[[{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/221009","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":221009,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/221009","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/article\/technology\/interstellar-travel-wont-look-anything-movie","path_alias":"article\/technology\/interstellar-travel-wont-look-anything-movie","label":"Interstellar Travel Won&#039;t Look Anything Like The Movie","content":"<p>Christopher Nolan's <em>Interstellar<\/em> imagines a human journey to planets beyond our star. That trip would of course be impossible in today's terms. But there's good news for sci-fi dreamers: a DARPA-funded task force is working to make it happen in the next century.<\/p>\n\n<p>Mae Jemison, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/science\/article\/2012-01\/former-astronaut-will-lead-100-year-starship-project\">leader of the 100 Year Starship Project<\/a> (100YSS) told <em>Popular Science<\/em> that enormous challenges stand between human beings and colonizing a distant star system. But she believes 100YSS can bring together the diversity and creativity of invention necessary to launch humanity's first starships.<\/p>\n\n<p>Jemison has had a rare vantage point on human spaceflight. An engineer, physician, and\u2014for six years\u2014a NASA astronaut, she became the first woman of color in space when she orbited Earth in space shuttle Endeavour. Often, astronauts talk about the \"overview effect\" from space, a sense of oneness with Earth and its people. But Jemison says she found herself drawn in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n\n<p>\"I looked down and I saw the Nile River go by, the pyramids, and my hometown Chicago, and I tried to make myself afraid. Outside of this hatch are forces totally inhospitable to human life,\" she said. \"But I couldn't feel it. I would have loved to be up there in a bubble with just my cat.\"<\/p>\n\n<p>The fact is, Jemison never strayed far from Earth. Shuttle astronauts, from the perspective of a solar traveller, barely got off the planet. No human being has gone beyond orbit of the far side of this planet's moon. Crossing the distances <em>Interstellar<\/em> imagines will involve gigantic leaps in technology and human infrastructure. Nolan gets it wrong, Jemison says, in populating his epic with vehicles that look a great deal like those travelling around Earth today.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"420\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=VAot1EyF\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=p3JWlLxR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=2LeLnJ8_\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=Y0S7BsXT\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"420\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=VAot1EyF\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=p3JWlLxR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=2LeLnJ8_\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=Y0S7BsXT\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=p3JWlLxR\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>The Not-So-Different Future<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0vxOhd4qlnA\">'Interstellar' trailer<\/a>, Matthew McConaughey sets off for the stars in a ship that looks a lot like the ones we use to orbit Earth.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>She likens <em>Interstellar<\/em>'s challenge to crossing the Sahara desert\u2014another vast, lifeless space that humans have nonetheless tamed. But in the 53 years since the Yuri Gagarin made the first trip into Earth's orbit, crewed missions have yet to make a substantial fraction of a trip to a foreign star. Like the nomads who build cultures around desert crossings, Jemison says our entire approach to space travel will have to change before we attempt the interstellar vastness.<\/p>\n\n<p>Right now, a lack of powerful yet efficient propulsion limits human civilization to this solar system. For example, the Voyager I probe, launched in 1977, speeds away farther from Earth than any other spacecraft. In 2013 it became the first in interstellar space. However, it will be another 40,000 years before it even remotely enters another star's neighborhood. Any mission making the journey to a habitable exoplanet must move a much larger weight much faster\u2014approaching a substantial fraction of light speed\u2014to make the trip in even several generations.<\/p>\n\n<p>Of the many technologies Jemison says might accelerate a spaceship to that velocity (and, equally as important, deccelerate on the other end), only one exists today: nuclear fission. Some power plants, military submarines, satellites, and aircraft carriers convert heat from decaying atoms into energy. But no reactor has ever propelled a space engine, partly because of the dangers and inefficiencies of fission, and partly because of international treaties governing the use of nuclear power.<\/p>\n\n<p>Where fission fails, its cousin might succeed. That is, if we can ever make it work. Fusion\u2014smashing together atoms to form larger elements while releasing incredible energy\u2014powers every star in our universe. With <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/article\/science\/lockheeds-fusion-promise-what-we-know-so-far\">some ingenuity<\/a>, it could also help us reach them.