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The technology to make that happen is complete vaporware.

So was the technology for landing a man on the moon 60 years ago (ten years before Apollo 11). Former astronaut Dr. Mae Jeminson, who had a cameo on ST:TNG, advocates designing a starship in 100 years to leave the solar system because the technology for that doesn't exist and would be more transformative than the technology that came out of the Apollo program.

I heard a PR talk of NASA-funded 100 Starship Project earlier this year. before I heard the talk I thought it might be a good idea to plan for the next century, but now I am not sure. It seemed very emphemeral. They commission annual conferences and give talks to school kids. The technologies seemed way too hypotheticlal.

I deeply enjoyed attending the 100 YSS symposium, and actually presented in the economic track that Jemison headed. However, awarding the final seed money to one of the track chairs and program organizers makes the whole process seem like collusion. Note the Education, Social, Economic and Legal Considerations track in the 100 YSS Symposium Agenda. Having worked program allocation, this is the kind of stuff that could spark lawsuits if it weren't for such a small sum (in gov't terms). Also depends on whether she was funded by DARPA in her track chair duties. (Note: I did not submit a proposal to the RFP)

Hopefully the money is put to good use, as it looks like she partnered with Icarus, who are at least motivated and active.

I believe this is the site for the project.

Around about 1990, I attended a talk by Robert L. Forward at Hughes Aircraft, where he reviewed the results of a study he had completed for the USAF regarding anti-matter propulsion, primarily regarding further development of anti-matter production and storage methods. A reasonably good introduction can be found here. It was fascinating, in large part because virtually every concrete step towards reliable production of "fuel" ended with the comment "this would make a great graduate project."

I haven't looked at the details for the DARPA RFI (PDF), but I'm guessing that by this point, a lot of the grad work has been done (thesis refs, anyone?) and that for this first 1 year contract, they're looking for input on the economics of scaling up the grad work. For those seriously interested, I'd bet the 100 Year Starship Public Symposium this September in Orlando would be an excellent next step. Unfortunately, it's too late to submit papers, or respond to the RFI.

The 100 year starship project is supposed to study what it will take to sustain private sector investment into a long range program of building a starship.

http://www.100yss.org/about.html

It is not itself a 100 year project to build a starship, or a 100 year project to figure out how to sustain investment...

Also, if you're interested in interstellar research, check out Centauri Dreams:

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/