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Subscribe to RSSFrom April 15, 2010: Former astronaut Mae Jemison tells MSNBC she believes President Barack Obama's plans for NASA will help the agency move forward. Jemison is to lead the "100 Year Starship" effort.
The Pentagon's think tank has selected the group that will manage its "100 Year Starship" project to explore what it would take for a multigenerational mission beyond the solar system, and sources say the leader will be Mae Jemison, who became the first black woman in space in 1992.
In the 20 years since then, Jemison has founded several ventures — including The Jemison Group, a technology design and consulting company; and the Houston-based Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which takes on educational projects. Jemison, a 55-year-old Alabama native who has experience as a physician and a Peace Corps worker as well as an astronaut, played a prominent role in facilitating the 100 Year Starship symposium organized by NASA and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Florida last fall.
One of the follow-ups from that seminar was to be the award of a $500,000 contract from DARPA to continue study of the technological, political and social requirements for ultra-long-term projects such as interstellar space missions. Several ventures put in proposals, and one of the groups that didn't win the contract, the Tau Zero Foundation, said in this week's email update that the contract was going to a team "led by an ex-astronaut."
The BBC identified the ex-astronaut as Jemison, based on the text of an unreleased letter from DARPA. It also reported that Jemison's foundation was teaming up with two other groups, Icarus Interstellar and the Foundation for Enterprise Development.
NASA file
Jemison was the first black woman in space in 1992.
DARPA has not yet publicly announced the selection, and my efforts to contact the agency's representatives have been unsuccessful so far. But after the BBC's story, the report was confirmed on the Centauri Dreams blog by Paul Gilster, who is affiliated with the Tau Zero Foundation. Gilster said Jemison's organization "now takes on the challenge of building a program that can last 100 years, and might one day result in a starship."
Adam Crowl, director of Icarus Interstellar, elaborated in a blog comment:
"... Project Icarus will keep running as it has since 2009, and the end point will be an interstellar probe design, chiefly fusion-propelled in the boost phase. That’s due at some point in 2014.
"Icarus Interstellar is a broader banner for a whole group of interstellar related research projects, Project Icarus being just one, which will be producing designs and doing basic research with the common goal of building the technical foundation required for eventual successful interstellar flight.
"Now in light of this news, we’ll be under the banner of the 100 Year Starship Organization, which covers more than just the technical aspects. Each of the triad came to our happy union with different strengths and emphases – Mae Jemison’s organization covering education and broader social goals, the Foundation for Enterprise Development covering innovative organization and operational approaches, and Icarus Interstellar covering the technical aspects. Together we’ll be working towards an organization that will last 100 years and produce a viable interstellar technology, with benefits for all humankind."
The $500,000 DARPA grant is intended to serve as seed money for the 100 Year Starship Organization. Meanwhile, the founder of Tau Zero, former NASA researcher Marc Millis, suggested in his email update that Tau Zero would lower its profile:
"It is too soon to know how this selection will affect Tau Zero's goal to rigorously and impartially guide progress toward interstellar flight. With insufficient funding to go around, I feel that it would be a disservice to the community for Tau Zero to attempt to compete with this new organization, especially considering that this new organization now has significantly more than an order of magnitude more funding. I hope they serve the community well."
Millis said Centauri Dreams would "continue to operate as an impartial and articulate news source and discussion forum on all things interstellar."
Courtesy of Adrian Mann
An artist's impression shows the Icarus starship accelerating past Jupiter, gaining a valuable boost in speed with the help of the gas giant's gravity, slingshotting it toward its interstellar destination.
Jemison has made a name for herself not only as the first black woman in space, but also as the first real-life astronaut to appear on a "Star Trek" episode. How big of a role will she and her partners play in turning the "Star Trek" vision into reality, and on what time scale? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.
Update for 9 p.m. ET Jan. 9: DARPA confirmed the selection of Jemison's foundation in a brief statement attributed to Paul Eremenko, DARPA program manager, but indicated that the deal was not yet completely done:
"We can confirm that the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence has been selected for negotiation for a grant award for the 100 Year Starship effort. We have no further comment until the grant is awarded."
More about interstellar flight:
- Reality check for starships
- Billionaires wanted for starship plan
- Visionaries ponder 100-year starship
- Sex poses big challenge for interstellar travel
- Destination for first starship? Someplace that's livable
- The best options for flying to faraway stars
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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Americans can't even cooperate with their fairly elected leader for a period of a few years - who in the world thinks that a group of human space travelers could get along together and last any longer?
