The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a new program in collaboration with NASA that is sure to intrigue Trekkieseverywhere. Called the 100-Year Starship Study, it’s designed to lay out what it would take to create an organization that could boldly go where no man (or woman, or transgender person) has gone before. The last couple of times DARPA got its thing on for a big project, the result was a trip to the moon and the development of the Internet, so it’s interesting to look ahead to the impact the project could have on our favorite topic, alternative energy.
DARPA and the Sputnik Moment
The 100-Year Starship project kicked off last fall and it passed an initial milestone in January with a strategic planning workshop. Just about a week or so after the workshop, President Obama gave his State of the Union address calling upon the nation to invest its resources in another “Sputnik moment,” and come to think of itDARPA was commissioned in 1958 directly in response to the Sputnik launch, so that’s a neat little coincidence (in another not-quite-cosmic coincidence, the Space Shuttle program is winding down and hundreds of experienced NASA employees will be looking for a new project to occupy their time).
Baby Steps for the 100-Year Starship
