag against the interstellar medium. Thus it acted more as a braking system than a solar sail.
I’m picturing a long ship with electromagnetic field generators all along its length. Each switched on in sequence to create a wave pattern and push space hydrogen behind the ship. Just like a moving crowd wave at a football stadium. The fields stretching miles into space.
Yes, it would probably be lethal to humans. Might have to put them in a habitation module on a tether strung several miles behind.
Ask Rob about it. He acts a bit strangely sometimes but he knows his stuff.
http://www.robertzubrin.com
I gave him his domain name years ago. Say I said hi.
All the best,
Wayne Smith.
http://www.universedaily.com
Oh dear. There seems to be some kind of glitch. The first post vanished mysteriously so ofcourse I reposted it. Now its posting the same thing over and over. Cheap host provider I guess.
LOL.
You’re probably using a MAC, I guess. 😉
No attribution? greedy. Give info so rich defense contractors can get even richer with free slave labor, the *least* they could do is give attribution. Take a hike, they have an attitude problem.
Why travel when we should telecommute?
We should instead concentrate our efforts into trying to discover the communication plane that advanced civilizations or entities are using to communicate with each other. Once we tap that we will have a infinite amount of knowledge available to us. We will be able to interact with others via shared virtual realms.
Jorge
So, you’ve no interest in places where ETs aren’t known to exist…?
And in the absence of FTL communications, even what you propose has limits.
That’s the problem with current state communication methods way too limited to produce any real results in the detection of advanced alien worlds or even worse in trying to establish communication with them. The key to what I’m saying is pushing research in that direction to find that “communication plane”. I give you that the space cowboy idea is much more romantic that I’m proposing but the payoff for this would be huge.
The main issue or problem with faster than light communications or travel is that you need to communicate across or cross an event horizon. The universe as a whole is of this nature. This gets into some very subtle issues of quantum gravity, which for the sake of brevity I will skip for now. However, if you want to teleport your quantum information to some very distant region of the universe faster than light you need to enter into a black hole, so the black hole quantum teleports your quantum information non-locally elsewhere in some encrypted form. This means you are a form of Hawking radiation that contains this information in some transformed or quantum encrypted form. It behooves you to have a decryption system at the destination point. You can of course teleport yourself with the decryption algorithmic system, but this gets into some funny issues involving the foundations of computation and mathematics.
LC
LC you bring up some excellent points. It all goes back to the fact that our current understanding of physics is not there yet(agreed and understood). Someday we will get there and I like to think that we will not be limited to our own universe.
Jorge
I doubt this will ever be technology as such. I mean realistically I would be hesitant to jump into a black hole and get scrambled up down to the level of quarks and leptons by the interior singularity. This is necessary so the quantum information that composes me is reconstituted non-locally from the Hawking radiation that is emitted by the black hole in the far future and then teleported to some region in space backwards in time. It would take a bit of temerity to make that jump!
These are the sort of thing science fiction writers did play with, sometimes in funny ways. These ideas did sort of serve at theoretical probes of our physical concepts. However, I doubt we will ever be warp-driving, time traveling, and worm-holing around the universe.
LC
10 billion!? They forgot to add 2 zeroes, if not 3.
Most all these comments assume that 100 years refers to the interstellar voyage time. It is the timescale that the project is supposed to take to produce results.
This whole thing stinks of cluelessness. The RFI glosses over the project goals entirely; it is about
To find out what they are actually after, you have to go to their website and watch their smarmy “conversation” video, because they neglected to set down in writing elsewhere that the goal is interstellar settlement, not exploration.
Here’s are some hints: Organizations survive for 100 years by being useful and successful. Many have done it. The capitalist economic model proven superior for long-term technology development. It is better not to ask about settlement of “sustained prior settlements of new worlds” because all past human experience involved genocidal invasion forces.
Seriously, all these questions are answered by a typical grade-school education. The answers just aren’t the ones they’re looking for. A million dollars is way too much to give such denialist idiots. And to lose focus before starting and ask how to set up an economic model… just scary.
Most all these comments assume that 100 years refers to the interstellar voyage time. It is the timescale that the project is supposed to take to produce results.
This whole thing stinks of cluelessness. The RFI glosses over the project goals entirely; it is about
To find out what they are actually after, you have to go to their website and watch their smarmy “conversation” video, because they neglected to set down in writing elsewhere that the goal is interstellar settlement, not exploration.
