You'll want to bookmark the 100 Year Starship Initiative's new site, which just came online. From the mission statement: 100 Year Starship will pursue national and global initiatives, and galvanize public and private leadership and grassroots support, to assure that human travel beyond our solar system and to another star can be a reality within the next century. 100 Year Starship will unreservedly dedicate itself to identifying and pushing the radical leaps in knowledge and technology needed to achieve interstellar flight while pioneering and transforming breakthrough applications to enhance the quality of life on earth. We will actively include the broadest swath of people in understanding, shaping, and implementing our mission. And check here for news about the 2012 public symposium, which will be held in Houston from September 13-16. Quoting from that page: This year, 2012, DARPA gave its stamp of approval to and seed funded —100 Year Starship (100YSS)—a private...
An Interstellar Reminiscence
by A. A. Jackson Although it was probably science fiction that got Al Jackson into interstellar flight, he remembers discovering the work of Eugen Sänger back around 1960 and becoming energized to seek out the few scientific papers on relativistic rocket designs that were then available. With a firm background in engineering, he turned to physics in 1975, receiving a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, a natural move for a man who had worked for NASA during the heyday of Apollo as astronaut trainer on the Lunar Module Simulator. Going through Al’s papers is a fascinating exercise in its own right, but I was reminded because of our recent articles on Robert Bussard’s ramjet ideas that Al had worked with Daniel Whitmire. Bussard spoke about fusing protons in his ramscoop engine, but subsequent analysis showed that the power needed to compress protons to fusion densities far outweighed the power that would be produced. It was Daniel Whitmire who developed the ‘catalytic ramjet’...
A Brief Window: The Bussard Ramjet in the 1960s
It's fascinating to watch how expansive ideas take hold in the public imagination. The idea of a starship that could scoop up particles from the interstellar medium came to Robert Bussard while he was at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and, as we saw recently in our articles on slowing down a starship, became the basis for subsequent magsail concepts because Bussard's design evidently generates far more drag than effective thrust. But before the problems of the design became widely known, Walter Sullivan, a writer for the New York Times, had brought the ramjet into play for future human journeys to the stars in a book called We Are Not Alone (definitely not the same book as the 2011 title by Dirk Schulze-Makuch). Subtitled 'The Continuing Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence' in its latest revision, the original 1964 book was written at a time when SETI was an infant discipline (although the later revision goes through the Drake equation and places SETI in the context of...
Century of the Starship
I once thought about putting together a collection of classic papers on interstellar flight. It would start with early work by the likes of Les Shephard, Eugen Sänger and Carl Wiley (whose groundbreaking paper on solar sails appeared not in a scientific journal but in Astounding Science Fiction). The book would proceed with the key papers of Forward, Bussard and Dyson and move into papers from the Project Daedalus report, then to Matloff and Mallove and up to the present day, with a long look at the Italian solar sail work of Vulpetti, Maccone and Genta. Especially later in this period there is abundant material to choose from, and there's Alcubierre to consider, and Millis' work with the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project. And then there's Geoff Landis and Robert Frisbee and the closely reasoned sociological analyses of Michael Michaud and... Well, you can see what happens when you start pondering editing possibilities. The book is already growing to enormous size and I've done...
Upcoming Interstellar Sessions
It's shaping up to be an interesting week. I want to get to the recent Kepler data release, and also to the antimatter news from CERN, and I also want to talk about everything from decelerating an interstellar craft to models of expansion into the galaxy a la Frank Tipler. [And thanks to Centauri Dreams reader Eric Goldstein for reminding me of the upcoming WISE data release on the 14th!]. For today, though, let's look at two upcoming conferences, especially since I'm running behind in getting to the first of them, the CONTACT 2012 gathering, which is coming up right away. The full title of this one is CONTACT: Cultures of the Imagination, and it's a meeting with a rich history. Back in 1979, Jim Funaro was teaching a course in anthropology at Cabrillo College (Aptos, CA) that used science fiction as a vector into the scientific issues his course raised. The course allowed students to go to work creating cultures and, in a game-like simulation, to explore how the fictional societies...