Well, for one, we could send a group of atheists. That would increase the odds quite a bit of a successful journey!
This is a HUGE waste of money because:
The fastest spacecraft we have developed to date (Voyager 1) travels less than 40,000 mph. While this might appear fast, it would take it over 70,000 years to reach the nearest star (Alpha Centauri). We need MUCH better propulsion technology before even attempting this with humans.
Ironically, anything we send 100-200 years from now would easily beat any interstellar spacecraft sent within the next 10-30 years, due to better technology.
We haven't even gotten to Mars with a manned mission yet--our nearest star (other than, of course, our Sun) is 600,000 times further from us than Mars!
The money would be much better spent trying to resolve issues related to increasing the success of future manned Mars missions (radiation shielding, advanced propulsion technologies, such as VASIMR, rotating cabins to obviate micro-gravity bone loss and muscle atrophy, etc.), all of which would help with a future interstellar mission.
Well said. Good points.
$500,000?
How about we find some forward-thinking 'job creators' to fund this with... say... BILLIONS?
Sadly, I think the private sector is the way to go. Our country is going to be broke trying to cover 'entitlements' over the next few decades.
And I'm a huge fan of NASA and space exploration.
Oh, and I'd gladly pay MORE taxes if only they could be directed to fund NASA.
7. That's the number of posts till the first anti Obama posting. These guys would blame Obama if the sun don't shine.
They've invaded so many threads, that I'm beginning to wonder if they aren't some clever type of 'bot.
Now, this is an interesting article. NASA self-admittedly will not be ready to go back to the moon before 2020. Sending a manned mission to Mars is planned by 2030. We do not currently have the capability to fly humans out of the solar system. With chemical propulsion rockets, a manned mission to Pluto would take more than a generation. Sending people to interstellar voyage with current technology would take in excess of ten thousand years. And that is one-way, to the closest star system, Proxima-Centauri, 4.5 light years away. So why does DARPA investigate the possibility? Do they have some undisclosed technology that would make interstellar travel worth to think about? And why is it the Pentagon - and not NASA or other civilian agencies - that is curious about flying to other stars? What would be the military objective?
You do realize this is an exercise in mental space masturbation right? This will go nowhere. This means nothing and is a complete waste of time and money. "Obama's plan sets the direction and allows NASA to move forward?" are you kidding me? We are 50-100 years away from the technology to actually start such a mission. That is at a minimum. This is a total waste of money and effort and is basically a joke, along with Obama's entire space plan, if you can call it one. This adminstration can't disappear fast enough. Obama has gutted and destroyed our space program.
The ultimate waste of time and taxpayer money.
My cat Skipper cannot go. Maybe they will take congress on the trip and they can be gone for 100 years.
Hey, I have an idea: Let's take only people who can pass an IQ test (130 or higher), and lets leave behind anyone who's ever been involved in a fist fight over the outcome of a spectator sport or been convicted of stealing a pair of Nikes.
Yes, I may be a bit egotistical, but I often feel like I have to share space on this planet with billions of trained monkeys, many of whom are just barely smart enough to know when they're being insulted and therefore have to be tolerated with a smile in order to avoid open hostilities.
The scary thing is that we may have to evolve in parallel on the same planet, and that's only going to work so long. Intelligent, civilized people breeding only with other intelligent, civilized people will eventually bring about secondary races of human beings whose potential is so obviously limited by their genetic makeup that we'll finally have to tell them out loud that they shouldn't bother applying for certain jobs. It'll be interesting to how political correctness handles that.
And no, I'm not talking about whites, blacks, Hispanics, etc. I don't care what race you are...if you're a trained monkey, then being white, black, Hispanic, or Asian comes secondary to your status as a trained monkey.
Race to Space... Not an Obama fan, but agree with the need for this type of research. If this inspires more youth to become scientists and engineers who produce vs. legal and political vampires... Then let's make it the 1,000 year project!
hmm i thought it cost trillions of tax payers money for our space program i never knew it produced anything except satelites which makes us pay to use them. big deal you got pictures of space dust and glowing pictures i can do that in a 3d program and you wouldnt be able to tell if it was from a space telescope or from my computer. and it sure doesnt cost trillions.
