i09 reports:
Recently, a group of scientists, engineers, and scifi writers gathered at the Royal Astronomical Society to discuss the latest ideas about how interstellar travel might actually happen. ...
Indeed, as a new The Economist article points out, starship research is enjoying something of a boom these days. Just a few years ago there was only one organization working on the prospect of interstellar travel, but now there's at least five, including NASA, DARPA, and several private organizations. ...
Ideas discussed included the visions of Freeman Dyson, notably his nuclear-explosion powered rockets (called Project Orion), and Daedalus, an unmanned vessel conceived by the British Interplanetary Society that that would use a fusion rocket to attain 12% of the speed of light, allowing it to reach Barnard’s Star, which is six light-years away, in a mere 50 years.
If you want to season your science with an amusing conspiracy theory, check out Charles Stross' new short A Tall Tail
From the author of Rule 34 and Halting State, a tale of deception, engineering, and the most unlikely rocket propulsion technology imaginable.