<\/p>\n\n<p>To illustrate the diffierence between fission and fusion, consider America's nuclear assault on Japan in 1945 used fission bombs and had a combined blast area of about 20 square miles. The blast of the largest fusion bomb ever tested, meanwhile, affected 1,520 square miles.<\/p>\n\n<h6>\"We can't separate the vehicle from what it's doing and what it's carrying\u2014it's got to be different.\"<\/h6>\n\n<p>The prospect of fusion-powered spaceflight is tantalizing, but efforts to even build an efficient reactor on Earth have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2014\/03\/03\/a-star-in-a-bottle\">stalled for several decades<\/a>. Antimatter, produced in tiny, fizzling samples at CERN, annihilates with still greater power when it contacts matter. Yet scientists have only produced a few particles of the exotic substance, and the record storage time is 1,000 seconds before spontaneous annihalation. In short, we have a long way to go before filling up a gas tank with antimatter. Jemison also points to the possible construction of vast solar sails to catch photons and accelerate a craft over huge distances. Huge earthbound lasers and power sources could then propel the craft without the need to drag interstellar engines along.<\/p>\n\n<p>But Jemison says propulsion is just the first and most obvious problem an interstellar ship's engineers have to address, and that this point is where many science fiction films like <em>Interstellar<\/em> fail. \"One of the issues with applying today's space technology to the future is it blocks our way of thinking,\" she says. She would like to see a movie explore a more radical vision.<\/p>\n\n<p>\"Even the inside of the Enterprise [from Star Trek] looks a lot like what we have today, with grey walls and military hierarchies and buttons everywhere,\" she says. \"We can't separate the vehicle from what it's doing and what it's carrying. It's got to be different.\" We should expect a starship built in 2114 to be as alien to us as the International Space Station would be to a biplane pilot in 1914.<\/p>\n\n<p>A ship making the journey to another solar system will likely have to leave without any plan to return. It'd also need to contain an environment that could nourish and protect decades or centuries' worth of travelers. Jemison says a lush, green ship might carry the first outbound crew. Components would self-repair, and food would grow within the walls. (Such engineering challenges <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/article\/technology\/mit-students-claim-astronauts-will-starve-mars-one-mission\">plague Mars colonization ideas<\/a> today.)<\/p>\n\n<p>Even a giant, antimatter-driven, self-sustaining space colony, however, might fail on its journey. A suitable starship must be more than sustainable and powerful. It must also protect its inhabitants. Using today's technologies, an enormous lead shield would have to separate the ship's inhabitants from harsh radiation out there in the universe. (Some suggest a hollowed-out asteroid.) But in the future, magnetic technologies now bending radiation at cancer in the body might scale up to deflect gamma rays like Earth's protective magnetosphere.<\/p>\n\n<p>So, let's say we do build a ship that can safely carry a population over lightyears. It will be useless without a vibrant, skilled community to inhabit it, Jemison says. \"That crew that goes, whether it's 50 or 10,000, needs to reflect the diversity of the planet it comes from\u2014cultural, gender, and socioeconomic.\" About 10,000 travelers would be the minimum\u2014any fewer than that, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/science\/space\/deep\/how-many-people-does-it-take-to-colonize-another-star-system-16654747\">genetic fitness would take a hit<\/a> (see chart below).<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"778\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=CyPytCaj\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=iWsww8J7\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=QdvLbhwX\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=perUgLBz\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"778\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=CyPytCaj\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=iWsww8J7\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=QdvLbhwX\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=perUgLBz\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=iWsww8J7\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Illustration by Katie Peek\/Popular Science; chart adapted from <a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.actaastro.2013.12.013\">Acta Astronautica<\/a><\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Space Colony Genetic Variation<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>About 40,000 people would be needed to seed a genetically fit deep-space colony, according to one study.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>To bolster diverse thinking, Jemison invited researchers from wide-ranging fields onto the project, and set up programs designed to involve people without science PhDs in space travel. Today, textile and design professor Karl Apselund, for example, investigates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=262O058qHng&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;list=PLsRNoUx8w3rNKomyc-JVV0qLlBbtAmyKc\">interstellar clothing<\/a> for the project. And more than $2 million for advanced aerospace manufacturing training has already reached Orange Coast Community College in California, where many students now go on to work for SpaceX, according to dean Doug Benoit. Jemison says the longterm goal is to expand the base of skilled laborers and technicians who one day will form the bulk of a large interstellar crew.