NASA and DARPA Plan ‘Hundred-Year Starship’ To Bring Humans to Other Worlds And Leave Them There Forever

This is great. I'd love to sign up. I'd have my Civil Engineering degree by then, and could help with development.

This is like the Wright Brothers trying to fly across the Atlantic, we just aren't ready.

I will be the one to go but they need to send me with some hot chick if i get some fat Russian space lady for a mate noooo wayyyy

@Chuck

2020? Whoah, get me a flight suit on order now! Computers might have had that kind of rapid acceleration, but space travel won't see any of that kind of rapid development. Unless it become entirely commercial with profit to be made, space travel will not become viable for another 75 years between planets if at all. (I'm being overly pessimistic today.)

Whoa! Comparing a trip and stay on Mars with the discovery and colonization of the new world is not possible. First of all the new world had free air, water, flora and fawna to use for sustainment. True, the trip was frought with dangers and they needed to carry provisions for the trip and some did not land in hospitable areas. But you could always count on breathing wherever you went.

As we have found out from the probes we have sent those items necessary to sustain life (air, water and food) doesn't freely exist on Mars (a food source probably doesn't exist at all on Mars). To have a viable colony on Mars they would need to send air, water, food, medicine, tools to build complex machines to create shelters and build the mechanisms to extract any sustainable products from the environment.

Power generation is a big consideration, solar cells on Mars have a limited cycle due to planatary orbits and the dust storms and they need to be huge to create any real usable power. A nuclear reactor could be the answer but the weight of shielding it and the risk of an accident in the Earth's atmosphere while sending such a system to Mars are factors to consider.

Shielding the colononists from cosmic rays is another question. Mars has a very thin atmosphere and a very weak magnetosphere so the surface is bombarded by solar radiation and other cosmic rays that the Earth's thicker atmosphere and magnetosphere protects the flora and fauna from harm. Unprotected exposure on the surface of Mars to the thin atmosphere, the cosmic rays and the cold would quickly be fatal to a human or a plant.

It is hoped, no experiment has yet been placed on the surface of Mars to demonstrate the possibility, that early Mars explorers would be able to extract water and breathable air. Without that any further operations are not possible without massive supplies carried along of shipped in re-supply missions from Earth. If those two components can be extracted the next issues are power, food and shelter with food being the first priority. It is expected that they would set up some form of agriculture (most likely hydroponics to start, we have no tests at growing anything in Martian soil) that requires water and shelter from the Martian storms and cold, heat to maintain growing tempratures which means a sustainable power system and the list goes on.

While talk of colonizing other planets is a goal mankind should be doing and working toward, let's just be sure we do not make it sound as simple as sailing across the Atlantic to land on Hispanola. It was not a case where Columbus needed breathing gear to step onto the soil of that island. There was water, plants, animals and even people there to greet him. The explorers of Mars will not have those ammenities when they arrive and will need to take everything to live with them until they can develop the means to sustain themselves.

If thats you chuck, I hope for your sake (and mine) that they can get that nano tech going asap, maybe fix your chin and stop loosing me money when you fight as of late.

I’ve heard the argument about waiting for the technology to catch up before we head out to the stars and I agree with it to an extent. I know people will disagree with me but I’ve always felt that a small moon base would be a reasonable first step. It would serve as an experimental station to see what problems may exists that we never thought of. Kind of like what we learned from biosphere 2 down in Tucson AZ. The compost pile took more oxygen from the air then they had originally calculated.

(BTW not to make you feel bad or anything Chuck Liddell, but I had to look you up to see who you were. I don’t get out much LOL.)

@ChuckLiddell
Ahh yes your the real Chuck Liddell.. since you've only been a member for 3 days... I highly doubt that in the past three days the REAL chuck liddell has had time to post as many comments on popsci as you have. Fighters don't have time to go on the computer and find sights to join... word of advice, learn a little something about your computer, just did an IP address trace on your account... in lea mans terms.. YOUR FULL OF CRAP

---> In a news release, Davies, a cosmologist at Arizona State University’s Beyond Center, compared would-be Mars colonists to swashbuckling explorers like Columbus and Amundsen.

Yes let's hope when we arrive we don't kill off the indigenous people by planting our flag into their crop and saying "Hey it's ours".

Sounds exciting...probably best if we come up with something faster though propulsion wise. Moving to Mars is...well...it's like beach front property in Arizona.