Science Fiction and the Probe
Physicist Al Jackson, who is the world's greatest dinner companion, holds that title because amongst his scientific accomplishments, he is also a fountainhead of information about science fiction. No matter which writer you bring up, he knows something you never heard of that illuminates that writer's work. So it was no surprise that when the subject of self-replicating probes came up in these pages, Al would take note in the comments of Philip K. Dick's story "Autofac," which ran in the November, 1955 issue of H. L. Gold's Galaxy. A copy of that issue sits, I am happy to say, not six feet away from me on my shelves. This is actually the first time I ever anticipated Al -- like him, I had noticed "Autofac" as one of the earliest science fiction treatments of the ideas of self-replication and nanotechnology, and had written about it in my Centauri Dreams book back in 2004. If any readers know of earlier SF stories on the topic, please let me know in the comments. In the story, the two...
Remembering an Astronautical Pioneer
by Claudio Maccone Physicist Les Shepherd, whose funeral is today, left friends throughout the astronautical community. Claudio Maccone, who worked with Shepherd on many occasions, was quick to offer his recollections of this remarkable man whose standards of excellence and unflagging support helped many young scientists as they embarked on careers in space science. A young guy (44 years old, i.e. "young" by IAA standards) joins the IAA Interstellar Space Exploration Committee (ISEC) headed by Les Shepherd and Giovanni Vulpetti: that happened at the World Space Congress in Washington, D.C., USA, also known as the 43rd IAC, August 28 - September 5, 1992). I was then working at Alenia Spazio SpA in Torino (Turin), Italy, and I had this secret love for future interstellar space missions ("secret" since at my space company nobody was interested, of course). So, I consulted with my good old friend and "teacher" (he is senior than I) Giovanni Vulpetti, who was in a similar position at...
Les Shepherd, RIP
There are so many things to say about Les Shepherd, who died on Saturday, February 18, that I scarcely know where to begin. Born in 1918, Leslie Robert Shepherd was a key player in the creation of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), becoming its third president in 1957 -- this was at the 8th Congress in Barcelona just a week after the launch of Sputnik -- and in 1962 he would be called upon to serve as its president for a second time. A specialist in nuclear fission who became deeply involved in nuclear reactor technology, Shepherd was one of the founding members of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), and served as chairman of the Interstellar Space Exploration Committee, which met for the first time at the 1984 IAF Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IAF Congress in Stockholm the following year was the scene of the first ISEC symposium on interstellar flight, one whose papers were subsequently collected in one of the famous 'red cover' issues of the...
Toward a New ‘Prime Directive’
The Italian contribution to the interstellar effort has been substantial, and I'm pleased to know three of its principal practitioners: Claudio Maccone, Giancarlo Genta, and Giovanni Vulpetti. It was with great pleasure, then, that I took Roberto Flaibani up on his offer of appearing in his excellent blog Il Tredicesimo Cavaliere (The Thirteenth Knight). Roberto had translated several Centauri Dreams articles into Italian in the previous year and was now looking for comments on the ramifications of human contact with extraterrestrials as we push into interstellar space. This article on Star Trek's Prime Directive grew out of our talks and became part of a broader discussion of related articles on Roberto's site. I thank him for continuing to translate my work into Italian, and now offer the original essay to Centauri Dreams readers. I should probably throw in a qualifier -- I've always enjoyed Star Trek but am hardly a rabid fan, getting most of my science fiction not from film or TV...
Our Meaning-Stuffed Dreams
Gregory Benford's work is so widely known that it almost seems absurd to introduce him, but for any Centauri Dreams readers who have somehow missed it, I challenge you to read In the Ocean of Night and not become obsessed with reading this author's entire output. This week has been a science fictional time for Centauri Dreams, with discussion of SF precedents to modern discoveries in the comments for stories like Marc Millis' 'Future History.' So it seems appropriate to end the week with an essay Greg published yesterday on his own site, one that appealed to me so much that I immediately asked him for permission to run it again here. In the essay, Greg takes a look at science fiction writer Thomas Disch and in particular the way his thoughts on SF illuminate not just the genre but the world we live in. It's insightful stuff, and makes me reflect on how our ideas of the future shape our upcoming realities. I will also admit to a fascination with science fiction's history that never...