<\/p>\n\n<p>The course to a space-faring future for humanity is long and riddled with nebulae of uncertainty. Overcoming them will involve a generational shift in human ambition. Jemison says she's glad Nolan's film has built up buzz around the idea of interstellar adventures, but that she wishes such sci-fi films would show more creativity in their vision.<\/p>\n\n<p>\"I'm a little sad that the impetus of the movie is we've screwed the planet up,\" she says. \"I hope the reason we do this will be more positive.\"<\/p>\n\n<p><em>To find out more about the science of<\/em> Interstellar, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/article\/technology\/surprising-science-behind-movie-interstellar\">click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","teaser":"<p>Christopher Nolan's <em>Interstellar<\/em> imagines a human journey to planets beyond our star. That trip would of course be impossible in today's terms. But there's good news for sci-fi dreamers: a DARPA-funded task force is working to make it happen in the next century.<\/p>","ss_name":"Rafi Letzter","tos_name":"Rafi Letzter","ss_name_formatted":"Rafi Letzter","tos_name_formatted":"Rafi Letzter","is_uid":238,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2014-10-28T12:58:42Z","ds_changed":"2015-05-04T01:04:54Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2015-05-04T01:04:54Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"ts_bonnier_summary":"\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    Christopher Nolan's <em>Interstellar<\/em> imagines a human journey to planets beyond our star. That trip would of course be impossible in today's terms. But there's good news for&hellip;  <\/div>\n","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/entertainment\">Entertainment<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-02T15:16:57.673Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/import\/2014\/images\/2014\/10\/Spacecolony1.jpg?itok=FYRiROqq"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"tid":[203964,63,205968,200218,207488,211091,200444,212416,63,83],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["entertainment"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Rafi Letzter"],"tm_vid_1_names":["Entertainment Technology interstellar astronauts movies the 100 year starship project science fiction Space Technology"],"spell":["Interstellar Travel Won&#039;t Look Anything Like The Movie","<p>Christopher Nolan's <em>Interstellar<\/em> imagines a human journey to planets beyond our star. That trip would of course be impossible in today's terms. But there's good news for sci-fi dreamers: a DARPA-funded task force is working to make it happen in the next century.<\/p>\n\n<p>Mae Jemison, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/science\/article\/2012-01\/former-astronaut-will-lead-100-year-starship-project\">leader of the 100 Year Starship Project<\/a> (100YSS) told <em>Popular Science<\/em> that enormous challenges stand between human beings and colonizing a distant star system. But she believes 100YSS can bring together the diversity and creativity of invention necessary to launch humanity's first starships.<\/p>\n\n<p>Jemison has had a rare vantage point on human spaceflight. An engineer, physician, and\u2014for six years\u2014a NASA astronaut, she became the first woman of color in space when she orbited Earth in space shuttle Endeavour. Often, astronauts talk about the \"overview effect\" from space, a sense of oneness with Earth and its people. But Jemison says she found herself drawn in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n\n<p>\"I looked down and I saw the Nile River go by, the pyramids, and my hometown Chicago, and I tried to make myself afraid. Outside of this hatch are forces totally inhospitable to human life,\" she said. \"But I couldn't feel it. I would have loved to be up there in a bubble with just my cat.\"<\/p>\n\n<p>The fact is, Jemison never strayed far from Earth. Shuttle astronauts, from the perspective of a solar traveller, barely got off the planet. No human being has gone beyond orbit of the far side of this planet's moon. Crossing the distances <em>Interstellar<\/em> imagines will involve gigantic leaps in technology and human infrastructure. Nolan gets it wrong, Jemison says, in populating his epic with vehicles that look a great deal like those travelling around Earth today.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"420\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=VAot1EyF\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=p3JWlLxR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=2LeLnJ8_\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=Y0S7BsXT\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"420\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=VAot1EyF\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=p3JWlLxR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=2LeLnJ8_\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=Y0S7BsXT\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-13%20at%205.44.46%20PM.png?itok=p3JWlLxR\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>The Not-So-Different Future<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0vxOhd4qlnA\">'Interstellar' trailer<\/a>, Matthew McConaughey sets off for the stars in a ship that looks a lot like the ones we use to orbit Earth.