I know this is a Bush era train of thought, but I'm of the opinion that we really need to get our feet wet with colonizing before we risk lives and billions of dollars, and to me, that means the Moon. I know it isn't as sexy as Mars, but there are reasons to go there, not the least of which is learning how to survive off world. Granted, all the big leaps in space have never been made by playing it safe, I realize that. This, however, would be the most epic undertaking of our species, the start of our colonization of space (not just LEO) and an insurance policy for all of us. Why go halfway across the solar system to try something out, when we can do it in our backyard? Resupply would be far more feasible/less costly and, heaven forbid, a rescue mission could be done in a more timely manner. That's not even taking into consideration all the commercial benefits of the Moon (Helium 3 and space tourism).

Never going to happen.

The closet star system to Earth is Proxima Centauri at 4.22 light years. That's 5,874,589,152,000 miles away so even if we could reach 100,000 mph using a next generation ion drive as proposed recently (nuclear generated) it would take 6706 years to make it there.

No one is going to be willing to stay onboard a ship that long!

Of course there are those who think we can go faster--like .1% of the speed of light. That's Dreamers! Too much energy would be required. Period.

I say we use prisoners. Anyone who's in for life should be used to confinement. If they die, no big deal.

^^^
What an awful comment. "If they die, no big deal"? Klassy with a capital K, dude. Beyond being gruesome, I think engineers and legitimate astronauts would be a better fit considering the technical complexity of something like that, plus I don't think anyone is comfortable with criminals in space.

What's really weird is that we actually save criminals from dying, then we give them a death sentence. So...we want them healthy to die?

Sign me up! I'll go right now! Never see Earth again? Who really needs it?

Sign me up, as far as speed ION engines are beautifully efficient and would accelerate continuously as long as you have fuel 15% light speed would be highly possible over long distances perhaps more, granted time on the ship would slow down the faster you go (whole relativity thing we all know about). Also you can use the sling shot effect that would give a good boost to speed. Interstellar travel would have to be a generational thing at this time. Also it probally be most important to have a 3 to 1 ratio of women to men. For the simple speedy efficiency of population vs a 1 to 1 ratio. Then there's the whole cultural ramification of such a set up (at least locally). I'd imagine those chosen for the journey would accept.

Side note fastest speed by a man made object was by helios 153,000+ mph(orbital velocities, sling shot effect and rockets)

What a stupid idea - just to save the cost of bringing them back alive? With today's technology let alone technologies in development we can or soon will be able to send artificial intelligence to explore space and find a suitable scenario out there where we could then send astronauts in the future with the scientific assurance they could and would survive without having to return - any other way is not exploration but suicide and only a fool would even propose such an approach.

.

- Just Two Words . . . " S O Y L E N T - G R E E N ".

..
U

Comets are made of ice and trend highly elliptical orbits.

Therefore, it may be possible to divert-stabalize-colonize a large comet, near apogee ... Even riding that comet from the inner solar system, to near apogee.

I would want to colonize a large asteroid, that was already headed in the general direction that I wanted to go.
... That asteroid could protect me (some) from radiation and micro-collisions, particle abrasion, etc.

I also would just "sell it" as a "permanent space colony" and if we truly were to finally find some planetary body to be hospitable, long term, well, then, all-the-better.
The space-evolved culture would be intensely demoralized if their "single target body" turned out not to have "the right stuff".

WAIT!! Entirely different approach !
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It would be more efficient to have unmanned "bio-probes" splice the best of our sentient DNA into whatever indiginous life systems that probe may discover, as was done with humans, here on Earth.
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Because Earth-Humans are long-evolved to exploit a very narrow envelope of gravity, climate and lunar gravitational rythms ... because of bone-loss, in micro-gravity ... We must evolve our DNA up from algea to primates to humanoids, over centuries (at the least), to exploit a different "sustanance-envelope".
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So ... A robotic A/I life-probe with "nursery skills".

Major assumption made in the title. Were I to get the opportunity to relocate to Mars, I'd see myself as "Home" when I got there! You couldn't pay me enough to return. The individuals selected for such missions should not see Earth as home, but rather the place they're being relocated from.

I think I love the sound of hitchhiking on comets and the like, why consume so much energy trying get up to a certain speed when you could just hitch a ride on something that already had the momentum going?

Something I wonder - In the space station and the like.. Nasa installs something to create a frequency of 7.83 Hz, to mimic the Earth due to the poor health experienced without. So will the moon and mars have safe frequencies?

1) Prisoners actually make a great deal of sense. They are disposable, adaptable, and used to hard living. (The US State of Georgia and the country of Australia were populated initially as penal colonies).

2) Leaving people there is more cost effective. Breeding people there, even more so.

3) The idea of a 100 year ship gives you an idea of the mindset here. 100 years is not what it takes to get to Mars. 100 years is a ship that you land and live out of on the Martian surface.

