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The prospect of interstellar travel is no longer sci-fi. It COULD be achievable within our lifetime! But, how would an interstellar rocket-ship work? On this week’s episode of Space Time, Matt talks options for interstellar travel — from traditional rocket fuel to antimatter drives, could we travel to other star systems? Watch this episode of Space Time to find out!

“Quantum Entanglement & Spooky Action at a Distance”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuvK-od647c

“The Real Meaning of E=Mc²”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo232kyTsO0

“Could You Fart Your Way To The Moon”:

Continue reading “5 REAL Possibilities for Interstellar Travel | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios” | >

Inaugural Canopus Award Winners to be Announced

Award-winning authors and social and physical science experts will gather at Science Fiction Stories Night and honor winners of the first annual Canopus Awards for Interstellar Writing on Halloween Eve during 100 Year Starship’s ® (100YSS®) fourth annual public symposium in Silicon Valley from October 29-November 1, at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara, California.

100 Year Starship® (100YSS®) is the independent, long-term global initiative led by former astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison to ensure the capability for human travel beyond our solar system exist within the next 100 years and the advances are applied to enhance life here on Earth every step of the way.

Science fiction frequently leads to science fact. In fact, the extremes of scientific discovery today fuel the imagination and possibilities for science fiction writers tomorrow who catapult them into our collective realm of possibility with their stories. Join the discussion on Science Fiction Stories Night with awarding winning authors, including Nebula Award winner Pat Murphy (The Falling Woman, Bones, and Points of Departure); Juliette Wade (short fiction published in Analog Magazine and Clarkesworld); Brenda Cooper (Edge of Dark and Beyond the Waterfall Door); and, Jacob Weisman, publisher of Tachyon (titles have won the Nebula, Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, Mythopoeic and World Fantasy Awards).

In addition, 100YSS will announce the inaugural winners of its Canopus Awards for Excellence in Interstellar Writing™. The awards recognize and highlight the importance of great story telling to propel the Interstellar movement. Winners will be named in the categories of “Previously Published Long-Form Fiction;” “Previously Published Short-Form Fiction;” “Original Fiction;” and, “Original Non-Fiction.” (See below for list of finalists.)

With the timely theme of “Finding Earth 2.0,” the symposium invites the public to explore the game-changing processes required to indisputably find a planet outside our solar system capable of supporting Earth-evolved life. Symposium attendees will examine what specific capabilities and systems—scientific, technical and societal—will be needed and impacted over the next five to 25 years to definitively identify at least one Earth 2.0.

A powerful four-day event, the symposium will feature experiences involving transdisciplinary approaches that require attendees to stretch their imaginations and appreciate today’s cutting-edge technologies. They will be challenged to discuss and take action on thought-provoking frontiers of science, civilization, space, technology, society, music and art, both now and in the future.

Organized by the global 100YSS team, the 2015 Public Symposium will bring together experts, enthusiasts, students, celebrities, innovators, educators, and thought leaders from around the world.

Other participants include renown scientists, thinkers, artists, policy makers and celebrities like George Whitesides, CEO, Virgin Galactic; Mickey Fisher, Creator, EXTANT; Lou Friedman, Ph.D. astronomer and co-founder of the Planetary Society; Jill Tarter, Ph.D., co-founder of SETI Institute, astronomer and TED Prize winner; Mae Jemison, M.D., physician, engineer and entrepreneur; Hakeem Oluseyi, Ph.D., TED Fellow and Chief Science Officer, Discovery Channel; Amy Millman, CEO and co-founder Springboard Enterprises; Mmboneni Muofhe, Deputy Director, South African Department of Science and Technology; Pam Contag, Ph.D., CEO, Molecular Sciences Institute; Pete Worden, Ph.D., Chairman, Breakthrough Prize Foundation and former Director, NASA Ames; and, Kurt Zatloukal, M.D., Professor, Medical University of Graz (Austria), among others.

Dr. Jemison stated, “100 Year Starship is building an inclusive movement that spurs us to achieve the extraordinary — human travel beyond our solar system. Simultaneously, 100 Year Starship is applying the radical leaps in knowledge, technologies, social systems and other capabilities learned and discovered to improve life here on Earth today. While it might take years to uncover these Earth-bound solutions, it might not. However, we might not find them at all without the unique perspective afforded by such an audacious goal of interstellar travel.”

For more information or to register to attend, visit: http://2015.symposium.100yss.org/

About 100 Year Starship®

100 Year Starship® (100YSS), an independent, non-governmental, long-term initiative to ensure the capabilities for human interstellar flight exist as soon as possible, and definitely within the next 100 years. 100YSS was started in 2012 with seed-funding through a competitive grant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and support from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for the purpose of fostering the type of explosive innovation and technology and social advances born from addressing such an incredible challenge. 100YSS is part of the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence. For more information, visit www.100yss.org.

