NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are joining forces to take the first step in the next era of space exploration – a journey between the stars.
Called the 100-Year Starship study, the joint appraisal looks to develop the business case for an enduring organization designed to incentivize breakthrough technologies enabling future spaceflight.
“The 100-Year Starship study is about more than building a spacecraft or any one specific technology,” said Paul Eremenko, DARPA coordinator for the study.
“We endeavor to excite several generations to commit to the research and development of breakthrough technologies and cross-cutting innovations across a myriad of disciplines such as physics, mathematics, biology, economics, and psychological, social, political and cultural sciences,” Eremenko explains.
In addition, the study will embrace the full range of engineering disciplines to advance the goal of long-distance space travel, Eremenko added.
DARPA and the NASA Ames Research Center have teamed to establish the 100-Year Starship study, designed to examine the business model needed to develop and mature a technology portfolio enabling long-distance manned space flight a century from now.
DARPA also anticipates that the advancements achieved by such technologies will have substantial relevance to Department of Defense (DoD) mission areas including: propulsion, energy storage, biology/life support, computing, structures, navigation, and others.
Beyond the DoD and NASA, these investments will reinvigorate private entrepreneurs, the engineering and scientific community, and the world’s youth in a bold quest for the stars, according to a DARPA statement.
By LD/CSE