4) This is not about building wealth to return to Earth, it is about building value to stay. 100 years of recycled efficiency means that the crew has 100 years to "open" their closed system to positive imputs from outside.

First, this would include developing methods that allow for materials (primarely H2O, O2, CO2, and useful C-H's) to be taken from the Martian environment and integrated into the "closed" system.

Second, this would include developing methods that allow for the exspansion of the system (increased habitation and life support systems), likely subterrainian, but also possible if a method for small scale refinement can be developed to create materials for 3D fabricators/printers. This would cover both exspansion and maintainance.

Third, this would include developing methods that allow for long term energy production.

Once you have the ability for sustanance, saftey, and exspanion in place - the colony would no longer need outside support and could be left to grow and expand on its own.

Do you people realize how cold it is on Mars ? Do you ?

Trust me it's not going to get ANY warmer soon. Accept of course if you could give it bump closer in to the sun.

A nice big Cue should do the trick.

I think Chuck is onto something here and his ideas carry merit (regardless of his true identity). Nano tech will really be a game changer that makes the timeline drasticaly closer to colinization of our solar system. For instance it has already been proposed that a nano particle relased in a paticualar layer of the atmosphere could reflect sunlight thus acting as a shield of sorts (conversly it could be modified to redirect sunlight back to the surface to heat cold areas kinda like a one way mirror). Such technology is just one example of how we are quickly gaining control of large scale environmental factors.

I don't think prisoners make good candidates because either they lack self impulse control which is why they are criminals or they are not very smart which is why they got caught.

I would like to know why no one is looking at Venus rather than Mars. I know it is hotter (see nano tech idea above) but it is closer in gravity. I know venus has an atmosphere but what about a magnetic field? We should definatly be looking into colinization purely to ensure the survivability of all life here now on Earth.

what will happen when the settlers decide mars is theirs and earth have no right to enslave them in the worst environment any humans have ever lived in, in order to provide earthlings with their new shinny toys.

just a thought...it's not like it already happened.

Uh... Who is Chuck Liddell and why would I care what he says? (Yes, I Googled him, I know he's a UFC fighter and I still knew nothing about him until about five minutes ago. Whoopty do.)

It's like me saying I'm Justyn Amick! Do you guys care? No, not really... I care more about credentials when it comes to science, not some dude's name. Now, if you said your name was Michio Kaku, that's TOTALLY different; then I would be like WOW, YOU'RE AWESOME!

has anyone here read:The Case for Mars by robert zubrin?
we could have allready been landing men on the mars now. if nasa hadn't had its head up its (insert body part of chose here). now everyone thinks we have to go to the moon to go to mars or that it will take 20 or 30 years. if we wanted to we could be there in 10 or less years. just look what we did during the space race. granted mars is farther away but thats not really a concern. but we dont need fancy ion eniges or nano techonlogy. just a 2 Saturn v a ERV and a lander/hab and 4 lucky souls
http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/society-tools/md_charts
ALL HAIL THE COMMON SENSE

Chuck Liddell is entiteled to his opinion on this site as anyone else. The poster at that name seems to have a great deal of enthusiasm and grasps the depth for the comming technologies and I respect that.

As to why would I care, someone with that level of money and an interest in nanotech should be shopping around for development oppourtunities to bankroll so they could aid in the advancement of technology. I for one am just an electronics bum and unless I win the lottery I won't be doing any nanotech anytime soon. And hey Chuck, if your for real did I mention my EE and maverick approach to design and development:-)

I confess, I had to google Kaku to see who he was but once i saw him I was like "oh yeah that guy". I'm not fit to polish his physics boots but I still come here to talk because i love technology and popsci is not about the guys with the big brains but the little guy typing on his lunch break.

Of course, sometimes it's the little guy who makes the big discovery that changes things (Are you listening Chuck?)

I think most of you have been watching waaaaay to many SCI-FI movies. Here is an FYI, we are only on the brink of retiring the shuttle, which was a piece of crap to begin with. We still are launching oursleves into space with a controled explosion called a rocket. This won't happen in my life time or that of my children or grand children. The viking probe was aimlessly just shot out into space to see what would happen, guess what? its not coming back. The only thing good about landing a rover on Mars was it proved we could do it, not worth the billions it took to do it, I would rather see that money going toward the national debt and we can send robots to mars when we "Actual" have money to do it, not just made up money.

Great idea, sign me up :)
Ivan Malagurski

Я готов стать легендой и первопроходцем на Марсе!

ALL OF THE ABOVE COMMENTS SEEM VALID IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
ALL THE BEST TO HUMANITY!

