Nothing appears to be official about this, but it would be very cool if it were.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on a 100 Year Starship project along with NASA. DARPA is supposed to be thinking about cutting edge projects, and long-term space travel (plus the needed skills and technologies) qualifies. During 2011 the project solicited proposals and held a symposium. There is a $500,000 grant for continued study of the requirements for long-term space travel. According to reporting from Alan Boyle, the winning application has been chosen, but some details need to be finalized for it to be official, and officially announced.
One of the three groups that would receive the grant is the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, led by Dr. Mae Jemison, a former astronaut and medical doctor who became the first black woman in space in 1992. If that wasn’t enough of a PR hook, it should be noted that Dr. Jemison is also tightly linked to Star Trek. She appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1993, and Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura in the first Star Trek series, helped recruit Jemison for NASA. Jemison has also worked on technology and science education companies and projects throughout her post-NASA work.
So while the unofficial word has filtered out, I would hope there could be some trumpeting of this project once all is official. There is the risk of over-promising, especially with this project. The 100 years is not just a fancy name – expect the planning, research and preparation to take years before any space vessel is built, much less launched. But we certainly seem to have the right person helping things along.
