Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Starships In a Century?

Posted by samzenpus on from the away-to-the-stars dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In the New York Times, Kenneth Chang writes about the 100-year starship conference, where 'an eclectic mix of engineers, scientists, science fiction fans, students and dreamers' discussed ideas for how to travel across interstellar space, including 'how to organize and finance a century-long project; whether civilization would survive, because an engine to propel a starship could also be used for a weapon to obliterate the planet; and whether people need to go along for the trip.' Some of the proposals were pretty far out, such as Joseph Breeden's concept for an engine-less starship (propelled using a gravity slingshot on a near-sun trajectory). Others were a little less forward thinking, although still futuristic by current standards of space exploration: nuclear rockets, fusion, lightsails, and so forth. So, can we go to the stars? Wait a hundred years, and we'll see!"

5 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. In other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sci Fi convention regurgitates things they've seen on TV so far.

    1. Re:In other words... by lpp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why do we always assume "they" advance more quickly than we do or started earlier or are any more civilized. Sad as it may seem, we may be the most civilized/advanced species in the universe.

    2. Re:In other words... by Leebert · · Score: 1, Insightful

      and maybe down-mod grandparent, too, as overrated

      Please don't. It was a valid question, without which we wouldn't have gotten this interesting reply.

      There is, IMHO, way too much downmodding going on at /.

  2. Awesome example of timeline shift by Scareduck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The standard razor for any vaporware tech is,

    "Five years away" = "we have the general physical principles down but there are a lot of implementation details unresolved".
    "Ten years away" = "we're not really sure about the physics, and/or the economic feasibility has yet to be established".
    "Twenty years away" = "some guy wrote about this in a journal and a few people in the field may believe it could work".
    Now, "100 years away" = "Not. Happening. In Your Lifetime, or anyone else's".

    --

    Dog is my co-pilot.

  3. Re:What happened in the past 100 years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, fast forward to the SR-71 Blackbird built 50 years ago that flew faster than Mach 3. Everything since then has not been on fast forward.