14 DAY TRIAL // As many know by now, the American space agency and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are engaged in the earliest stages of a project that aims to build a starship within a century. Now, DARPA is calling for more proposals to be discussed later on.
This is yet another step in the $1 million 100-Year Starship Study, which was put into motion earlier this year. The goal of the call for proposals is to identify the most relevant course of actions that could possibly be taken for achieving the long-term objective.
There are countless new technologies that need to be invented before a starship can be constructed, and scientists need to identify them at this point. When this stage is completed, experts will have clear goals towards which to work.
Experts say that we now are at a point in time where we cannot fathom the technologies we would need for a starship. They draw a parallel to how Jules Verne must have been in the dark back in 1865, when he wrote “From the Earth to the Moon.”
The famed science-fiction writer had no idea what was needed for this to happen. Similarly, NASA and DARPA are still very much in the dark about the same issue, hence the call for suggestions.
“Verne couldn't have known about what was needed to go to the Moon. That's probably where we are today in terms of the 100-Year Starship,” explains the director of the DARPA Tactical Technology Office, David Neyland.
The expert believes that this long-term goal will have the added benefit of creating a multitude of spin-off technologies, that will benefit mankind in other areas than space exploration and space travel.
Advanced fuel production and storage technologies would need to be developed as well. This could in turn have tremendous applications for soldiers fighting in the battlefield today. Protecting fuel supplies is one of the most dangerous assignments, and a vital one at that.
“Clearly a starship would have to be energy neutral, and would not able to stop off at a gas station along the way,” Neyland explains, adding that the same holds true for health problems. “You can't go home to get prescriptions for antibiotics if someone gets sick,” he argues.
DARPA will discuss all proposals it receives by July 8 during a meeting that will take place from September 30 through October 2, in Orlando, Florida, Space reports.