DARPA 100-Year Starship Symposium Begins

100 Year Starship Symposium Kicks Off to Ponder Interstellar Travel

by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

Date: 13 September 2012 Time: 07:01 AM ET

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A potential spacecraft called Icarus Pathfinder would be powered by VASIMR engines, taking it out to 1,000 AU (the distance between the Earth and sun). CREDIT: Adrian Mann View full size image

HOUSTON — Celebrities, scientists, artists and astronauts are converging here today (Sept. 13) to discuss what it will take to send a spaceship to another star.
The second annual 100 Year Starship Symposium is kicking off, under the auspices of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to ponder the technology, psychology, sociology, and economics of interstellar spaceflight.
Notable attendees include actors Nichelle Nichols and LeVar Burton, who appeared on television's "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation," respectively; space journalist Miles O'Brien; alien-hunting astronomer Jill Tarter, a co-founder of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute; and Johnnetta Cole, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Former President Bill Clinton is backing the conference as its honorary chair, and the symposium chair is former astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to travel to space.

More: http://www.space.com/17568-100-year-starship-symposium-kicks-off.html

Source: Space.com .

Related Blog Post:

DARPA 100-Year Starship Project Supported by Former U.S. President (2012 Sept. 8)

>>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/09/100-year-starship-project-supported-by.html

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