Interplanetary Space Flight By 2030?

[Lao]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/nasa-preps-100-year-spaceship-programme-to-boldly-go-where-none-have-gone-before/story-e6frfro0-1225941547507

 

Some interesting views on the future of space flight.

[Loaghtan]

You shouldn't have posted that on this forum, apparently Mr Teare is now looking at a visit to Mars to see how the education system there differs from ours

[VinnieK]

And when that flight is made, one of our politicians will be ready to celebrate our flourishing space industry with a rousing speech about how form 74 B: Acknowledgement of request made for 1000 size F rivets was processed over here.

 

I know it's a press release, so exaggeration is the name of the game, but 2030 is a little bit of an optimistic prediction based on what is a pretty small amount of funding. $1,100,000 isn't that much for this kind of project even by the shoestring standards of the academic sector; by DARPA/NASA standards it's not as huge a vote of confidence as the article seems to suggest.

 

 

 

 

[Lao]

And when that flight is made, one of our politicians will be ready to celebrate our flourishing space industry with a rousing speech about how form 74 B: Acknowledgement of request made for 1000 size F rivets was processed over here.

 

I know it's a press release, so exaggeration is the name of the game, but 2030 is a little bit of an optimistic prediction based on what is a pretty small amount of funding. $1,100,000 isn't that much for this kind of project even by the shoestring standards of the academic sector; by DARPA/NASA standards it's not as huge a vote of confidence as the article seems to suggest.

 

i did think that it was a very miniscule amount of money to fund space travel, it does mention hitting up further funding from other sources, and i wonder if they might be trying to use this opportunity to advertise advance bookings on the first flight.

 

If they can get the price down to 1 billion per person i might consider taking a friend.

[VinnieK]

i did think that it was a very miniscule amount of money to fund space travel, it does mention hitting up further funding from other sources, and i wonder if they might be trying to use this opportunity to advertise advance bookings on the first flight.

 

Possibly, though I think if it were as viable a proposition as is being made out the likes of DARPA and NASA would be all over it and the former especially wouldn't be too enthused about others having a stake. That they're willing to put some money behind it suggests that it might result in some kind of practical application, but the amount suggests that they've already pretty much ruled out the possibility that anything major will come out of it. My guess is that this is a convenient way for both DARPA and NASA to run some existing piece of tech through a few theoretical tests and see if it highlights any issues which need to be addressed or possible improvements which can be implemented.

 

For comparison purposes, $1 million dollars is roughly the amount of money you'd expect to see funding a shortish term (four or five years) project comprising of a small team working on a very specific problem rather than the kind of big ass super science they're talking about.