Here’s are some hints: Organizations survive for 100 years by being useful and successful. Many have done it. The capitalist economic model proven superior for long-term technology development. It is better not to ask about settlement of “sustained prior settlements of new worlds” because all past human experience involved genocidal invasion forces.
Seriously, all these questions are answered by a typical grade-school education. The answers just aren’t the ones they’re looking for. A million dollars is way too much to give such denialist idiots. And to lose focus before starting and ask how to set up an economic model… just scary.
Yep, 40 years ago, computers were a million times slower, 25,000 times larger and about a million times more expensive. Fast forward 40 years and you will have a PC equivalent that can has the processing power of all the computers at the three largest companies in the world , costs $0.10 and is the size of your fingernail probably embedded in your body. Technological improvement increases at an increasing rate. Check out the Time Magazine article on The Singularity. This is where the human race is headed with technology.
A 100-year starship project is a great idea. Interstellar travel will revolutionize our perception about the universe. Seeking for new worlds and new civilizations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysTMByWXphQ
Encouraging that some projects and people, including commenters, take the long view. I hope the goal of exploration will happen anyway. I’m a great fan of colonizing the Oort clouds between the stars; the whole galaxy* is open for by technology and seed cost** within our reach.
But anything that attempts to inspire (and learn new stuff in the proceed) gets my vote!
————
* Modulo the planets deep in the bothersome gravity wells, but who needs those anyway? =D
** If it is going to happen, it better be positive ROI anyway. NEOs may give returns from mining rare elements, and the know how of closed mini-biosphere long term habitats as well.
Are we not already living on the ultimate, self sustaining space ship possible? Our own planet? Seems like one of the best approaches for a millennium duration mission (one way) would be to terraform a small moon in our Solar System, build a massive engine into the crust and rocket or sail off into the stars on the terraformed moon. The ideal solution would be if we had a way to steer our own solar system to put us in near proximity of neighboring star systems that had potential to be habitable. Obviously this would be out of the question, huge amounts of energy, control and unthinkable engineering, so next best would be a terraformed moon or hollowed out moon with sustainable atmosphere inside.
Phase 1: Pick a proto-planet
Phase 2: Colonize one side
Phase 3: Build fusion bomb, anti-matter, etc. propulsion system on other side.
I like these ideas about using moons and what not, but you fail to mention how they would keep such a ‘ship’ habitable. That would present another whole set of complications and engineering challenges. Once that little ark leaves the Earth and passes out of the habitable zone, it’s going to need a lot to keep its biosphere sustainable.
If we were to go the route of the using an existing asteroid or moon (what planet would we hijack this moon from? what complications could this cause for the other moons in the system we removed it from?) it would really be better off to go for the hollowed out approach. This has multiple benefits in that we receive all the raw materials that were inside it, plus you could then use the outer rock as shielding from radiation and small impacts. The main issues there are that this would still not fully solve the reduced gravity problem (even our own moon, one of the largest in the solar system, is not massive enough), plus the power requirements needed for all the safety, navigation, and climate control equipment.
Those are all interesting and everything…but I think at this point we would want to focus more on an actual type of ship. We already have plenty of knowledge about such things without throwing unknowns regarding the viability of a space rock to use in there. You can also almost completely negate any gravity problems with a ship designed to spin pretty close to 1g either in its entirety, or even just the habitable areas of the ship. The known problem there is nausea, but with a large enough circle, the effect is rather minor.
Assuming that the ship could average 10% of light speed, with a cruising duration of 100 years (10%C is too slow for significant time dilation) that gives it a range of 10 light years. There are only 7 stars or star systems (4 single stars, 2 binary systems and one possible triple system) within that range, and several of these are flare stars. At present, none of them look like attractive places for canned primates to visit, though robot probes may find planets where life can exist. This study is best considered as a theoretical exercise, as, at the moment, the money would be better spent on robot probes to see if there is any actual MISSION for the 100-year generational starship.
The “inverse gravity” problem/concern has already been solved by John Searl….is anybody listening?
gravity would best be simulated by constant 1g accelleration/decelleration, is relegates weightlessness to smaller intervals (manuvering) and avoids making a rotating system that could fail in transit… just saying.
Darpa, go see the dark hats (illuminaties). They have anti gravity crafts handy. Case closed
If the defense (War) department is studying this human Noah’s ark then can global annihilation be far off?
while i was with gary,,,my earthly contact..yes i am an abductee..gary told me that their ship was run on time propulsion..they might try to create that..bren