NASA in quest to send humans to the stars

BANGALORE, INDIA: Yes, you can dream of the stars. But do you have an idea to share as to how you can go to the stars? If so, this is what NASA is looking for. The US space agency and the Pentagon's lead research group are striking financial flint to steel in hopes of sparking a sustained effort to make interstellar space travel a reality, say media reports.

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have jointly announced an award of 500,000 dollars to the person or group who can come up with the most effective idea about how human interstellar space travel can become a reality by next century, said an ANI report.

The award, expected to be announced in November, represents the final stage in what by then will have been a year-long collaboration between DARPA and NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, said The Christian Science Monitor.

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The money is what remains of an initial pot of $1 million - mostly from DARPA - to get the project, dubbed the 100 Year Starship Study, going, it said.

The technological hurdles alone of achieving interstellar space travel are high - driven by the enormous distances involved. Take the Voyager 1 spacecraft, for instance. It's currently hurtling toward interstellar space and took nearly 34 years to reach its current location at the edge of the solar system, some 930 million miles from the sun.

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Indeed, funding is just as big a challenge as technology, explained David Neyland, director of the Tactical Technology Office at DARPA.

“Reaching the stars in the next century will require sustained interest and investment over a long period of time,” he added.