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>She likens <em>Interstellar<\/em>'s challenge to crossing the Sahara desert\u2014another vast, lifeless space that humans have nonetheless tamed. But in the 53 years since the Yuri Gagarin made the first trip into Earth's orbit, crewed missions have yet to make a substantial fraction of a trip to a foreign star. Like the nomads who build cultures around desert crossings, Jemison says our entire approach to space travel will have to change before we attempt the interstellar vastness.<\/p>\n\n<p>Right now, a lack of powerful yet efficient propulsion limits human civilization to this solar system. For example, the Voyager I probe, launched in 1977, speeds away farther from Earth than any other spacecraft. In 2013 it became the first in interstellar space. However, it will be another 40,000 years before it even remotely enters another star's neighborhood. Any mission making the journey to a habitable exoplanet must move a much larger weight much faster\u2014approaching a substantial fraction of light speed\u2014to make the trip in even several generations.<\/p>\n\n<p>Of the many technologies Jemison says might accelerate a spaceship to that velocity (and, equally as important, deccelerate on the other end), only one exists today: nuclear fission. Some power plants, military submarines, satellites, and aircraft carriers convert heat from decaying atoms into energy. But no reactor has ever propelled a space engine, partly because of the dangers and inefficiencies of fission, and partly because of international treaties governing the use of nuclear power.<\/p>\n\n<p>Where fission fails, its cousin might succeed. That is, if we can ever make it work. Fusion\u2014smashing together atoms to form larger elements while releasing incredible energy\u2014powers every star in our universe. With <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/article\/science\/lockheeds-fusion-promise-what-we-know-so-far\">some ingenuity<\/a>, it could also help us reach them.<\/p>\n\n<p>To illustrate the diffierence between fission and fusion, consider America's nuclear assault on Japan in 1945 used fission bombs and had a combined blast area of about 20 square miles. The blast of the largest fusion bomb ever tested, meanwhile, affected 1,520 square miles.<\/p>\n\n<h6>\"We can't separate the vehicle from what it's doing and what it's carrying\u2014it's got to be different.\"<\/h6>\n\n<p>The prospect of fusion-powered spaceflight is tantalizing, but efforts to even build an efficient reactor on Earth have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2014\/03\/03\/a-star-in-a-bottle\">stalled for several decades<\/a>. Antimatter, produced in tiny, fizzling samples at CERN, annihilates with still greater power when it contacts matter. Yet scientists have only produced a few particles of the exotic substance, and the record storage time is 1,000 seconds before spontaneous annihalation. In short, we have a long way to go before filling up a gas tank with antimatter. Jemison also points to the possible construction of vast solar sails to catch photons and accelerate a craft over huge distances. Huge earthbound lasers and power sources could then propel the craft without the need to drag interstellar engines along.<\/p>\n\n<p>But Jemison says propulsion is just the first and most obvious problem an interstellar ship's engineers have to address, and that this point is where many science fiction films like <em>Interstellar<\/em> fail. \"One of the issues with applying today's space technology to the future is it blocks our way of thinking,\" she says. She would like to see a movie explore a more radical vision.<\/p>\n\n<p>\"Even the inside of the Enterprise [from Star Trek] looks a lot like what we have today, with grey walls and military hierarchies and buttons everywhere,\" she says. \"We can't separate the vehicle from what it's doing and what it's carrying. It's got to be different.\" We should expect a starship built in 2114 to be as alien to us as the International Space Station would be to a biplane pilot in 1914.<\/p>\n\n<p>A ship making the journey to another solar system will likely have to leave without any plan to return. It'd also need to contain an environment that could nourish and protect decades or centuries' worth of travelers. Jemison says a lush, green ship might carry the first outbound crew. Components would self-repair, and food would grow within the walls. (Such engineering challenges <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/article\/technology\/mit-students-claim-astronauts-will-starve-mars-one-mission\">plague Mars colonization ideas<\/a> today.)<\/p>\n\n<p>Even a giant, antimatter-driven, self-sustaining space colony, however, might fail on its journey. A suitable starship must be more than sustainable and powerful. It must also protect its inhabitants. Using today's technologies, an enormous lead shield would have to separate the ship's inhabitants from harsh radiation out there in the universe. (Some suggest a hollowed-out asteroid.) But in the future, magnetic technologies now bending radiation at cancer in the body might scale up to deflect gamma rays like Earth's protective magnetosphere.