100 Year Starship Winner Announced
These are good times for Icarus Interstellar, which teamed with the Dorothy Jemison Foundation and the Foundation for Enterprise Development to win the 100 Year Starship proposal grant. Mae Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut to fly into space, founded DJF in honor of her late mother. As lead on the proposal, her organization now takes on the challenge of building a program that can last 100 years, and might one day result in a starship. Centauri Dreams congratulates the winning trio, and especially Kelvin Long, Richard Obousy and Andreas Tziolas, whose labors in reworking the Project Daedalus design at Icarus Interstellar have paid off. While the award was announced to the winners at the end of last week, I held up the news here while the three parties involved coordinated their own announcement. But I see that other venues are picking up the story, as in this Sharon Weinberger piece for the BBC and now a similar article in Popular Science, so it seems time to go...
A Future History
Predictions about the future of technology are so often wide of the mark, yet for many of us they're irresistible. They fuel our passion for science fiction and the expansive philosophy of thinkers like Olaf Stapledon. To begin 2012, Tau Zero founder Marc Millis offers up a set of musings about where we may be going, a scenario that, given the alternatives, sounds about as upbeat as we're likely to get. by Marc Millis "If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative." ~ Arthur C. Clarke In the 'new year' spirit of looking ahead, I offer now my personal views of 'a' possible future. These predictions are based first on trend extrapolations, include intersections from other disciplines, and work in the wildcard possibility of breakthrough propulsion physics. Consider this a science fictional offering intended to provoke thought rather than a...
Prior Visions of Star Flight
by Marc Millis Here is a holiday gift from Tau Zero as compiled by TZF's founding architect Marc Millis. It's part of Marc's continuing effort to find earlier references to the interstellar concepts -- many of them in fiction -- that we routinely ponder today. Some of these go back to the early 20th Century and in some cases the 19th. Compilations like this are always works in progress, as we found when putting together a list of interstellar propulsion concepts for the first chapter of the book Marc and Eric Davis edited, Frontiers of Propulsion Science, where one memory triggered another and the list kept growing. Readers are encouraged, then, to add other references to older material, as those of us who delight in prowling through old science fiction magazines have access to a mother lode of fictional precedents. I'll also mention that this post will be the last of 2011 -- as I did last week, I'll skip the Friday and Monday posts in honor of the holiday, with the next post...
Spaceflight and Legends: A Dialogue with Michael Michaud
I’ve been hoping to publish a dialogue between Michael Michaud and myself ever since talking to him at the 100 Year Starship Symposium and pondering his paper “Long-Term Perspectives on Interstellar Flight." Centauri Dreams readers will know Michael as the author of the must-have Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials (Springer, 2006), and will also remember his contributions to previous articles in these pages. He has served as director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Advanced Technology and acted as chairman of working groups at the International Academy of Astronautics that discuss SETI issues, in addition to publishing numerous articles and papers on the implications of contact. In this dialogue, I took some of the elements of his 100 Year Starship presentation and used them as the launching pad for an exploration of how to turn humanity’s attention starward. PG: Michael, I’ve been going through the paper you presented...
Notes & Queries 12/14/11
I normally scan through various news items for the Notes & Queries posts, but in this case I've been trying to catch up on my reading. In particular, I've been looking at books that could be useful in inspiring young people to get interested in astronomy and engineering. Here's a look at three titles that more or less fit that bill. The budding rocket scientist will love the revised Zubrin, particularly with its infectious and expansive sense of what's possible, but younger students may find their minds tweaked by the two other selections, both of which I'd recommend for a high-school audience. We never know what can launch a career, but scientists are always reminding me of particular books they read when they were kids that made all the difference. Back to the Red Planet Toward the end of Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars (revised edition, 2011), the author looks at three possible models for getting humans to the Red Planet. It's a significant section because Zubrin recognizes the...
