DARPA Solicits Ideas For Its Hundred-Year Starship Project

Pillar of Autumn?

"(NASA kicked in $100,000.)"
0.0001% of the total cost.
great job, NASA.

I'm surprised Nasa even had 100k to give. Afterall, they do get CRAP for Funding. Less money spent on wars, and more money spent on space.

4L3X: Yesss! Haha that's what I was thinking.

USG Ishimura?

@ zaptar13-- I don't think that ship is the one from dead space--it had big metal rib-like projections coming out of its sides, while the ship in the picture doesn't.

@jexaon
Maybe it's an earlier version.
Also, I'm surprised NASA has any money left to give after all the budget cuts it's getting. Less military I say.

Let’s see, we’re talking about a multigenerational ship, which can only travel at about .0005 the speed of light. Just where do these people think they are going to go?

I have said it before, but I'll say it once more.

It would be far more efficient to intercept a highly eliptical (icy) asteroid/comet and to dump equipment, materials and supplies, onto it.

We should excavate a large cavity and tunnels (TBM) and use the ice for sustenance and, perhaps, as propellant ejecta.

We can break the highly eliptical heliocentric, orbit at extreme apogee, when the least thrust is required to do so.

I see such a vessel as being a highly intelligent, robotic "DNA Nursery Ship" which can seed and foster adaptive humanoid stock, wherever suitable conditions are found.

It could modify DNA coding, to suit, and leave "nanny-bots" behind, for observation and support (sounds like Earth?).

It could also seed algea and grasses, plankton, etc., wherever conditions are favorable.

I think it would be rather silly, to actually "man" such a craft, but might be fun for those volunteers who would go for a "one-way" ride ... The first leg of a much longer arc.

I'm just sayin' ... would be more feasible and realistic.

So, just to clarify ...
The main role of the HUMAN crew (on this asteroid/comet) would be to excavate, construct, perform systems installation and integration, and to ensure that the "Nursery Ship" achieves the optimal, initial trajectory.

Doing all that would take 5,000 people (CVN size crew), about one or two adult lifetimes ... A smaller crew might do ... say ... 2K personnel, working 3 shifts.

In the end, ... the robot A/I would be "alone and on it's own".

Triple post (sorry, but I *am* on a roll).

I suppose that the final (reduced) crew, might consist of 144~200 sizzlin' hot lesbians, who perpetuate their numbers, using frozen stud-sperm ... No, I am not kidding.

It is about the only strategy which *might* work, barring wormholes or other hyper-spacial "propulsion".

They just want to build a space ship, go far enough out to build a death star, destroy earth and go on with their lives in space

How about we develop cryo sleep / hibernation first? Warp drive/hyper drive/antimatter drive type technology?? Ya know, the real “sci-fi” stuff because for real, today’s si-fi *is* tomorrows' sci-fact. Travel at a mere fraction of the speed of light within the vast ocean of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy alone would be impossible without any sort of realistic and capable tech (unless as is suggested you span multiple multiple multiple generations before reaching said destination). With current tech deep space missions are a death sentence due to radiation and degradation of bone/muscle mass... And we’re talking within our own solar-system none-the-less!

The biggest problem for all advancement is funding… and scientific advancement in an age where mythology is currently assaulting higher education and science -- the very reasoning and logic that brought our ancestors from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and into the Digital Age. I mean we take it with a grain of salt so to speak… but if you went back in time even 20 or 30 years and wanted just 1 thing as solid proof to others of the past that you were from the future, all you would need would be $3.99 simple keychain toy size laser pointer.

The funding problem would be easily solved if humanity would simply get its head out of its arse and stop war (a vast majority spawned over the argument of whose mythological invisible deity is superior – and ironically the most “peaceful”). Global military and defense funding put towards advancing mankind would be nothing short of a miracle – and the first step needed towards our first permanent step off this ball of dirt to colonize space.

A dream… this whole article… I doubt this project will ever actually come to fruition unless a lot of political, social, and economic changes happen throughout the entire globe.

My first idea:

Take the money that would have been spent to build this 100-year space ship and instead, put it in an interest earning account -- compounded annually. In about a hundred years, take all that money and buy a ticket for the first interstellar flight by warp drive to the nearest star.

My second idea:

Build the stupid thing and send those poor souls out into space. But, make sure their library includes plenty of references to 'mooning' so they understand a generation or two later why people in warp driven spaceships stick their butts against their portals as they speed pass them at high warp on their way to the Proxima Centuri Spring Break resort.

@4L3X
@zaptar13

I love you both.

@BuzzLightYear,
wow thats a great idea. make sure they are all promiscuous as well. thats one of the best propositions i have heard in a while. why are we worrying about living in outer space and beyond when we barely do it in our own neighborhood of planets? lets start with the moon than mars. baby steps. since we still are a child species.

Rebecca,

You made an error on the price; DARPA has contributed $1 million, not $100 million. The previous article you linked to has the correct number, and numerous other references online have the correct $1M figure as well. Since the entire operating budget of DARPA is $3.2B, $100M would certainly be a significant investment!

