The 100 Year Starship

The 100 Year Starship ( 100YSS ) is a joint U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant project to a private entity. The goal of the study is to create a business plan that can foster the research and technology needed forinterstellar travel within 100 years.

Origin [ edit ]

The 100 Year Starship effort was announced by NASAAmes Research Center director,Pete Worden in a talk at San Francisco's Long Conversation conference in October 2010.In a DARPA press release officially announcing the effort,program managerPaul Eremenko, who served as the study coordinator, explained that the endeavor was meant to excite several generations to commit to the research and development of breakthrough technologies to advance the eventual goal of interstellar space travel.

Foundation [ edit ]

The 100 Year Starship study was the name of a one-year project to assess the attributes of and lay the groundwork for an organization that can carry forward the 100 Year Starship vision.

The winning bid to spearhead the 100 Year Starship effort was the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, partnering withIcarus Interstellar and the Foundation for Enterprise Development, led by the American physician and former NASA astronautMae Jemison.In 2013, the consortium was awarded a $500,000 grant for further work. The new organization maintains the organizational name 100 Year Starship.

100 Year Starship Symposia [ edit ]

Before the solicitation for the foundation, the 100 Year Starship project was preceded by a conference held inOrlando, Florida, from September 30 to October 2, 2011, co-sponsored by DARPA and NASA, organized by DARPA's Tactical Technology Office director, David Neyland.The conference included presentations on the technology, biology, physics, philosophy, sociology, and economics of interstellar flight.Selected papers from the conference were published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society .

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After the Jemison Foundation was named as winner of the grant, a second symposium was held in 2012 inHouston. Papers on a number of subjects related to interstellar flight and organization of the foundation were presented.2013 and 2014 Symposia were held in Houston,and a fifth in November 2015.

Canopus Awards [ edit ]

In 2015, the 100 Year Starship project hosted its first annual Canopus Awards for excellence in interstellar writing.The winners were announced October 30, 2015 at the symposium:

• Previously Published Long-Form Fiction (40,000 words or more): InterstellarNet: Enigma byEdward M. Lerner (FoxAcre).ISBN  978-1936771646
• Previously Published Short-Form Fiction (between 1,000 and 40,000 words): “The Waves” byKen Liu (Asimov's 12/12)
• Original Fiction (1,000-5,000 words): “Everett's Awakening” by Yelcho
• Original Non-Fiction (1,000-5,000 words): “Finding Earth 2.0 from the Focus of the Solar Gravitational Lens” byLouis Friedman &Slava Turyshev

Criticism [ edit ]

The 100 Year Starship was named in 2012 by U.S.Senator Tom Coburn as one of the 100 most wasteful government spending projects. Coburn specifically cited a 100 Year Starship workshop that included one session, entitled "Did Jesus Die forKlingons Too?" that debated the implications for Christian philosophy should life be found on other planets.

See also [ edit ]