DARPA wants a SPACE ARK

Tagged: colony ships, DARPA, interstellar travel, seeder ships, Space arks, starships

This topic has 6 voices, contains 13 replies, and was last updated by gav 324 days ago.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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June 17, 2011 at 5:32 am #6150
m1sterling	This looks like it’s for real – DARPA – yeah you know the ones- invented the internet and all that… the US Military’s future research institute… IS Running a Symposium called THE 100 year STARSHIP and calling for paper proposals. Actually they are doing it together with NASA AMES (those of the space colony studies) Here’s what they say: “The 100 Year Starshipâ„¢ Study is an effort seeded by DARPA to develop a viable and sustainable model for persistent, long-term, private-sector investment into the myriad of disciplines needed to make long-distance space travel practicable and feasible. The genesis of this study is to foster a rebirth of a sense of wonder among students, academia, industry, researchers and the general population to consider “why not” and to encourage them to tackle whole new classes of research and development related to all the issues surrounding long duration, long distance spaceflight. DARPA contends that the useful, unanticipated consequences of such research will have benefit to the Department of Defense and to NASA, as well as the private and commercial sector.” Well, if anyone can get the ball rolling – it’s DARPA… a bit scary though too…
June 17, 2011 at 1:35 pm #6151
Josh	Yeah, I want a space ark too
June 17, 2011 at 5:23 pm #6152
LarrySantoro	Morgan, it would appear that DARPA’s RFI is looking for proposals that could suggest areas of research and thinking that might have current, real-world applications. This seems – on one level – that they’re not researching the actual building of a Century Ship, but to find those inevitable spin-offs from such a vast project that always come about as the result of working toward something entirely different. Call it the “Teflon Effect.” In this case they want the by-products without the putative goal. That’s on one hand. On the other, maybe they know something about the near future that we don’t. There may be more than two hands of course. This is, after all, deep space we’re thinking of.
June 17, 2011 at 5:25 pm #6153
LarrySantoro	…but I’d like one, too, Josh.
June 18, 2011 at 2:36 am #6154
m1sterling	Yeah – I’d like one too… Larry – you are absolutely right. This looks like an exercise by which they can leverage ideas and technology to current and near future applications – many of the technologies would have near future applications for ‘securing the high frontier’ which we know the military wants to do… Although- it may be that they have information about what’s out there that we don’t – hence the need for a space ship… ; )
June 18, 2011 at 2:37 am #6155
m1sterling	And hell yeah I’d like one – but I’d settle for a jetpack…
June 18, 2011 at 5:27 am #6156
LarrySantoro	…and my flying car. That was promised me by Popular Mechanics back in ’49-’50. Or maybe, Morgan, they’ve got information about what’s down here.
June 18, 2011 at 9:26 am #6157
m1sterling	Larry, I like the way you think! Goodness, one can almost hear Dr. Strangelove suggesting “ten females to each male”… Radioactivity, Reptilians, the possibilities are endless as to why the Pentagon might want to relocate…
June 18, 2011 at 9:28 am #6158
m1sterling	Also, I’ve learned not to trust Popular Science or Popular Mechanics prophecies… they are almost as inaccurate as prophecies about the end of the world…. But oh how I dreamed of the things promised on their glossy covers!
June 18, 2011 at 2:16 pm #6159
LarrySantoro	I’m still waiting for my dad to build that tree house!
July 3, 2011 at 3:16 am #6160
Dinsdale	null Speaking of Popular Mechanics’ predictions…..here is a story from 1950 about life in 2000. I love the melting dishes and rooftop lake for air conditioning.
July 3, 2011 at 10:50 am #6161
Dennis M Lane	Dinsdale said: null Speaking of Popular Mechanics’ predictions…..here is a story from 1950 about life in 2000. I love the melting dishes and rooftop lake for air conditioning. “The calculator solves thousands of separate equations in a minute” WOW!!! And the phrase “eat my shorts” takes on a whole new meaning!
July 3, 2011 at 5:15 pm #6162
LarrySantoro	This is the one that get me… Any marked departure from what Joe -Dobson and his fellow citizens wear and eat and how they amuse themselves will arouse comment. If old Mrs. Underwood, who lives around the corner from the Dob-sons and who was born in 1920 insists on sleeping under an old-fashioned comforter instead of an aerogel blanket of glass puffed with air so that it is as light as thistledown, she must expect people to talk about her â€œqueerness.â€ It is astonishing how easily the great majority of us fall into step with our neighbors. And after all, is the standardization of life to be deplored if we can have a house like Joe Dobsonâ€™s, a standardized helicopter, luxurious standardized household appointments, and food that was out of the reach of any Roman emperor?
July 4, 2011 at 1:54 pm #6163
gav	100 year spaceship is quite unlikely to happen. DARPA are the Crazy Tech department and I love them for it. They’re press releases are always worth checking out and they’re into all sorts of weird stuff. Still at least they’re looking into it. In other space news I see that Zubrin has released a new edition of the Case for Mars. You should check it out.