Love all the comments, since my triple-post... Especially the Idea of getting overtaken by more advanced modalities, from next gen "propulsion" systems/missions ... funny !

A few more thots/explanations, regarding the virtues of using a large, icy body, as a habitat ...

First, artificial gravity (via rotation) only "works" if the rate of rotation is greater than one revolution per minute, because humans will develop vertigo/nausea if the rate is too fast. So, a firm ~monolithic~ body, of at least one mile diameter, consisting of metals and ice would be ideal.

Excavated caverns, over 100 meters, below the surface, would provide protection from gamma radiation and micro-meteorites, smallish collisions, and unwanted visitations.

Thermal mass of the body would also stabilize the temerature (climate control) and would allow resevoirs, for vital liquids and granular commodities. Excavated tailings would be smelted and processed for on-site materials and structural components (glass, girders, etc.)

Traditional "snap-type" fission reactors would be used to super-heat harvested ice (pellets) and use those "crater cone thusters" for course and attitude adjustments.

Major course changes via gravitational (body) sling-shot.

Speed of rotation could be controlled via a mass-counterweight shaft, with two massive ballast weights which can be drwn in, or extended.

The habitat could also have a "bolo-tether-sister-body", to simulate a larger rotational diameter.

As stated, the DNA fabrication "factory" would use A/I and sensor probes to profile found habitats and to develop "food-chains", starting with microbes, plankton, and simple flora. If an environment is particularly hospitable, higher forms could be introduced, on a 1000 year circuit pass. Intelligent sea-mammals, etc. ... Lower primates. It might take 3 passes, separated by over 1000 years, each, to "terra-form" a sustainable/evolving life-web, depending upon "degree of hospitality" profiling.

The "space barge" might also be able to clone it's own self, in it's own "image" whenever an ideal body may be efficiently intercepted and appropriate seed tech "tranferred" ... Robots that build robots".

I see the KEY component to be a learning and evolving machine intelligence, with a knowledge base sufficient to adapt and evolve. (see "vee-ger" STAR TREK Movie).

With sufficient swarm/armies of versatile nano-bots, much fabrication can be automated and physical xfer would be simplified. ... engineered "industrious microbes", etc.

We just need a machine intelligence which has sufficient resources and information and "manual dexterity", on every scale. Like building libraries of machine-code ... there is a critical mass of ultimate capability/aptitude, in time.

But ... Why re-invent the wheel ?! ... I (personally) believe that most of these methods are precisely how mankind was spawned, right here, and I do not fear that our DNA code variations (gene-stock) would be wiped out, even if our own planet was to meet its destruction.

Furthermore, I view consiousness, the eternal "I AM" as generic and indestructable, "trans-bang" and it really does not matter if the next iteration of sentient life takes trillions of years and dozens of big-bangs to "re-manifest", as the "interim" (in time-space) is irrelevant ... If nobody is there, in between ... then the percieved temporal span is instantaneous, anyway.

We should colonize Mars and Saturn's moons (via our own moon) ... Unless our own Sun, is found to be unstable/doomed.

Last thot ... Remember that "Howdy Disk" that was attaches to Voyager ?? ... We should be dropping thumb-drive-beacons on every rock we pass by ... With the whole of human knowledge contained (except for "sensitive" data).

We migh find such a "Data-Monolith" (2001) thousands of years, from now ... after an intermittent "decline" ... THAT might be just the boost we need, to finally "make it".

Was "all that" an over-share ? (Tee-hee).

Hey, DARPA ... I could use a "real job" .. i'd settle for free tax accounting and health-care ... Lemme know !

Too much espresso !

Al thought BuzzLightYear's rock ship brings back pleasant memories of watching "Jason of Star Command as a kid there is a series problem with this plan. Most of the mass of this "ship" would be dead weight. Any advantage gained from the objects natural orbit would be lost when trying to accelerate to 0.05c.

I think any vehicle that has to spend 100 years in the dead of space-particularly if that vehicle has living people on board- is doomed to failure. There are just too many things that can go wrong over that length of time.

I think the only via plan that does not involve pure SciFi tech is a beam propelled sail ship

quoting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail#Beam_propelled

"Most theoretical studies of interstellar missions with a solar sail plan to push the sail with a very large laser beam-powered propulsion direct impulse beam. The thrust vector (spatial vector) would therefore be away from the Sun and toward the target.

In theory a lightsail driven by a laser or other beam from Earth can be used to slow down a spacecraft approaching a distant star or planet, by detaching part of the sail and using it to focus the beam on the forward-facing surface of the rest of the sail. In practice, however, most of the slowing would happen while the two parts are at a great distance from each other, and that means that, to do that focusing, it would be necessary to give the detached part an accurate optical shape and orientation. This solution is also limited because the lasers used to accelerate or decelerate a sail ship could take years, decades, or centuries to reach the craft, depending on the distance."

end quote

The beam power would actual most likely come from an array of solar powered station orbiting close to the sun. A focusing lens array might also be needed about 0.1 lys out. This should be be accelerated to near light speed and arrive at Alpha Centauri within 20 years from departure.