<\/p>\n\n<p>So, let's say we do build a ship that can safely carry a population over lightyears. It will be useless without a vibrant, skilled community to inhabit it, Jemison says. \"That crew that goes, whether it's 50 or 10,000, needs to reflect the diversity of the planet it comes from\u2014cultural, gender, and socioeconomic.\" About 10,000 travelers would be the minimum\u2014any fewer than that, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/science\/space\/deep\/how-many-people-does-it-take-to-colonize-another-star-system-16654747\">genetic fitness would take a hit<\/a> (see chart below).<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"778\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=CyPytCaj\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=iWsww8J7\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=QdvLbhwX\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=perUgLBz\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" style=\"\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"778\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=CyPytCaj\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=iWsww8J7\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=QdvLbhwX\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=perUgLBz\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/gene-variation-space-colony.gif?itok=iWsww8J7\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Illustration by Katie Peek\/Popular Science; chart adapted from <a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.actaastro.2013.12.013\">Acta Astronautica<\/a><\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Space Colony Genetic Variation<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>About 40,000 people would be needed to seed a genetically fit deep-space colony, according to one study.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>To bolster diverse thinking, Jemison invited researchers from wide-ranging fields onto the project, and set up programs designed to involve people without science PhDs in space travel. Today, textile and design professor Karl Apselund, for example, investigates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=262O058qHng&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;list=PLsRNoUx8w3rNKomyc-JVV0qLlBbtAmyKc\">interstellar clothing<\/a> for the project. And more than $2 million for advanced aerospace manufacturing training has already reached Orange Coast Community College in California, where many students now go on to work for SpaceX, according to dean Doug Benoit. Jemison says the longterm goal is to expand the base of skilled laborers and technicians who one day will form the bulk of a large interstellar crew.<\/p>\n\n<p>The course to a space-faring future for humanity is long and riddled with nebulae of uncertainty. Overcoming them will involve a generational shift in human ambition. Jemison says she's glad Nolan's film has built up buzz around the idea of interstellar adventures, but that she wishes such sci-fi films would show more creativity in their vision.<\/p>\n\n<p>\"I'm a little sad that the impetus of the movie is we've screwed the planet up,\" she says. \"I hope the reason we do this will be more positive.\"<\/p>\n\n<p><em>To find out more about the science of<\/em> Interstellar, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/article\/technology\/surprising-science-behind-movie-interstellar\">click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","Entertainment Technology interstellar astronauts movies the 100 year starship project science fiction Space Technology","Rafi Letzter","\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    Christopher Nolan's <em>Interstellar<\/em> imagines a human journey to planets beyond our star. That trip would of course be impossible in today's terms. But there's good news for&hellip;  <\/div>\n","<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/entertainment\">Entertainment<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[83],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["The astronaut leading humankind's journey to the stars says if we want to get to another Earth, we'll have to expand our thinking.\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[203964,63,205968,200218,207488,211091,200444,212416,63],"im_vid_2":[83],"sm_vid_Authors":["Rafi Letzter"],"im_vid_1":[203964,63,205968,200218,207488,211091,200444,212416,63],"sm_field_video_display":["video_featured"],"sm_vid_Tags":["Entertainment","Technology","interstellar","astronauts","movies","the 100 year starship project","science fiction","Space","Technology"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/230126","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":230126,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/230126","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/researchers-find-four-space-crops-fit-for-human-consumption","path_alias":"researchers-find-four-space-crops-fit-for-human-consumption","label":"Plants Grown In Simulated Mars Conditions Found Safe To Eat","content":" Image courtesy Wageningen University Facebook page A tomato plant grows in soil simulating that found on the moon In greenhouses at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, scientists have been growing a very special crop. Since 2013, an experimental group of plants have taken root in soil meant to simulate that on the moon and Mars. The research was funded through a crowdfunding campaign in partnership with Mars One, the project that hopes to send volunteers on a one-way trip to Mars. The moon and Mars-like soils were mined on Earth, from