In order to achieve greatness we should explore. All of the manned missions in space are on a volunteer base. I will sign up any day of the week. Mars is as good a place as any, the moon also, and hell why not to the ends of the galaxy , at least we died trying to advance and learn something. Ohh the questions related to the money.... who cares, we should care about all of humanity not just one place, one country, one city. 1 billion, ok, 2, 3, 4, 100 who cares... we will learn from it not just for space missions , we will learn new things, maybe even open the interest in science and technology for our children, god forbid, since all technology is evil and all that nonsense. Let us strive and learn and research, question and prove it either possible or impossible, but let us try. COODOS to All who want to advance science!!

Let's try some other avenues of thought:
1. Would Mars gravity be sufficient to retain an atmosphere, IF we were to determine that processing the indigenous raw materials could generate oxygen, nitrogen, etc.
2. IF we started "building" a new atmosphere on Mars, could we presume that it would have the blanket-like qualities of Earth's atmosphere, and help mitigate the temperature extremes?
3. Presuming that the colonists discover water / ice resources just below the surface, would it be possible to "fill a lake" with it on the surface, even if it remained frozen? Or would it have to be contained to reduce sublimation?
4. If ginormous quantities of water / ice were uncovered and allowed to sublimate, would it begin to recreate a breathable atmosphere?
5. Given the appearance of the Martian soil, but having never found an analysis online, can we presume that there is a lot of iron/ iron oxide in the soil? In sufficient quantities to produce iron and/or other metals (aluminum) on site using a nuclear reactor for electricity / heat?
6. On Earth, there are many varieties of vegetation that are anaerobic (don't need oxygen). Have we developed any of them to be suitable for consumption? Then there is the entire mushroom family of fungii that don't need light to grow.
7. Are the Martian winds of suitable strength and constancy to use windmills or wind turbines to generate electricity?

First to the naysayers. We will never be one hundred percent ready to go anywhere or do anything.There is an inherent danger in doing new things and if we cannot accept this then we might as well put the bullet into our collective skulls now while the technology that seems to excite people most is social gaming.Second...why are we trying to re-invent the wheel. There must be at least fifty realistic scenarios for Martian Exploration in science fiction...can anyone say Kim Stanley Robinson?? And talking about sci-fi scenarios, if we are pulling long-trip ships out of the ether why not explore the Thistledown asteroid concept from Greg Bear's excellent "Eon"? Since even the best available engines make interstellar exploration a hundred year plus trip at least, why not shift the paradigm into a multi-generational explorer?

I want to work at the first McDonald's on Mars.

@shadowsurfur
Classy

@gizmowiz
as usual, you are totally wrong. First of all, 0.1C would only take a fusion bomb powered orion drive which I could launch tomorrow with enough nukes (off topic, I need some radioactive waste for... some stuff). In addition, an antimatter bomb powered orion could reach 0.9C, though not practical today. Stop trying to crush any talk of spaceflight, but hey, stay on your planet and never leave home, I'm not stopping you.

Waste of good money. These are the same twits who said cholera wouldn't hit Haiti.

i think you would find a ton of scientists who would go on a one way mission without a thought. I know I would!

If the experiment on quanutm energy teleportation goes as planned then we are on the way toward the road of an incredible supply of energy. With this we could do so much more than we ever have been able.

oh and you can't make new life(as we know it on mars today) because the planet is dead and there is no electromagnetic field to protect the inhabitants of the surface from the sun's radiation.

There will be infeasible for us to build a long space-voyage starship and send our humans to colonize other planets and/or their nearby satellites such as comets and/or asteroids because of eight major reasons that hinder our opportunity to escape to the outer space for our future human colony on another world.

Interstellar travel is impractical because of eight obstacle reasons:

(1) Enormously unaffordable financial costs for long-distance human-voyage space travels due to vanishing of home self-sufficient manufacturing bases, which already shrank our wealth and abundance. Military and human social needs outweigh human exploration in space.

(2) Our increasing scarcity of natural resources (e.g. dwindling availabilities of petroleum, coal, uranium, rare earth and fresh water) due to high population demand and high economy growth.

(3) There is no evident report of a life-like Earth environment in our solar system, including minor satellites, and distant nearby stars for our future human habitants. For example, (1) planetary and/or satellite atmosphere types (atmosphere pressures, human-tolerate temperature, moisture support for food growth, stable climate and environments such as protections from harmful rays of UV and radiation) and air we breathe such as oxygen, (2) stability of planet tectonics activities such as volcanoes and quakes, (3) Earth-like gravity, and (4) abundant water available, which are requirements for human life necessity and supports on a planet and/or satellite.