The first few ships will be the hardest to get in system, but once they have arrived they can start building solar power stations to power a return beam. Then eventually they could build a beam array to the next star system.

Naw ... The more I think on this mission, the more I think that it cannot be manned and that, to spread sentient life, reliably, the mission would NEED to last 1000s of years and allow a large circuit of many target bodies.

Even if there was only one single target destination, 100 years does not allow for much "practical scope".

We must let go of any "continuity of governance" for such long missions. We must get over our collective ego.

Now, I am starting to realize, just because of unexpected accidents, collisions, ... because of short and unpredictable duty-cycles, for various critical systems ...
... Because this mission must be of indeterminate duration and unknown scope...

THIS sort of mission must be redundant and self-refreshing ... Open-ended ... self improving.

We should send, not one large ship, but THREE ships (The Nina ... The Pinta ... etc.)

Each ship would be packed with A/I and swarms of replicator nano-bots and robot fab facilities with the ability to fabricate anything and everything, on ANY scale ...

... These ships must be capable of encoding DNA and en-vitro nursing, as well as being able to build more ships, as resources and way-stations are identified.

These ships should be able to create improved/evolved duplicates, of their own design, and to transfer all knowledge/data, to new ships, as the old ones wear out.

In theory, genetic (embyonic) material could be generated (synthesized) from "dead matter", using an advanced 3D molecular "printer" ... So ... There should be NO need to freeze or to clone any live genetic material, except (possibly) for forensic referencing so ... No living beings or living tissue need be preserved/perpetuated.

It is like building an outpost, on the "Western Frontier" ... You DO NOT try to haul LOGS, from the East Coast, to build the walls of your fort !!

NO! ... You take axes ... Saws ... Sharpenning stones, and *PLANS* !

This must be an un-manned, Artificial, self-replicating, chain reaction, of unlimited scope and duration, with governing limits and fail-safes, built into the root code.

As mentionned, the A/I must be able to learn and evolve, while not deviating from objectives, planned limits, and fail-safes.

It is like putting one penny in an interest bearing bank account.

Modular, networked, versatile, self-replicating fabrication robots, of every scale.

Then, it does not matter how long the mission takes ...

"Soon", after a relatively SMALL initial investment, there would be fleets of DNA nursury ships, fanning out across the entire galaxy, self perpetuating ... sharing information and data, via quantum entanglement comm.

... Spreading webs of life, wherever that can be done.

The beauty ? ... Once we get this ball rolling, it will not require any further inputs and the only real concern will be how to make it STOP !

Wall-E?

The Pleiadian Federation, located in the Pleiades 440 light years from Earth, has said that it takes less time to teleport across the galaxy than it takes to walk across the street. The Federation invented the Pleiadian Beamship which is flown by Semjase and our astronaut Gordon Cooper. The Beamship can be seen in the Billy Meier Super 8 movies. The ship's lift system consists of radial waveguides fed by a large resonant energy chamber.

The question is why would DARPA want to have a 100-year spaceship when teleportation can be used to travel between planets in a few minutes? Teleportation here on Earth was accomplished over 12 years ago so it is no longer a mystery.

just look to all the popular Sci-fi series and movies and games for (not-often) plausible designs...

(news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/partial-reversal-of-aging-achieved-in-mice/)Last month's modern miracle of non-aging mice has a certain implied and ominous portent of, say, having to live in 10 year shifts alternating with 20 years of suspended animation until galactic colonization can tidy up on humanity's excess proliferation. A similar social contract for a hundred year space ship seems inevitable. Those awake would need to further spend as much time as possible in virtual sublimation, while not engaged in requisite maintenance, in order to minimize shipboard Malthusian constraints. Party on, oh brave new world, that has such people in it.

@JohnStClair

Would not surprise me (..at...all...)
... not with "Willfully Accelerated Convergence"
(and many billion$ $pent, on black projects

love the article and the comments...

space travel is extremely expensive and I don't see it coming down anytime soon.

example...
lets say you want to accelerate at 1 tenth of a gee(1 meter per sec/per sec, after 1 day you would be traveling at 86.4 kilometers per second). This kind of acceleration would work well for exploring the solar system...but guess what...we don't have the tech...

1 watt = 1 newton = 1kg moved 1 meter in 1 second....

if you have a million kilo craft(including propellent(probably over half the weight))...1 million watts a second would need a 3.6gw energy source...with 100 percent efficiency....

I hope I'm wrong....

PS I want the 1 billion kg one which works out to at least 3.6 terawatts needed...

PSS this does not even address getting the material into orbit

Why travel when we should telecommute?

We should instead concentrate our efforts into trying to discover the communication plane that advanced civilizations 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.

J0rge

@J0rge
wow that's what I've been saying along. first we most find an efficient way to communicate that's faster than conventional forms of communication. after that they will tell us how to get to their planet or galaxy. well put J0rge

Yes ... To the last two comments.
Humanoids are simply not designed for protracted (conventional) space flight.

QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT COMMUNICATIONS (would appear to be most promising)

But, hey, ... THEY are already here. They've been here longer than we have.

Cannot quite figger out why DARPA is even asking this question.

Hmmmm.