Regarding cryogenic sleep: has that ever been demonstrated? Is it feasible now or does it need more development? Are there any showstoppers that would prevent it?(I am the furthest thing from a medical expert. My medical experience is limited to visits to the doctor's office, watching Gray's Anatomy and other medical TV dramas very occasionally, along with applying the occasional bandaid or popping a Tylenol).
Well, I didn't literally mean sleep - I meant being frozen like a popsicle, to keep you immune to the effects of cosmic radiation, aging, etc across the long voyage. Then you get revived on the other side.
1. build cheap super heavy High energy efficiency launch assist rocket cargo transport to LEO. (something like my deep 2-3km miner shaft tube rocket launch assist combo) energy efficiency will be most important thing for LEO huge cargo transfer rocket/launch assist system.
Assuming we get to a point where we can get any meaningful payload to 1% or 5% of C, those missions will likely be superfast flybys with total mission payload in hundreds of kilograms at best. Assume a couple dozen kg paylaod and you might actually get energy budgets late 21st century prosperous and peaceful humanity could muster.
::::grin:::Don't suppose anyone but the original poster actually read the RFI or the original post? They ain't actually talking 'bout no "Starship" but looking for concepts for a self-supporting "100-year" (that's "Centuries" to you and me kids! ) oganization that would be able to fund SUCH 'long-range' programs and science as would be needed to build a starship...Long-term survivability on an organizational level for a century (or-more) self-governance, self-sustainment, even "relevance" towards the goal of moving mankind towards a space-fairing and interstellar civilization....Wow... I can hear how far DARPA is straining those "mandates" of theirs from here! You have to admit it's an interesting concept and RFI, I mean how many "100-year" organizations have there ever been that HAVEN'T been Churches or Religions? I'm drawing a blank... Anyone?Randy
ISTM that if DARPA wants to talk about hundred-year organizations and interstellar travel in the same breath, the obvious starting point is the the British Interplanetary Society, which has been around for about 80 years and is probably one of the first organizations most people interested in interstellar flight would think of.
Terraforming another planet is like people who take expensive trips to Paris & eat at McDonalds - Andreadis
100 Year Starship Study Symposium is going on right now.http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=32806I don't understand the reasoning behind this quote from Twitter.QuoteTerraforming another planet is like people who take expensive trips to Paris & eat at McDonalds - Andreadis
::::grin::: I mean how many "100-year" organizations have there ever been that HAVEN'T been Churches or Religions? I'm drawing a blank... Anyone?Randy
Just don't carry any meat at all. AI or uploads doesn't matter; if any of it is possible at all we will have it by the time anything called a "crewed interstellar mission" can be launched.
I just came back from the 100YSS Symposium. It was an awesome experience and the level of advancement in some of the practical technologies required surprised me.In particular, Benford's demonstration of multi-gee acceleration of carbon sails from photon pressure alone was a real eye-opener! While I have been doing theoretical calculations on the sort of multi-gee laser sails suitable for relativistic propulsion, I had no idea that we have actual physical demonstrations.
Quote from: IsaacKuo on 10/04/2011 02:50 pmIn particular, Benford's demonstration of multi-gee acceleration of carbon sails from photon pressure alone was a real eye-opener! While I have been doing theoretical calculations on the sort of multi-gee laser sails suitable for relativistic propulsion, I had no idea that we have actual physical demonstrations.Have a link or picture or video?
In particular, Benford's demonstration of multi-gee acceleration of carbon sails from photon pressure alone was a real eye-opener! While I have been doing theoretical calculations on the sort of multi-gee laser sails suitable for relativistic propulsion, I had no idea that we have actual physical demonstrations.
The Pentagon's premiere research agency has chosen a former astronaut to lead a foundation that is designed to take humanity to the stars.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and Nasa are sponsoring the project, known as the 100-Year Starship. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to go into space, was notified last week that she had won, according to a copy of a Darpa letter obtained by the BBC.