FIRST ANNUAL CANOPUS AWARD™ FOR EXCELLENCE IN INTERSTELLAR WRITING

FINALISTS

In the category of “Previously Published Long-Form Fiction” (40,000 words or more):

  • “Other Systems” by Elizabeth Guizzetti
  • “The Creative Fire” by Brenda Cooper
  • “InterstellarNet: Enigma” by Edward M. Lerner
  • “Aurora” by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • “Coming Home” by Jack McDevitt

In the category of “Previously Published Short-Form Fiction” (between 1,000 and 40,000 words):

  • “Race for Arcadia” by Alex Shvartsman
  • “Stars that Make Dark Heaven Light” by Sharon Joss
  • “Homesick” by Debbie Urbanski
  • “Twenty Lights to the Land of Snow” by Michael Bishop
  • “Planet Lion” by Catherynne M. Valente
  • “The Waves” by Ken Liu
  • “Dreamboat” by Robin Wyatt Dunn

In the category of “Original Fiction” (1,000–5,000 words):

  • “Landfall” by Jon F. Zeigler
  • “Project Fermi” by Michael Turgeon
  • “Everett’s Awakening” by Ry Yelcho
  • “Groundwork” by G. M. Nair
  • “His Holiness John XXIV about Father Angelo Baymasecchi’s Diary” by Óscar Garrido González
  • “The Disease of Time” by Joseph Schmidt

In the category of “Original Non-Fiction” (1,000–5,000 words):

  • “Why Interstellar Travel?” by Jeffrey Nosanov
  • “Finding Earth 2.0 from the Focus of the Solar Gravitational Lens” by Louis D. Friedman and Slava Turyshev

Music: Hans Zimmer — Mountains (Interstellar Soundtrack)
Lyrics: «Do not go gentle into that good night» by Dylan Thomas.

Voice: Anthony Hopkins.

FILMS:
«2001: A Space Odyssey» (1968, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
«Alien» (1979, dir. Ridley Scott)
«Aliens» (1986, dir. James Cameron)
«Armageddon» (1998, dir. Michael Bay)
«Avatar» (2009, dir. James Cameron)
«Battleship» (2012, dir. Peter Berg)
«Cargo» (2009, dir. Ivan Engler, Ralph Etter)
«Elysium» (2013, dir. Neill Blomkamp)
«Europa Report» (2013, dir. Sebastián Cordero)
«Event Horizon» (1997, dir. Paul Anderson)
«Gravity» (2013, dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
«Guardians of the Galaxy» (2014, dir. James Gunn)
«Interstellar » (2014, dir. Christopher Nolan)
«Lockout» (2012, dir. James Mather, Stephen St. Leger)
«Lost in Space» (1998, dir. Stephen Hopkins)
«Man of Steel» (2013, dir. Zack Snyder)
«Mission to Mars» (2000, dir. Brian De Palma)
«Moon» (2009, dir. Duncan Jones)
«Oblivion» (2013, dir. Joseph Kosinski)
«Pandorum» (2009, dir. Christian Alvart)
«Prometheus» (2012, dir. Ridley Scott)
«Solaris» (1972, dir. Andrey Tarkovskiy)
«Solaris» (2002, dir. Steven Soderbergh)
«Star Trek» (2009, dir. J.J. Abrams)
«Star Trek: Into Darkness» (2013, dir. J.J. Abrams)
«Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope» (1977, dir. George Lucas)

«Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi» (1983, dir. Richard Marquand)

«Starship Troopers» (1997, dir. Paul Verhoeven)
«Sunshine» (2007, dir. Danny Boyle)
«The Fountain» (2006, dir. Darren Aronofsky)
«The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy» (2005, dir. Garth Jennings)

«The Last Days on Mars» (2013, dir. Ruairi Robinson)
«The Signal» (2014, dir. William Eubank)
«Thor: The Dark World» (2013, dir. Alan Taylor)
«Transformers: Dark of the Moon» (2011, dir. Michael Bay)

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My take on the MIT study.

Routine human missions to Mars would be much more efficient if they first swung by Earth’s Moon to pick up fuel for the trip, a new MIT strategic engineering study concludes. NASA’s 90’s-era mantra of “Back to the Moon and on to Mars” really does make sense, a new paper published in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets notes.

The idea is that a crewed mission to Mars would greatly save on fuel and launch costs if it first made an interplanetary pit stop at a space-based depot to pick up its needed fuel. In this case, such a depot would optimally be placed at the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2 (EML2), a point of gravitational equilibrium lying beyond the Moon’s far side.

The paper’s authors conclude that such a stop would reduce the mission’s initial launch mass into low earth orbit by as much as 68%.

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Our bodies aren’t meant for space. We require too much maintenance to speed through the stars. We need a steady supply of things absent from space — namely water, food and oxygen. We crave warmth but won’t find it in deep space, where the average temperature is −455 degrees Fahrenheit. Even if we could survive in an icy vacuum without sustenance, we’d probably go insane without distractions and room to move.

But aeronautic engineers believe they have found the key to solving that puzzle: put your space travelers to sleep. Long-term cryogenic and hibernative sleep may be the key to getting humans to Mars, and beyond. But it may first come to a spa near you.

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“When the Rosetta spacecraft deployed the Philae lander to land on a comet last November, the world held its breath. … Little surprise too that space is back on the design agenda as a primary source of inspiration. Visiting Design Miami/Basel in June, it was obvious that the “Philae effect” was having an impact much closer to home.”

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Why #SETI and Warp Drive don’t necessarily mix; although, I tend to think if #ET is out there it would have long figured out a way to manipulate spacetime for interstellar #FTL travel. It’s time mainstream #physics embraced the idea that Einstein’s axioms involving #lightspeed can be overcome. We’ve nothing to lose but lots to gain. Special thanks to Erika McGinnis for allowing me to publish her artwork.

For all the hype over the idea that someday, somehow we humans will voyage to the stars — not at a measly fraction of the speed of light — but several “warp” factors beyond light speed, it’s a prospect few physicists take seriously. Even mention of “warp drive” is borderline taboo in certain academic circles.

And the idea that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and with it the axiom that the ultimate speed of light can never be violated is a tenet that most researchers who spend their time plying the nearby cosmos for artificial radio or laser beacons have taken to heart. It supports most SETI scientists’ long-held notion that Earth has never been visited by sentient extraterrestrials.

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