Where we’re going, we don’t need roads

A private organization will invest a grant in an interstellar space travel business plan. Is it a smart move?

To infinity and beyond? Not quite yet. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently announced they are awarding a $500,000 grant to an undetermined organization on Nov. 11, one that is to be used for interstellar space travel.

DARPA teamed up with NASA over the last year in the 100-Year Starship Study, an “effort seeded by DARPA to develop a viable and sustainable model for persistent, long-term, private-sector investment into the myriad of disciplines needed to make long-distance space travel practicable and feasible,” according to its website.

“I can’t even imagine how much money it would take to get us to another star,” Mia Greenberg, a senior in the College of Communication, said.

In fact, it would take much more than $500,000 to afford a trip to Alpha Centauri, our closest neighbor – a whopping 4.4 light-years from Earth.

“$500K is not a lot of money,” Supriya Chakrabarti, an astronomy professor at Boston University, said. “It pays for the yearly tuition, room, board and Smartphone bills for you and eight of your best friends.”

“This $500K in seed money is merely symbolic. The Hubble Space Telescope cost about $2 billion,” said Thomas Bania, a fellow BU astronomy professor.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Even with ten grants, however, the necessary technology is missing for this kind of space travel. According to the New York Times, DARPA director David Neyland admitted that he hopes the grant goes towards a business plan, not a spacecraft.

Bania has a similar take on DARPA’s grant money.

“There is ‘no necessary funding.’ We are hundreds of years away in the technology,” Bania said. “We have no real clue as to how to do interstellar travel in the 100 years – one way – to the nearest star. This sort of research is a hobby and no amount of DARPA public relations hype is going to change that.”

“A number of possible technologies have been discussed but no one has provided convincing evidence that any of the possible technologies will actually work,” BU astronomy professor Kenneth Janes said. “We don’t even know how to find out whether a particular technology might work.

Some technologies are being explored but right now, most are in the drawing board stage.

“What we need is a different kind of propulsion than we are currently using,” Chakrabarti said. “The proposed propulsion is nuclear fusion. That works theoretically but we have not mastered fusion technology enough to provide energy on Earth.”

The British Interplanetary Society explored this idea in the 1970s. Their theoretical interstellar spacecraft was to be powered by small nuclear explosions that would continuously propel them further into space. It never materialized.

EXPLORING CLOSER TO HOME

There is still much to be explored within our own solar system. Should funding and technology be put toward traveling beyond this planet?

“Certainly we should invest most of our public money on questions and problems closer to home but it is not completely irresponsible to invest small amounts of money to study something as speculative as this one,” Janes said. “Perhaps there would be some insight into a new power source on the Earth or perhaps we might learn something about how people behave under extreme conditions.”

“The farthest we humans have ever gone from the Earth is to the Moon,” Chakrabarti said. “I am sure there will be human exploration of our solar system before anyone would consider interstellar travel.”

DESIRABLE DESTINATIONS

Some stars would be more attractive as destinations than others.

“For me, the most appealing stars would be Sun-like stars that are known to have Earth-sized planets,” Bania said. “On top of that list would be those stars with planets known to have liquid water oceans and oxygen in their atmospheres. Together, these qualities imply a high probability that such planets may harbor life.”

“I’d be nervous about who we’d meet once we got there,” said Emily Silberstein, a COM junior.

“We talk of finding planets in the ‘habitable zone,” Janes said. “The planet doesn’t want to be too close to the star or it will be too hot and it doesn’t want to be too far away or it will be too cold.  The second primary criterion is that the star should be as close as possible to our Sun so that a trip there would not take too long.”

In light of the possibility of coming in contact with other life forms, Chakrabarti said, “We would want to place our space legs on some solid ground. Assuming that there are no unfriendly natives, the destination must be habitable.”

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

Right now, it would take tens of thousands of years to travel to another star. If that process sped up, there would need to be a form of communication between the voyagers and Earth.

“Communication has to be done with light, just like we do today,” said Chakrabarti. “This is a technology we know well. Look at all the mobile phones. The problem is when you text your best friend from high school who is vacationing on a planet 10 light years away, she will get that message 10 years later. Then she writes back to you. By that time you have given up on her and are on your own journey.”

“People would get disinterested in contacting anyone that wasn’t on earth,” said Katarina Kozomora, a junior in the Sargeant College of Rehabilitation.

“The communication problem is almost as tedious as traveling there,” Janes said.

“The idea of interstellar travel is, of course, one that has fascinated people for generations. What most people who watch Star Trek and read science fiction don’t realize is the sheer vastness of the universe. Interstellar travel is unlikely ever to become routine and quite possibly will not happen at all for the foreseeable future.  Still, it is fun to think about and perhaps it is worth spending a little money,” said Janes.