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Papers
- Interstellar Space Travel (SmartPlanet.com)
"If the idea sounds far out, in a technical sense, it is. Voyager 1, the fastest spacecraft mankind has ever built, has a gravity-assisted top speed of 38,000 miles and, even at that rate, would take more than 70,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest neighboring star system. But a number of prominent scientists would like it to be known that the conceivable technology does exist to cut travel time to such a destination from thousands of years to a much more manageable 50 years." 09-12
- Interstellar Space Travel (Wikipedia.org)
"Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is conceptually much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, would be even more difficult."
"Many scientific papers have been published about related concepts. Given sufficient travel time and engineering work, both unmanned and generational interstellar travel seem possible, though present considerable technological and economic challenges are unlikely to be met in the near future, particularly for manned probes. NASA, ESA and other space agencies have been engaging in research into these topics for several years, and have accumulated a number of theoretical approaches." 09-12
- NASA Working on Spaceship Concept to Travel to the Stars (Techland.Time.com)
"Don’t expect to go Alpha Centauri-hopping any time soon, but the idea well down the road, according to a presentation delivered by White on the subject last year, would involve a spacecraft leaving Earth, traveling a given distance using conventional propulsion, stopping (relative to the Earth), enabling its “warp field,” then traveling to a point near its interstellar destination, where it would then disable the field and continue on its way using conventional propulsion methods once more."
"Instead of taking 'decades or centuries,' White says this would allow us to visit a spot like Alpha Centauri — a little over four light years from us — in as little as 'weeks or months.' " 09-12
- NASA Working on Spaceship Concept to Travel to the Stars (YouTube)
Describes a potential warp drive. 07-22
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