Is There a Secret NASA Starship Program ?

[Flesh Thorn]

A NASA official may have made a 35-million-mile slip of the tongue.

The director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California casually let slip mention of the 100-Year Starship recently, a new program funded by the super-secret government agency, DARPA. In a talk at San Francisco's Long Conversation conference, Simon “Pete” Worden said DARPA has $1M to spend, plus another $100,000 from NASA itself, for the program, which will initially develop a new kind of propulsion engine that will take us to Mars or beyond.

There's only one problem: The astronauts won't come back.

The 100-year ship would leave Earth with the intention of colonizing a planet, but it would likely be a one-way trip because of the time it takes to travel 35 million miles. That’s a daunting prospect, partly because of the ethical dilemma, and partly because it may be the only recourse.


Read More

DARPA News Release

[rgrokelley]

New hope for the Astro door gunner program, now that the Space Shuttle is taking its last flight

[AntonA2W]

Ya beat me to it, RgrOkelly, was gonna ask where I can find info on Door-Gunner slots that are open!!

[GoldCoast]

I'm getting annoyed at our political system. I'll go.

[RangerX]

I'm getting annoyed at our political system. I'll go.

I was going to suggest we send some politicians instead, but the hippies would bitch about polluting space.....

[RANGER513]

A leader should lead, right ?

I vote for slap-Obama to be on board the first flight...........never to return again.

[RangerX]

A leader should lead, right ?

I vote for slap-Obama to be on board the first flight...........never to return again.

Yeah, but then he would have a legacy.

[IEDmagnet]

And for the love of humanity- he would be representing us on strange new worlds where no man has gone before. First impressions can be a bitch.

Could very well spark the War of the Worlds scenario, i'd prefer my Zombie apocalypse scenario.