(4) Spaceships require massive non-renewal fossil fuel (petroleum, coal, and uranium) for launches, destination travels, maintenance requirements, and human necessity. The construction of spaceships and life-supports systems enormously require for gargantuan non-renewal natural resources, a massive extensive pool of human labor and exorbitant financial costs.

(5) Our human colonists, especially for a handful of space explorers, require bulky oxygen supplies for our breathing, vast water supplies for our drinking and constantly food growth, and immense food supplies in closed-system spaceships. Even, irrigation farms in a spaceship require endless continuity of huge water and oxygen supplies, and sufficient bright lights for effective food growth and human survival necessity. Also, humans and other living beings on a starship require protecting themselves from unpredictable dangerous substances in a space such as micro-meteorites, high radioactivity doses, including lethal cosmic rays, and other harmful elements that could threaten and endanger to human survivals on a long space voyage. The long-term effect on a long space voyage would impact our homo-sapiens health, especially for our human genetic aversion against non-gravity and hostile space environments.

(6) An immeasurable distance between our sun and nearest star system that would take several hundreds and even, thousands of years to travel to arrive a destination star by using our today's standard and perhaps, tomorrow's standard of starship technology, especially for our human life span. For example, the interstellar journey to the nearest star would take several generations to arrive at the destination. New and future generations have been born and bred aboard an interstellar-bounded starship and they would see no reason to continue a voyage in support of their home world, our planet Earth they've never seen nor known. SF novel “Starship” by Kevin D. Randle is for the example of this result of a long-space voyage.

(7) Science and innovation breakthrough for the long space voyage such as suspended animation and FTL (faster than light speed) travel are human idealistic dreams. For example, deep freeze cryogenic such as suspended animation for humans in a long space voyage is impractical because human memory cells and some body tissues will not survive with intact and preservation in a long journey. FTL (faster than light speed) propulsion and/or warp drive is irrevocable to the law of physics.

(8) Electronic circuit boards, including LCD screens, mechanical machineries (e.g. oxygen pumps and other advanced vital-support equipments) and even, propulsion drives on a starship in a long space voyage would not endure, and they would wear out and eventually break down during a long journey. Reparability in a long space voyage would be out of reach because of limited self-manufacturing supports and supplies, and a lack of natural resources availability to produce any complex products to neither replace nor repair on a self-limited sustainable long-voyage starship. Human colonists and space travelers must have required to be self-sufficient workers in order to maintain and repair on the starship in a long space journey without any help from Earth and outsiders.

These eight major reasons prevent and impede our new space pioneering opportunities to go outward to the final frontier. Therefore, interstellar travel will likely never happen, meaning we are stranded in our solar system forever.

We live on the only human life-supports planet in our solar system and nearly distant stars at today and tomorrow standard of our space technology. We are likely to be permanently stuck on Earth that is our oasis. We are nowhere to go, except our oasis here on Earth. Famous deaf Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky ~ the father of modern astronautics and Russian “Jules Verne” quoted that "Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever." He was unfortunately right that we could not live in the cradle forever.

Our planet Earth survives through a pattern of five previous massive extinctions and aftermath of new birth of evolutions. We already destroyed majority of nature of this planet Earth as well as exterminated our species in our fate in the near future for our sixth extinction. Our high-intelligence species of homo-sapiens are rarity in the universe for the advance evolutionary development in a stability environment of earth with our satellite, Moon and our solar system.

We are certainly in a fate of our advanced humanoid civilization and our species of homo-sapiens in the near future and our species of homo-sapiens would not exist beyond several thousand years from now.

When I was eleven years old, I watched live coverage of the first Apollo moon landing on the black and white TV. I was brightly optimistic about the future of American space pioneers and colonization in the space.

Today we are deeply pessimistic for the future of our country and the final frontier because US government has a lack of vision in setting priorities for the human space exploration for nearly forty years. This will be the end of American’s space supremacy and our species of homo-sapiens will be at stake for our planetary survival.

The golden age for the Soviet Union was at its zenith from 1957 to 1962 when Sputnik (first man-made satellite) and the first man (Yuri Gagarin) sent into space. At the time of the legendary speech of John F. Kennedy, the robust economy with its self-sufficiency and the government with affordable money to push NASA to send men to the moon to gain space supremacy over the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War. The NASA space program was a huge pioneering accomplishment for American civilization. We sent men to the moon and returned them home safely - a remarkable achievement for humanity. Moon landing exploration and vast technological innovations contributed enormously to magnificent scientific achievements. incredible technological success and innumerable job creation. In old glory days in late 1960s and early 1970s were the golden age of American civilization.