Obousy Appearance on TV Tonight
Be aware that the History Channel show The Universe will air an episode at 2200 EST tonight (December 13) in which Richard Obousy will discuss interstellar propulsion concepts. The air time will probably vary depending on your cable provider, so be sure to check. Richard, once project leader of the Icarus effort and still actively involved at every stage of the Icarus design, is a Texas-based physicist whose work we have often discussed in these pages. I was there for his presentation on Icarus at the recent Oak Ridge interstellar workshop and look forward to seeing him on the tube. Addendum: This episode is now available online.
Terraforming: Enter the ‘Shell World’
If we ever achieve manned missions to the stars, one of the assumptions is that we will find planets much like Earth that we might live on and colonize. But what if the assumption is flawed? There are surely many Earth analogues in the Milky Way, but we don't know how widely they are spaced, and a near-miss isn't necessarily helpful, as both Mars and Venus attest. People like Robert Zubrin continue to advocate terraforming as a solution for Mars, and it may well happen one day, but supposing we get to another star, would we have the moral right to terraform a world with living creatures on it, even if they didn't meet our criteria for intelligence? Robert Kennedy (The Ultimax Group), working with colleagues Kenneth Roy and David Fields, has been pondering these issues and went through a possible solution at the recent Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop in Oak Ridge. If we stop worrying about Earth analogues, a range of interesting possibilities open up, as our own Solar System...
Interstellar Flight: Equations and Art
Les Johnson (MSFC) always says that the coolest job title he ever had in his long career at NASA was Manager of Interstellar Propulsion Research. Think about it -- if going to the stars is your passion and you have a title like that, you must feel that you have really arrived. These days he goes by the more prosaic title of Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, but as the recent interstellar workshop in Oak Ridge demonstrated, he's also ranging widely on his own as conference organizer, author and science fiction aficionado. His presentation in Oak Ridge was designed to jump start the conference with a survey of the problems of interstellar flight and the long list of possible propulsion solutions. The Interstellar Conundrum The problems are clear enough. Think of the distance between the Earth and the Sun (about 150 million kilometers). That's 1 astronomical unit (AU). Shrink that distance to one foot and imagine the Solar...
Interstellar Workshop in Tennessee
I'm just back from the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop in Oak Ridge, having made it through the Smokies on a rainy, chilly night that saw fog along the ridges and often down in the valleys. It was a haunting drive in ways, the low ceilings making for slow driving and the sense of being surrounded by unseen peaks and deep gorges that were always just out of view. I had hoped to meet with Les Johnson and Robert Kennedy at the latter's house for the pre-conference festivities, but arrived too late and worn out to do anything but get to sleep. The workshop was an intense, one-day affair (a good thing I got that sleep!) that started at 8:00 the next day and concluded about 10:40 that night, and judging from the discussion at the end, it will become a regular event. It was great to see old friends. Les and I last talked at Aosta two years ago. Claudio Maccone had come from Italy and would be lecturing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the Karhunen-Loève transform the following day...
Technological Leaps in Perspective
Wednesday is a travel day for me, and one with little chance to do any posting here. I'll leave you, then, with a quotation, and get back to normal posting tomorrow. Interstellar travel is incredibly difficult, perhaps as difficult to us today as a flight to Mars would have appeared to Christopher Columbus or other would-be transoceanic navigators 500 years ago. Indeed, the ratio of the distance from Earth to Mars compared to Columbus' voyage from Spain to the Caribbean -- 80,000:1 -- is roughly the same as the ratio of the distance to Alpha Centauri compared to a trip to Mars. Thus, the key missions required to establish humanity successively as a Type I, Type II, and Type III civilization all stand in similar relation to each other, and if the 500 years since Columbus have sufficed to multiply human capabilities to the point where we now can reach for Mars, so a similar span into the future might be expected to prepare us for the leap to the stars. Actually, it should not take so...