cinder cone volcanos and craters, and are sandy in texture. The moon soil is nutrient-poor and has a high pH, while the Mars soil has a good amount of carbon and traces of nitrates and ammonium. The first step of this experiment was to determine whether these plants could actually grow. And they were able to prove that 10 different crops did indeed succeed. The next step was to figure out whether these crops were actually edible. The fear was that there would be high levels of heavy metals such as copper, cadmium, or lead, since they are present in the soil. But, after testing four of those crops (radishes, peas, rye, and tomatoes), they found that they were safe for consumption. In fact, their heavy metal levels were lower than those of crops grown in regular potting soil. Perhaps the most important question has yet to be answered. It appears that no one has actually eaten the crops yet. \u201cI\u2019m very curious what they will taste like,\u201d the project\u2019s lead ecologist Wieger Wamelink said in a press release. And the remainder of the 10 crops still need to be tested for human consumption. You can watch Wamelink talk about his research in the video below: ","teaser":" Image courtesy Wageningen University Facebook page A tomato plant grows in soil simulating that found on the moon In greenhouses at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, scientists have been growing a very special crop. Since 2013, an experimental group of plants have taken root in soil meant","ss_name":"LindseyKratochwill","tos_name":"LindseyKratochwill","ss_name_formatted":"LindseyKratochwill","tos_name_formatted":"LindseyKratochwill","is_uid":196,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2016-06-24T17:23:45Z","ds_changed":"2016-06-24T17:23:45Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2016-06-24T17:23:45Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":true,"ts_bonnier_summary":"<div class=\"field-sir-trevor-body\">Researchers working with the Mars One project tested four crops grown in Mars and moon simulant soils and found they did not have high levels of heavy metals.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/space\">Space<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-02T15:42:34.995Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/13096177_1728014050755194_3320124798275268520_n.jpg?itok=ptnHCsK3&fc=50,50"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"tid":[200418,201941,200190,200299,206952,206932,200379,212416,63,200107],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["space"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Lindsey Kratochwill"],"tm_vid_1_names":["plants botany agriculture food mars one Mars Moon Space Technology"],"spell":["Plants Grown In Simulated Mars Conditions Found Safe To Eat"," Image courtesy Wageningen University Facebook page A tomato plant grows in soil simulating that found on the moon In greenhouses at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, scientists have been growing a very special crop. Since 2013, an experimental group of plants have taken root in soil meant to simulate that on the moon and Mars. The research was funded through a crowdfunding campaign in partnership with Mars One, the project that hopes to send volunteers on a one-way trip to Mars. The moon and Mars-like soils were mined on Earth, from cinder cone volcanos and craters, and are sandy in texture. The moon soil is nutrient-poor and has a high pH, while the Mars soil has a good amount of carbon and traces of nitrates and ammonium. The first step of this experiment was to determine whether these plants could actually grow. And they were able to prove that 10 different crops did indeed succeed. The next step was to figure out whether these crops were actually edible. The fear was that there would be high levels of heavy metals such as copper, cadmium, or lead, since they are present in the soil. But, after testing four of those crops (radishes, peas, rye, and tomatoes), they found that they were safe for consumption. In fact, their heavy metal levels were lower than those of crops grown in regular potting soil. Perhaps the most important question has yet to be answered. It appears that no one has actually eaten the crops yet. \u201cI\u2019m very curious what they will taste like,\u201d the project\u2019s lead ecologist Wieger Wamelink said in a press release. And the remainder of the 10 crops still need to be tested for human consumption. You can watch Wamelink talk about his research in the video below: ","plants botany agriculture food mars one Mars Moon Space Technology","Lindsey Kratochwill","<div class=\"field-sir-trevor-body\">Researchers working with the Mars One project tested four crops grown in Mars and moon simulant soils and found they did not have high levels of heavy metals.<\/div>","<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/space\">Space<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[200107],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_in_nps":[true],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["Good news for future space farmers\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[200418,201941,200190,200299,206952,206932,200379,212416,63],"im_vid_2":[200107],"sm_vid_Authors":["Lindsey Kratochwill"],"im_vid_1":[200418,201941,200190,200299,206952,206932,200379,212416,63],"sm_field_video_display":["video_none"],"sm_vid_Tags":["plants","botany","agriculture","food","mars one","Mars","Moon","Space","Technology"]}]]