Richard Nixon made his fateful decision to focus on the earth-bound space shuttle rather than sending men to the red planet Mars. This was a huge setback for the future of American's space supremacy. Today we do not have the capability to fulfill the vision of the final frontier because of the budget limitations. Spending on two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) and maintaining several military bases throughout the world, runaway budget deficits, favoritism of corporate lobby interests with generous government-subsidized funds, high volatility of petroleum prices, and free trade policy especially outsourcing to overseas that drain our economic wealth, and erode our nation's progress in technological innovations for jobs and prosperity. American civilization has deteriorated since the fall of the Vietnam War. The first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, has stated that we are on a "long downhill slide to mediocrity." America will lose supremacy in space and China will take over our place for the final frontier. Eventually, rising prosperous Communist China will be the first to land on the red planet Mars in the future. The golden age of Communist glory will reign - thanks to socialist-minded President Obama for delaying NASA manned space program for a few decades.

Shrinking availability of raw materials resources (petroleum, metals, forests, water, etc), rapid population growth, huge consumer demands with flourishing free markets, and unpredictable world disasters (from asteroid to biological terrorism) threaten our human and planetary survival. We never solve the world problem because of the complexity of fragments of world governments and various ideological beliefs among the world people. Famous deaf Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - the grandfather of modern astronautics and the Russian Jules Verne quoted that "Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever." Therefore, we cannot live forever on the only human life-support planet Earth.

The space program is truly essential for the survival of American civilization and the world humanity. We must continue to go beyond our fragile life-support planet Earth to explore in outer space in order to preserve our species of homo-sapiens by spreading out and creating human colonies in the vast universe. These require enormous ambitions, both spiritual and fabric rekindling. This was successful in 1960s space aspirations.

"Star Trek" fantasy, especially the dream of human colonies in outer space will never happen because humans, especially all life species are focused on short-insight of survival needs instead of long-term survival of its species. Then scarcity of raw material resources will drastically alter and diminish our advanced civilization, especially our oil-based economy and oil-dependent society. Our species of homo-sapiens cannot survive beyond several hundred years from now. We are likely to be permanently stuck on Earth in secluded. We learn the fate of world humanity by understanding animal survival and its historic extinction in the past. This too will be our true fate.

Why should we wait two or three decades to send men to the planet Mars? Then it will be too little and too late for America to send men on planetary exploration and colonization. The oil depletion and dwindling raw materials with exorbitant penalties will hinder the economic wealth and human survival. Almost everything is made and run by petroleum which we cannot replace. Also, we will not have anything to produce in our country since nearly all domestic manufactures bases have gone overseas so almost everything is made there. Therefore, there will be no Starship Enterprise, no Buck Rogers, and no famous Orange Tang!

However, there will be survivable human-made artifacts beyond the lifespan of our species of homo-sapiens. They are robotic spacecrafts (Pioneer 10, 11, Voyager 1, 2 and New Horizons) now located beyond our solar system flying outward to the stars. Several millions years from today, nearly all human artifacts, records and remnants of Earth will have perished forever by weathering harsh conditions on the earth (earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods, etc) as well as solar and space activities (solar flares, comet, asteroid, etc). A few of survivable human-made satellites will outlast our species of homo-sapiens by several million years and will marooned in space forever unless they disintegrate into the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet or asteroid bodies or even, a star itself. If our human-made satellite survives and could be found by aliens (highly unlikely) from an advanced civilization in a space. Who will recognize and decipher these mysterious humanoid records from the aging robotic spacecraft?!

Remember the movie "Planet of the Apes" (1968) - American Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) stunned to see the half-buried Statue of Liberty on the sandy beach and he just realized that American civilization was extinguished. He said "Oh my God... I'm back. I'm home. All the time it was... we finally really did it. YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN YOU! GODDAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!" Therefore, Obama certainly blew NASA apart and is destroying our destiny of American civilization and the world!

I can't believe people actually are suggesting the prisoner route. Haven't you people watched Star Trek? It wouldn't work.

KHAAAAAAN!!!!!!

We can just send Chuck Norris first. He doesn't need air to breathe, water to drink, or food to stay alive...lol

On another note

I think this is a good idea. Some of you were worried about the air problem. There have been many scientists who have sealed themselves into hyperbaric chambers with only plants, and have lived in them continuously for three months at a time. Remember, plants need carbon dioxide to live, and we need the oxygen they produce to live. Simple process. I am sure if enough minds can get this down to a better science (if they haven't already); the oxygen problem can be fixed in the short term. This would allow time for a larger setup to be installed.