VOTE GOP TO STOP SPENDING
Conservatives would have stopped the Internet from happening. It's common knowledge that the conservative Republican party hates the National Science Foundation. It was the NSF that made the Internet happen, they had the vision to open the door. http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_nsfnet.htm
July 1, 1956. The Steve Allen Show, New York City. "As Elvis rehearsed for an appearance on The Steve Allen Show, national media buzzed with backlash against Elvis's hip-swinging performance on Milton Berle's show just a few weeks earlier. Conservative critics called Elvis a "disciple of the devil."
Conservatives fear a free society, trying to control what people do... whether it's in Iran or the USA! Conservatives are bad for America.
A complete freakin' waste of taxpayers' money! Corporate welfare for nerds! Humanity is so far away from interstellar flight (even to the nearest star) that there is no way the government should be funding what amounts to nothing more than thought experiments.
Every journey started with a small step. If we have people who think it can be done and are willing to risk their lives in the endeavor...then god bless and god's speed.
God even said this is a joke there is a reason humans are trapped on earth.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee
I think that the mission would be best accomplished with 3 or 5 small colonized asteroids sent all at once into the determined direction.
That is an excellent idea that I hope - and expect - the 100 Year Starship folks consider. I'm sure they are already considering that as one of the possibilities on their technical/logistic groups. In fact, that may be a possibility that will happen on it's own after the first few asteroid colonies are running smoothly :)
Someday, we will have a real manned space program like China and Russia. Then, maybe, we can make an effort that is centered on taking 'humans' into the cosmos and not just to focus on race or gender.
Someday... we can only 'hope'.
The pentagon thinking 100 yrs in the future. Your kidding right? They can't think 10 years in the future. We are always behind in weapons development....Not incompetent NASA and Pentagon are thinking of a space program for 100 years in the future..............Get a grip. This country may not even exist in 1 year unless the government stops giving money and our freedom away..we can't succeed under a communist government, and thats what we have now.
I am overjoyed to hear how much interest is being shown toward spreading humanity into the universe with the 100 Year Starship Initiative. Whether the first journey is ready to depart in a few decades, a century or multiple centuries from now is not the issue - taking the first steps in the right directions, in the right way to make that journey possible is. We need to realize - as a nation, multinational science/technology/civilized community and species - that collaboration, communication, harmony and sharing of information is neccessary to improve our possibilities of future survival and advancement in all apects of life. I hope that the people involved in the 100 Year Starship and similar programs continue to move forward and pursue all of their goals with passion and support from those who are able to help them.
sounds like a waste of needed 500,000 the need for that money is in other places right now and lets face it space is not going anywhere so it can be put off a few years.
When she gets there they will say, "she is all burned black, that planet is too close to the sun let us not go there"
Sorry, gang, but we're not going anywhere. Primary cosmic rays will make a trip to Mars difficult, and longer trips impossible. They cause cancer, and there's no realistic way to shield a manned spacecraft.
This simple fact is constantly ignored by the government agencies and aerospace firms who stand to spend and earn billions on what's basically a fantasy.
Don't believe me? See the following article, published in Scientific American.
http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/~simon_g_shepherd/research/shielding/docs/Parker_06.pdf
Could shielding be accomplished if the craft was built into a small asteroid?
Ms. Jemison is a talented highly educated woman. She had the privlidge to travel into space. She is supporting foundations that look to the future. Yet what is one of the FIRST things this article mentions---her RACE---pathetic!!!
Like most AMERICANS---we are of mixed genetic heritage. Yet the new media honed in on the melinon componant of her skin and suddenly she is first and foremost "BLACK" Did anyone ask Ms. Jemison about her genetic heritage?
You never see anyone discribing Einstein or Hawkings as "the WHITE SCIENTIST" ---so why is it necessary to do it here???
Ms. Jemison--THANK YOU for all that you have contributed to science and technology!!!
gamer4,
You shouldn't mix drugs like that.
lol dont talk about drugs i guarantee there is worse drugs in your medicine cabinet produced by our govt drug trade then i have ever done or would ever do.
Can't we just send Greece?
Smoke and mirrors time. Without a real time space program who cares about a multigenerational project. It's a distraction. China will have manned space platform on the moon in less than 5 years and China is the ONLY world government with a viable non-NEO space program currently. It will take NASA 20 years MINIMUM to catch up because it's been effectively killed by congress. Private space programs are at least 10 to 15 years away from any meaningful contribution to a real time space program. So unless there is a super secret NASA like organization that has been getting clandestine funding for the last 4 decades the U.S. has no space program and this little 'wet dream" is purely to keep the public pacified.