NASA Ames Research Center Director Pete Worden recently told a San Francisco audience that NASA and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) just launched a project called the Hundred Year Starship to look at concepts for sending people on a lifelong, one-way mission beyond our solar system, according to CBS News, which cited a write-up of Worden’s talk on futurist Ray Kurzweil’s blog.
DARPA has pitched in $1 million and NASA has contributed $100,000, according the article.
“You heard it here … We also hope to inveigle some billionaires to form a Hundred Year Starship fund.” Worden reportedly said Oct. 16 during Long Conversation, described on the organizer’s website as “an epic relay of one-to-one conversations among some of the Bay Area’s most interesting minds.”
“DARPA subsequently issued a statement to CBSNews.com confirming that it was working on a joint study with NASA Ames to explore the potential of developing ‘breakthrough technologies’ that would be needed for long-duration space missions.”