As one commnetor said :"This is a 100 year ship. This means living out of the ship for a 100 years". This would be make it or break it period. We are humans afterall, and no matter what our personal situation is (inmate, scientist, military, etc.) we are all surviors. Our species have adapted and overcame alot in the last 10,000 years or so. If NASA and DARPA are really serious (which at this point I doubt it $1 Million and $100,000 won't cut it) then they may already have the tech in place to make colonizing Mars a reality.

As some of you have said we would need re-supply. Then as more tech became available I am certain those who went would be the first to have it. I think this is possible. Though alot of you bring up the finer points of why not now, this does not mean that it is still not possible. We do not know of every piece of technology that NASA or DARPA may have.

If it were me, I would sign up to go in an instant. I know what I would be getting myself into, but then again, the experience gain would be the ultimate.

I'm game.

A one-way travel to Mars is impractical even using all our primitive means of propulsion.
I think a manned round trip to Mars can be more practical if investing in cutting edge technologies.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ScAHXN_kAY
www.crossfirefusion.com/thruster

It's kind of absurd to think of a 100-year trip. The second and third generations would have no choice in the matter, and would know nothing but the inside of the ship, from birth to death. When they step off, they would know nothing about pioneering skills, and the destination might be far less desirable than expected.

Is this the motivation behind Obama's NASA/Muslim outreach initiative?

edisonkenevil, the reason why no one is looking at Venus is because it is incredibly hot and the atmosphere is absolutely crushing. Literally. 1,349 pounds per square inch crushing. (compare to earth's 14.5 psi.)

Any and all attempts for humanity to colonize the surface of Venus would be met with hot, smashy death. That's to say nothing of the toxic atmosphere and constant volcanism. The only way we could ever colonize Venus would be in lighter than air craft high in the atmosphere. Though that would be met with sulfuric acid rain in the upper atmosphere... Essentially pointless to think about.

This may open some morale questions. But what about raising children from infantcy with this goal? Keep them isolated from the outside world. Have rotating caregivers and educators. The connections they make would be with other future colonists. That way, by leaving earth the loss is, hypothetically. Far less severe as there is nothing for them to miss. All their loved ones are going with them. They wouldn't know their real parents. They would have a limited opinion of Earth due to lack of exposure. Just a thought.

To get this done there are more problems than just propulsion. This can and will be resolved by building the star ship in space and by the use of shuttles. Light speed propulsion may be coming up first too because a hundret years travel is just nothing, even if that refers to light years. Anyway, time is the issue here, time as we do understand it. A light beam takes 80 years to travel only our milky way, folks. So whatever time reversal effect in the ship could be a solution like the hole in a hole concept or the sleep of the deep frozen if you prefer such ideas. If not, so it would require a ship that big like a little planet because that wouldnt be just 20 persons. Living, dying and giving birth on a hundret years travel got plenty of social, profesional and psyco consequences of the toughest.

I think it might be better to search for short cuts first, to find out if wormholes does exist or any other type of short cuts in the sense of use. If the recent devolpment in quantum is right de-materializing and re-materializing aint a Star Trek hoax anymore like many other things to be seen under holografic view.

Kimball
Forget prisoners. Think of the children,
We need to fill such a vessel with cutting edge Professional Educators. To achieve new and unique synergies we could include a diverse set of highly educated and individuals from Politics, Wallstreet, Madison Avenue, and K Street. With CEO's, Congressmen, Fund Managers, Advertising Executives, Experts in 501(c)(4) organization structuring and fund raising: there is no imagining what marvelous evolutions might occur in just 4 or 5 generations. I say we should make a major effort to get such a group on their way as soon as possible. The more in route to Mars the better.

Here's a thought...we have been to the moon, we have not settled the moon. How about we colonize the moon first. Because if something goes wrong at least we would have a chance to help the people who are there. Rather than no chance of help for a Mars colony if something went wrong.

And it surely will. We haven't mastered orbiting the earth and coming back EVERY TIME. So what is wrong with baby steps to settle the moon then contemplate jumping to Mars in say...30-40 years. Space exploration is not a race. If we treat it that way it will be one failure/disaster after another.

A settlement on Mars, by the way, would be incredibly expensive. It would not cost billions or 100's of billions. I imagine it would be well into the trillions. Especially if our government is writing the check.

It's a cool dream down the road but, first lets master the moon or how about our deepest oceans since we know more about space than the oceans.

I have grave concerns about humanity colonizing other planets in this stage of our human development. We have not yet learned to respect and live in harmony with one another let alone with nature. We do not revere our interconnectedness with all things on this planet and now they want to go out and do the same blundering mess on another world? Give me a break.

