10%: The First 10 Years of The 100 Year Starship™
- Paper ID
70268
- author
- company
100 Year Starship
- country
United States
- year
2022
- abstract
In February 2012, DARPA (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), supported by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Ames Research Center also gave the stamp of approval to and seed-funded — 100 Year Starship™ (100YSS). The impetus for the competitive grant was the desire to embed within the private sector the ability to generate the kind of explosive growth in research and development, innovation, education, and economic expansion across all science and technical fields similar to that seen during the moon race. Meeting the challenge of 100YSS stands to transform our world as much or even more than Sputnik or commercialization of DARPA’s ARPA net, which became the Internet. The new organization in 2012 established its mission as: "The 100 Year Starship™ exists to make the capability of human travel beyond our solar system a reality within the next 100 years. We unreservedly dedicate ourselves to identifying and pushing the radical leaps in knowledge and technology needed to achieve interstellar flight, while pioneering and transforming breakthrough applications that enhance the quality of life for all on Earth. We actively seek to include the broadest swath of people and human experience in understanding, shaping, and implementing this global aspiration." Later that year, 100YSS held the first of many symposia with a singular purpose: "to initiate the wide-based understanding and enthusiasm needed to achieve an audacious, global ambition—make the capabilities for human interstellar travel a reality within 100 years." In the last ten years, The 100 Year Starship has held several symposia, introduced an intensive form of thought development called Crucibles, held many online workshops, presented the dream and mission of interstellar in countless forums, organized educational efforts, established wide partnerships with different organizations, and engaged a wide-diversity of the population towards the most audacious mission in human history. As the editor of the 100YSS Symposium Conference Proceedings, I look back at the first ten years of The 100 Year Starship and explore how has 100YSS changed the landscape of interstellar development in the last ten years. What are the results of the activities and initiatives 100YSS has championed? What are the challenges that we must face in the next ten years? What have been the challenges that have arisen in accomplishing the 100YSS mission and what are the challenges to come? Finally, I'll explore what the potential roadmap might be for the next ten years.