The U.S. Department of Defense has announced a $1 million project titled Starship Study, with an eye toward helping fund a spaceship that can transport human beings to a nearby star, if it takes 100 years. The closest star, other than the Sun, is Alpha Centauri A, 25 trillion miles away — a blink of an eye, in interstellar terms, as long as the starship gets some speed up on the way there.
The money is coming from DARPA, the research agency famous for all manner of competitions including the one where people build things approximating armored personnel carriers except being driven by autopilot. So the project won't hurt for money.
Speaking of cash, there's half of that $1 million on offer in the form of "seed money," as DARPA are wanting to reward some lucky sir or madam for germinating an idea that flowers into the eventual starship. We're way past Robert Goddard at this point because even at today's fastest speeds, a rocket trip would require a few hundred generations of people to keep manning (and womanizing) the ship before it reached its destination. So we definitely have something to work on — wormholes, anyone? Maybe it's an opportunity for application of quantum entanglement on a (relatively) grand scale.
The Government is already off to a good start, as 150 people have already thrown their hats in the ring. But there's still time to get in the sweepstakes. You might be able to help us all go where no one has gone before.
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