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Leaving Earth: Former NASA Rocket Scientist On The Politics Of Going Interstellar

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This artist's concept shows NASA's two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun. After more than 33 years of travel, the two Voyager spacecraft will soon reach interstellar space, the space between stars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Doesn’t this have to be approached as a multi-generational effort?

At this stage, the pursuit of starflight is like general science. Science is a multi-generation endeavor where small steps chip away at the larger unknowns. Consistent with this is Tau Zero’s motto: “ad astra incrementis,” which means “to the stars in ever-increasing steps.”

At Tau Zero, we look for the genuine pioneers, the folks that do the imaginative and productive work anyway. Until such time as we have enough funds to share with these pioneers, we at least attempt working collaborations.

What are the most under-appreciated aspects of attempting to do an unmanned interstellar mission?

Three come to mind:

- Light speed is slow compared to the size of space

- Considering projected propulsion technology, equipment longevity is more critical.

- Energy is more limiting than technology. Interstellar flight requires substantial energy. By comparing humanity’s growing energy prowess with the required energy for starflight, the predictions hint that we are still about two centuries away from having enough energy, even if the technology were ready-to go.

What are the Tau Zero Foundation’s current goals?

- Provide impartial and reliable updates about the status and abilities of all the various proposed methods for starflight; primarily via the “Centauri Dreams” news forum.

- Scout for today’s pioneers in these relevant topics: what’s out there, getting there, and human relevance.

- Conduct and publish works that advance the pool of knowledge about starflight.

- Create educational opportunities for graduate students to answer relevant questions as part of their graduate theses. This is now being assembled with the help of the Ohio Aerospace Institute.

Is a tenth of the speed of light achievable?

Every time you increase speed by a factor of 10, you increase the energy requirements by a factor of 100. To get up to a tenth of light speed, you have to go about 370 times faster than our voyager spacecraft (an excellent measure of contemporary ability). That would require well over a hundred-thousand times more energy.

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