SProcket scientist

Dreamers !

We can't live together on this planet, and now we want to
go and screw up another one.

First off, we would have to start out with a new type of
human being. People engineered without any knowledge of
the planet Earth's history, such as crime, jealousy,God,
greed,war,power and a multitude of other things that might
cause them to think about anything more than the mission
itself.

The people involved would have to be taught from infancy
a new way to survive. In plain words," Nothing from our
past could ever be known to the participants."

Yes, this would make them aliens, so what could we gain ?

That which we have learned from our parents, as children,
has a real effect on how they act,think,behave, and so on
when they reach adulthood.

In order for our species to survive, we need to learn the
basics of Human life all over again, and put that learning
into practical use, and live by those concepts.

Why would we permit anyone to carry with them the evils
of life as we know it ? They would be the same as us,
filled with the same ideas that are bringing us toward
the end of our existance. Again, what could we gain ?

If we are to survive, and save this planet in the process,
we have to change our lifestyle back to simpler times,
together.

Technology will be our downfall ! Look at the kids today.
Nearly the majority spend most of their free time playing
on a pc or pod of one kind or another for hours if you
let them, instead of getting some form of exercize.
The majority is overweight, dulled to the joys of life
as it was meant to be. Experimenting with drugs and
compounds to alter thier thinking and behavior, because
they are bored with thier lives. We have been so involved
in our quest for the ultimate existance ( what ever that
might be ), that we have forgotten to pass on to our kids
the true meaning of life.

I am not referring to, nor do I profess a belief in God,
in any of the above written opinion, but for crying out
loud, wake up and smell the roses.

Life is short, live it , HERE ON EARTH !

Where do I sign up?

More than a decade ago a group of Nasa brainiacs came up with a cheaper way to do long term Mars missions. The gist is they first send several smaller missions to Mars that contain parts and equipment necessary to build a livable Mars habitat out of locally available materials before further missions bring more sophisticated equipment like lab modules and greenhouses. The initial shipments would include remote control robots (that also have some rudimentary smarts so you can tell them to go to point A so personnel do not have to be manning the controls 24/7), a nuclear reactor to power the equipment, some kind of processing or smelting module that can turn the rocks and soil there into buildings/bunkers, etc. Later missions would include equipment for the labs, hydroponics, life support, and other necessities. So by the time astronauts actually arrive there will be an entire facility built up and hardened against the solar radiation, etc. and ready to move into, complete with plants ready to eat and other plants in sufficient quantity to produce oxygen.

An underground facility would probably be the best idea because. that would give maximum protection against solar radiation, Mars' wind storms that can last months at a time, and falling space rocks that would easily reach ground in Mars' thin atmosphere.

We need to learn how to survive on something much closer first. Lets master the moon first.

Don't take life to seriously! You'll never get out of it alive.
-Elbert Hubbard

These are indeed obstacles. However, you forget how incredibly fast computers are getting. The better computers get, the faster we will solve problems. Eventually it will reach the point where AI will help us do things we cannot even begin to dream of. Take the Human Genome Project that started in the early 1990's for example. For the first 7 years most experts agreed that it was impractical and at the rate they were sequencing the base pairs, it would take 50 years to complete. Then, Moores law took effect and computers started to get extremely powerful. Over 80% of the project was completed in the last 4 years or so (finished in 2003).

My point is, computers will solve our problems with their vastly superior intelligence and they will further accelerate our pace of technological innovation (which is already moving insanely fast). I can say with a large amount of confidence that we will send a ship to Alpha Centuari before the 21st century comes to an end. The next 100 years after that from 2100-2200 will see colonization of our solar system and our interstellar neighbors.

Also, on this website there is a recent article on how CERN scientists isolated antimatter for 16 minutes, and CERN isn't even going to be smashing particles together at the speeds it's capable of until 2014. We will harness and study antimatter in the next 10 years, formulate mathematical models for it's behavior in 20 years, begin experimenting with it's energy/propulsion applications in the next 40 years and it will become practical as a means of spaceship propulsion in the next 60 years.

Need Biochemists? (IWANNAGOIWANNAGOIWANNAGO!)

Actually I have designed an engine for interstellar and outer-space propulsion. Check it out: www.hosseinnabipour.ca

And www.ultimate-propulsion.com

Yes, interstellar travel seems impossible in our times, but it doesn't have to be forever. It is impractical now, but I invented an engine to make it practical. I have a hard time saving up enough money to build a prototype and test it out and show it works.
-Hossein Nabipour, the inventor