[FPSPACE] FW: Centauri Dreams - The Ultimate Project to the Stars

[LARRY KLAES]

>From: Centauri Dreams <gilster at mindspring.com>
>Reply-To: Centauri Dreams <gilster at mindspring.com>
>Subject: Centauri Dreams
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:03:02 -0500 (CDT)
>
>Centauri Dreams
>
>///////////////////////////////////////////

>The Ultimate Project to the Stars
>
>Posted: 18 Jun 2008 08:37 AM CDT

>http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=1930
>
>
>By Larry Klaes
>
>Tau Zero journalist Larry Klaes takes on an old subject with a new twist: 
>The multi-generational starship. Its a familiar trope in science fiction 
>(think Brian Aldiss Non-Stop or Heinleins Universe), but one given modern 
>impetus in the hands of a small team of visionaries dedicated to making it 
>happen. These guys think big, not just in terms of ship size but trip 
>duration (ten thousand years!), and envision at least 500 years as the time 
>needed to get their project ready to launch. Always a promoter of long-term 
>thinking, Centauri Dreams follows the improbable tale with considerable 
>interest.
>
>Despite how they appear to us in the night sky and the relative ease and 
>speed with which spaceships in most science fiction stories fly to them, 
>the twinkling stars in the heavens are, in reality, immensely far away. The 
>few robotic probes that have left our Solar System faster than any other 
>vehicles yet built would not  if aimed in their direction  reach the the 
>nearest stars for 77,000 years. Spaceships that could attain speeds 
>approaching that of light (186,000 miles per second), while theoretically 
>possible, have many technological and physics hurdles to overcome and are a 
>long way from being built.
>
>Due to this reality, scientists began contemplating in the last century how 
>humans could reach other star systems alive aboard vessels that could 
>become practical in the not too distant future.
>
>Birth and Death Among the Stars
>
>One idea that was quickly taken up by science fiction authors is the 
>multigenerational starship. A large selection of people would be placed 
>aboard a giant spacecraft with the necessary tools and resources to survive 
>the many centuries it would take a relatively slow-moving vessel to reach 
>another star system. The crew members who eventually arrive at the target 
>sun and its circling worlds would be the distant descendants of the 
>original explorers, ready to disembark from their ship and settle in these 
>new lands.
>
>
>
>Image: Its a big sky. Can we do better than the 77,000 years it would take 
>a Voyager-class spacecraft to reach the Centauri stars? In the image, Alpha 
>Centauri is visible just left of center, a triple system whose light here 
>appears as a single bright dot. Credit: Claus Madsen/ESO.
>
>One group of individuals has been inspired enough by the multigenerational 
>starship concept to begin the first serious efforts to make the idea not 
>just a reality but to turn it into a purposeful focus for all of humanity 
>– to expand into the Milky Way galaxy and save our species from any 
>threats of extinction.
>
>Grandly called The Ultimate Project, the plan calls for building a 
>cylindrical starship over one mile long and one mile wide weighing 100 
>million tons that would carry one million people across interstellar space 
>for 10,000 years or more to colonize an inhabitable Earthlike planet that 
>astronomers hope to find within the next few decades.
>
>Finding Another Earth
>
>The original designer of The Ultimate Project is Dr. Steven Kilston of Ball 
>Aerospace  Technologies Corporation in Boulder, CO. When Kilston became 
>manager of Ball’s Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) program ten years ago, 
>he began to wonder how humanity would respond to the discovery of a planet 
>much like our world circling another star.
>
>“My answer was that we should go there, and I began discussing with many 
>aerospace industry colleagues the practical considerations that could 
>enable that,” replies Kilston. In January of 1999, he presented his 
>first poster on The Ultimate Project to the American Astronomical Society 
>(AAS). Kilston has since presented his idea at JPL, MIT, and many other 
>institutions.
>
>
>
>Kilston envisions a project and ship that would take over 500 years and 
>cost $50 trillion to complete before it even leaves the Solar System. 
>Spinning at one revolution each minute to create a sense of gravity similar 
>to Earth’s surface for the comfort of its one million residents, the ship 
>would use nuclear fusion engines to eventually move at 373 miles per second 
>through the Milky Way galaxy. In addition to the relatively slow speed 
>being an attainable velocity target, a slower travel rate means there will 
>be less chance of a dangerous impact with space debris. A layer of water in 
>the ship’s outermost deck would provide protection for the crew from 
>cosmic radiation.
>
>With the rapid advancements in technology and our understanding of the 
>Universe happening every day, some might wonder why humanity should invest 
>in a project that will take centuries to build and thousands of years to 
>transport people to another star system when a better means of reaching the 
>stars might come along in the near future.
>
>“If people thought like that about computers, they would never buy 
>one,” says Kilston, who also cites Europe’s medieval cathedrals and the 
>Great Wall of China as examples of some successful multigenerational 
>projects. “Also, having experts, machines, and materials on board, 
>together with maintaining communications with Earth throughout the voyage, 
>would mean that any improved technology could be incorporated quickly in 
>situ, possibly keeping this ship ahead of later ones.”
>
>Surviving the Journey
>
>Another concern regarding multigenerational starships is the possibility of 
>the crew’s society degenerating into barbarism and forgetting its 
>original purpose after centuries of isolation from Earth. Most of the 
>science fiction stories that take place aboard such vessels assume this 
>situation.
>
>Sven U. Grenander, a senior engineer at JPL, a “self-assigned Rogue 
>Technologist”, and manager of the formation and start-up of The Ultimate 
>Project, thinks it is a certainly that factionalism and barbarism 
>will flourish aboard the starship without a written constitution that can 
>survive the long trip. 
>
>“The constitution has to serve as a fractal seed that can grow in a 
>predictably orderly fashion and not be overtaken by chaos or 
>lawlessness,” says Grenander. “The constitution is the most important 
>element of the project as it is the only thing that will keep the human 
>crew from spiraling off into any number of project-defeating 
>directions.”
>
>As for how the average citizen can become involved, Nancy J. Grenander, who 
>manages the project’s operations and business structure, says she 
>“would like to see The Ultimate Project stimulate young minds so that 
>they can think about the possibilities of doing something that some may 
>think impossible. I want to see them let their imaginations go forward even 
>though they might not see the completed project.”
>
>"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide 
>the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and 
>endless sea."
>
>- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of The Little Prince.
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