NASA has awarded a $500,000 grant to the Tau Zero Foundation for a 3-year study titled "Interstellar Propulsion Review." Unlike prior studies, which were based on a specific mission concept, this study is an overall comparison between the different motivations, challenges, and approaches to interstellar flight. The work is split into three major 1-year phases: 1. Create an interstellar work breakdown structure (WBS) tailored to the divergent challenges and potentially disruptive prospects of interstellar flight in a manner that will allow for 'level-playing-field' comparisons. Prior mission and project information will be used to populate this first WBS. 2. Identify and work with subject matter experts to populate the WBS with their most recent reliable data. 3. Analyze uploaded data to identify (1) the most consequential knowledge gaps and (2) recommend research. Once all these phases are completed, the tools and methods are available to repeat the assessments as needed. Your Inputs...

by Marc Millis Recently I asked you, our readership, what you want from an interstellar organization, given the emergence of Kelvin Long's Interstellar Institute and the pending symposium of the 100 Year Starship Organization. How to sort out which organization does what? I suspect that the 100YSS will start inviting memberships (fee-based) at their Sept 13-16 symposium. Unfortunately, we will not be able to launch our new Tau Zero website until after that, in October, at which time we will finally be able to take on members (yes, it has been a long arduous process). Then you can see exactly what we have accomplished beyond our continuing Centauri Dreams news forum. I have no idea if Icarus Interstellar or the others will invite memberships around that time too. All of us have been open for donations for some time. To put the available support into context, I did a little hunting to estimate the total funds that have been contributed to all of our uniquely interstellar organizations...

by Marc Millis It occurred to me, after I wrote the post on impartiality and read the resulting comments , that a few other perspectives need to be shared. These encompass the necessity of inspiring visions, playfulness, complimentary contrasts, and tolerance for imperfection. And following that, I realized it was about time for another status update on Tau Zero. Perfectionism is a neurosis that runs in my family. My dad had it. I have it. My wife and her mom had it. And now my daughters are dealing with it. I see it in many colleagues too. Perfectionism is when striving for ultimate quality exceeds striving for utility. It occurs most when we succumb to rhetoric about 'excellence' instead of utility and creativity. At NASA, the term "gold brick" was used to describe this. I mention this because I've been making those same mistakes again while trying to convert Tau Zero from a volunteer, donation-based network into a fully functioning nonprofit corporation. Many of you have noticed...

by Marc Millis A number of things have been happening recently with the Tau Zero Foundation, but most of them have been behind the scenes. Marc Millis, founding architect of the TZF and former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project, now goes public with his thoughts on recent activities and where the Foundation is heading. To the fans and contributors of Tau Zero, thanks for your help and suggestions. It's time to talk about recent progress and next-steps. One major news item is that I took an early retirement from NASA, in February 2010, so that I could devote more time to Tau Zero. As much as I tried, I could not do both. I had to make the hard choice between following NASA or leaving that full-salary day-job to make advances via the more flexible Tau Zero Foundation. Now that I'm free of prior restrictions, we are restructuring how we operate and will be eventually shifting to a "Membership" format with regular newsletters. During the first week in November, I met...

I had started today's entry -- on dark energy -- only to be sidetracked by a short piece in Space.com that almost had me spewing my morning coffee all over my keyboard. Here's a quote from the story, which focuses on a Star Wars convention in Florida held last weekend: "'Star Wars' filmmakers and fans asked NASA representatives to develop a hyperdrive that can transport astronauts through space at light speed. And to make it snappy." In response, the story quotes NASA's Joseph Tellado, a logistics manager for the International Space Station, who says this: "We need better propulsion systems. Right now I'd say that would be the one invention that would really help us out a lot. It'd be great if our astronauts could go at hyperspeed.... I believe 'Star Wars' and NASA have a lot in common. We're looking to the future. NASA is like the first stepping stone to ultimately get to that 'Star Wars' level." And the story adds this: The inspiration works both ways, with NASA and "Star Wars"...

How do you go about pushing the frontiers of propulsion science? Tau Zero Foundation founder Marc Millis discussed the question in a just published interview with h+ Magazine. One aspect of the question is to recognize where we are today. Millis is on record as saying that it may be two to four centuries before we're ready to launch an Alpha Centauri mission. Why the delay? The problem is not so much high-tech savvy as it is available energy, and Millis evaluates it by comparing the energy we use for rocketry today vs. the entire Earth's consumption of energy. The question is how much energy we produce and how much we consume, and what percentage of that is devoted to spaceflight. You can see and hear Millis discussing his calculations on the matter in a presentation he made at the TEDx Brussels 2009 session, one that is linked to from the interview. Obviously, the time to the Centauri stars decreases if we decide to put ten times more energy into the space program than we have...

Tau Zero's Kelvin Long seems to be everywhere these days, his most recent publication being a summary of the interstellar sessions at the UK Space Conference, held in early April. You can read that one here, where you'll discover that Long also provides a thorough backgrounder on the Tau Zero Foundation, its goals and vision for the future. Some of these goals are much discussed in these pages -- to make incremental progress toward the robotic and human exploration of the stars by using philanthropic funding to support credible research by Tau Zero 'practitioner' scientists. Other goals include practical ways to expand the public perception of interstellar issues, including supporting students through scholarships, offering educational products, and organizing sessions at established conferences. Echoes naturally arise from the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project that Marc Millis once managed for NASA, but in fact Tau Zero hopes to take a significantly different course, and one...

by Marc G. Millis Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program and founding architect of the Tau Zero Foundation, now gives us a look at the Foundation's current status and his thoughts on where it's going. To those who have been waiting for the Tau Zero Foundation to begin in earnest, your patience is greatly appreciated. We are definitely making progress and this article describes that status. Sneak preview For the readers of Centauri Dreams, the URL at the end of this article takes you to a sneak preview of our public website. Although the site is far from done (many corrections and additions still needed) enough content is there to give you an idea of what we're delivering. Donations can now be accepted via the "support us" page (hint, hint). Yes, even modest donations speed up progress. We are, after all, still an all-volunteer effort, setting this up in addition to our day-jobs. Stages of Implementation Initially a network of volunteers, the Tau...

