Obama administration gives NASA money to colonize space

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The Director of NASA’s Ames Center, Pete Worden has announced an initiative to move space flight to the next level. This plan, dubbed the “Hundred Year Starship,” has received $100,000 from NASA and $ 1 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He made his announcement on Oct. 16. Worden is also hoping to include wealthy investors in the project. NASA has yet to provide any official details on the project.

Worden also has expressed his belief that the space agency was now directed toward settling other planets.

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He stated that the public could expect to see the first prototype of a new propulsion system within the next few years.

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One of the ideas being proposed is a microwave thermal propulsion system. This form of propulsion would eliminate the massive amount of fuel required to send crafts into orbit. The power would be “beamed” to the space craft. Either a laser or microwave emitter would heat the propellant, thus sending the vehicle aloft. This technology has been around for some time, but has yet to be actually applied in a real-world vehicle.

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For Worden, the first locations that man should visit utilizing this revolutionary technology would not be the moon or even Mars. Rather he suggests that we should visit the red planet’s moons, Phobos and Deimos. Worden believes that astronauts can be sent to Mars by 2030 for around $10 billion – but only one way.

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DARPA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense whose purview is the development of new technology to be used by the U.S. military.

http://www.universetoday.com/76195/nasas-ames-director-announces-100-year-starship/

[The_Dude 1,142]

I know that it's a 100 year plan, and that it is only 1.1 million, but that is still my tax money and I need to be assured that my tax dollars aren't going to spread some dirty hippy ideology in space. I must insist that any space exploration include funding for teaching christian values to aliens. We can't be too sure about aliens, who knows what god they worship. This is the obama administration trying to expand it's voter base. I bet Obama gives any martians amnesty once they move here. The tea party will not stand for this.