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" Here in Orlando, just a few miles from Disney World, some serious imagineering is going on. Scientists, engineers, visionaries, hackers, and government officials are here to spearhead the most ambitious project for an agency known for its risk-taking. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which gave us the Internet, satellite positioning, and self-driving cars, is going bigger. The 100-Year Starship project is a one-year, $500,000 endeavor to lay the groundwork for building humankind&amp;#039;s first interstellar spaceship, and this conference in Orlando is the beginning.  To even realize the scope of the problem requires some mental effort. On opening day today, space propulsion expert James Benford put it this way: If the Earth-moon system were the size of one of the convention center&amp;#039;s small breakout rooms, the nearest star would be approximately at the distance to the moon. A simple way to put it: The most distant object humans have ever sent to space, Voyager I, has covered only a small faction of 1 percent of the distance to the nearest star after more than 30 years of travel. The problem of building a starship is so difficult that DARPA&amp;#039;s Tactical Technology Office director and manager for the project, David Neyland, figures it will take 100 years just to learn how to pull it off, hence the project&amp;#039;s name. But while traveling to the stars is a far-off goal, Neyland says that just working on the problem will allow the Department of Defense (of which DARPA is a part) to reap very practical benefits now. &amp;quot;We literally send millions\u2014millions\u2014of MREs, little packaged foodstuffs, to our troops in the field overseas. Is there a better way? Well, if you solve the problem for long-duration, long-distance spaceflight for food supplies, what could you do in terms of the Department of Defense for forward-operating locations?&amp;quot; Solving the problem of energy production on a starship that will have to remain powered up for a decades-long journey could similarly produce major benefits for the military. Here&amp;#039;s a preview of the enormous problems facing the DARPA conference attendees who dream of interstellar travel. We&amp;#039;ll keep you updated on the wild proposals they come up with to overcome these challenges. Propulsion It starts with propulsion\u2014simply figuring out how to travel interstellar distances. Chemical rockets, the kind that got us to the moon, just won&amp;#039;t get us to the stars. &amp;quot;You need more fuel than exists mass in the known universe,&amp;quot; says physicist Richard Obousy, president of Icarus Interstellar. Alternatives such as nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, and even antimatter propulsion systems will be on the table here. Biology and Space Medicine Billions of miles from the nearest hospital, interstellar voyagers will need to take care of their own. They&amp;#039;ll also need to protect themselves from years upon years of bombardment by radiation. Social and Economic Challenges During the 100 years that Neyland estimates it will take to even solve the problem of building a starship, who&amp;#039;s going to pay the bills for the research? Who&amp;#039;s going to foot the bill for a starship that will likely end up the size of an aircraft carrier, or bigger? And how will a starship full of colonists maintain the drive and vision they&amp;#039;ll need to colonize a new world once they get there? Solving these problems, says Neyland in true DARPA fashion, will require bringing other perspectives to bear, beyond those of the usual established scientists and engineers. That&amp;#039;s why he invited Spacehack.org founder Ariel Waldman to share the stage with him and Pete Worden, director of NASA&amp;#039;s Ames Research Center. &amp;quot;My degree is in graphic design,&amp;quot; Waldman says. &amp;quot;I have no science background whatsoever. [But] I got to work at NASA. [And] one of the most important things I ended up learning when I worked at NASA was that I didn&amp;#039;t need to be an astronaut to explore space. Not only [that], I ended up learning that I didn&amp;#039;t even need to work at NASA to explore space.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a7221/to-infinity-and-beyond-at-darpas-100-year-starship-symposium/>