Tau Zero Foundation founder Marc Millis has been anything but idle this spring. The good news, which I am finally able to share, is that he and a team of scientists have been compiling a book that is truly a first of its kind. Frontiers of Propulsion Science is a collection of essays about where we are today and where we are going with propulsion research. This book is the work of many hands, and if you'll peruse the list, you'll see it contains some of the major names in this field. Many of them, I am pleased to say, are Tau Zero practitioners (for background on what a 'practitioner' of TZF is, see this background document on the Foundation). Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the book is intended for aerospace engineering and science audiences, with a goal of describing current research and offering pointers for following up these issues. And while this will be an expensive text, designed for a graduate school and above reading level, it is the...

by Marc Millis Centauri Dreams is pleased to report again on the status of the Tau Zero Foundation. Founded by Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program, the Foundation's goal is to support credible research into interstellar flight, with a realistic understanding that incremental progress toward this goal can only be made through persistent, long-term effort. Here Millis describes the current state of affairs, and discusses the necessary next steps for the young Foundation. For those awaiting the debut of the Tau Zero Foundation, I thought I would take this time to let you know how it will be implemented. The first stage, setting up the basic operation and a pool of expert practitioners, is already happening. From the combined work of our practitioners we will debut a public website that explains the status of this work and the next practical steps to be taken toward interstellar flight. At that same time will be ready to accept general memberships....

An interview with Marc Millis, founder of the Tau Zero Foundation, was posted yesterday on Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log on the MSNBC Web site. After discussing the so-called 'antigravity' phenomenon known as the Podkletnov effect, which has been called into serious question by recent studies that found no evidence for it, Millis went on to discuss other, more intriguing research. From the interview: Millis is more interested in research into the Woodward effect - "a transient inertia effect" that could eventually have implications for propulsion, if verified - as well as a more recent study of "a fairly large gravitomagnetic effect, too large to be explained with general relativity as we understand it so far." He cautioned that "we're not talking about an immediate propulsive effect, and it might be a measuring artifact." But at least the research illustrates that there are still mysteries out there that could someday turn those science-fiction dreams into practical starflight. Centauri...

by Marc Millis Welcome to the birth of a new foundation. Using the dream of reaching other worlds as a long-range goal and a catalyst for near-term progress, the Tau Zero Foundation supports incremental advancements in science, technology, and education. As a private nonprofit (501c3) corporation, supported mainly through philanthropic donations, the Foundation seeks out and directs support to the best practitioners who can make credible progress toward this incredible goal and educate the public during this journey of discovery. WHY The enormous benefits of practical interstellar flight should be obvious. Not only would this free humanity from having just one safe haven, Earth, but the technological spin-offs would be profound. Imagine the consequences, where breakthroughs in transportation, energy conversion, and sustainable habitats would be realized on Earth as well as for expanding human presence beyond Earth. These technologies could answer a wide range of human needs....

Last February, Centauri Dreams described the formation of a new foundation, a private nonprofit (501c3) corporation dedicated to supporting the advances in science, technology and education that may one day enable us to reach the stars. Conceived by Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program, the foundation aims to support a carefully chosen group of researchers whose work is directed at this goal. On that occasion, I described the fledgling foundation's need for a name and asked for comments from readers. Now that the choice has been made and the necessary legal work accomplished, it's time to announce the advent of the Tau Zero Foundation. Inspired by the Poul Anderson novel of the same name and seconded by a number of readers, Tau Zero seemed a natural fit. Tau refers to the Greek letter representing proper time in relativistic equations. Tau Zero refers to what happens when one approaches light-speed and one's proper time shrinks compared to the...

by Ian Brown Centauri Dreams' discussions of a foundation to support research into interstellar flight caught the eye of Edinburgh-based science writer Ian Brown. As far as I know, the article that resulted is the first appearance of the new foundation in the mainstream media, and it is reprinted here with the permission of its author and The Scotsman, where it ran on February 4 of this year. Brown discusses the background and thinking behind the still unnamed foundation with Marc Millis, the group's founding architect. We are very close to a final decision on the name, incidentally; Centauri Dreams will post that news as soon as it is finalized. The staggering claims submitted in a scientific paper last month (see The Scotsman, January 5th) that we might be able to travel to alien star-systems in months rather than millennia were sensational enough to make the cover of New Scientist magazine. Don't plan that trip to Alpha Centauri just yet, though. The 'hyperdrive' - which would...

Long-time Centauri Dreams readers know that I've written repeatedly about a non-profit foundation to support research into interstellar flight. The groundwork for this foundation, as you will see below, dates back over a decade. It is now time to get busy with practicalities, the first of which is the choice of a name. In 1993, a father and son team, Ed and Jon Hujsak, tracked down the leading researchers on advanced space propulsion and together they founded the "Interstellar Propulsion Society." Some of its 15 advisors included Robert Forward, Greg Matloff, Tony Martin, Geoff Landis, Bob Zubrin, Dana Andrews, and Marc Millis. With the Internet and digital libraries now available to facilitate collaboration, this grass-roots society aimed to "accelerate scientific and engineering advancement in space propulsion, leading to manned missions to other star system at fractional light speeds, relativistic velocities and beyond." But the Interstellar Propulsion Society was short-lived....