A Rapid Study on the Development of an Interstellar Roadmap and Planning Ahead for Technology Maturation

K. F. Long (2020), JBIS, 73, pp.6-14

Refcode: 2020.73.6
Keywords: Interstellar roadmaps, Interstellar studies

Abstract:
This paper examines the issue of interstellar strategic and technological roadmap building. In particular we examine one particular pathway for getting to a human interstellar mission, assuming a launch date criterion of 2111. This work was originally completed in four days to support the US DARPA/NASA 100 Year Starship study program in 2011, and is published now as a record of that earlier work. The specific roadmap demonstrated, structured over five generations of working programs and including consideration of physics, engineering and economics, is not claimed to be a preferred or optimum approach by any means. It is simply an example to provoke discussion and to illustrate the broad architectural challenges that both robotic and crewed interstellar missions involve, if we are to assume conventional models of thinking that rely upon industrial methods for constructing human colonies.