DARPA awarded US$500,000 in seed funding to the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence to form 100 Year Starship (100YSS), an independent, non-governmental initiative that will call on experts from a variety of fields (artists and entertainers will get a say alongside scientists, engineers and others) to develop the capabilities for human interstellar flight “as soon as possible, and definitely within the next 100 years.”

“Yes, it can be done. Our current technology arc is sufficient,” said Dr. Mae Jamison, a former NASA astronaut, creator of the winning 100YSS proposal and leader of the new organization. “100 Year Starship is about building the tools we need to travel to another star system in the next 100 years.”

A public symposium will also be held in Houston, Texas, from September 13 to 16, 2012, in what will be an annual event “open to scientific papers, engineering challenges, philosophical and socio-cultural considerations, economic incentives, application of space technologies to improve life on Earth, imaginative exploration of the stumbling blocks and opportunities to the stars, and broad public involvement.”


100 year Starship website, http://100yss.org/