LARRY KLAES <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
To boldly go … nowhere very fast
THE cancellation of a small but highly significant National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) project could mean the end of the dream of manned space flight to the stars.The cutting-edge Breakthrough Physics Propulsion (BPP) project was established in 1996 as a clearing house for research to push back the boundaries of current knowledge and enable mankind to hurl a spacecraft beyond the shallows of our solar system into interstellar deep space.
However, it will run out of funding this month having fallen victim to costcutting at the troubled space agency. Though the project’s funding only totalled $15.5m (£9.7m) over seven years, Nasa – which faces declining budgets exacerbated by the Columbia shuttle dis aster – says its budget has been “deferred”.
But “deferred” could mean cut indefinitely, scientists working on the project fear. The BPP’s founder and manager, Marc Millis, admits that no firm commitments have been made to continue the project in 2005.
Yet what the project stands for is the most visionary end of the possibilities of space flight, Millis argues. Without it, deep space flight will remain in the realm of science fiction.
The potential for interstellar space flight is restricted not just by the limitations of existing technology, but by our understanding of science itself, and physics in particular.
Sincerely
James McEnanly
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