# DARPA is offering $0.5 million for organizational proposal to get to a star in 100 years. Ideas? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156 "2011-10-10T05:26:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/41 "2011-10-12T18:27:25Z")
You are correct, Nobel intended the rewards to be timely. Creating a system to evaluate the technical merits of such complex fields required compromises, one of them being letting the technical merits of the ideas play out a bit. The point being having a prize bestowed upon you after the fact for something you did anyway is not as much incentive for a person to go off and create innovative discoveries. While some probably funnel the money into new research that may or may not pay out, it’s not required. So if the goal is to drive new innovations, it is not a strong plan. It does have some weak driver because people can say “And hey, this may even earn me the Nobel Prize”. But the goal as providing a reward to people who have done a service, it works pretty well. And in some ways it is easier than trying to evaluate proposals and guess which _might_ be beneficial - the typical investment route. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/42 "2011-10-12T18:44:25Z")
Sooooo we’re establishing a Nobel Prize in Space Exploration? Sounds great. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/43 "2011-10-12T20:10:47Z")
Well, that’s an idea, but it would need to be fleshed out a bit to qualify for DARPA’s money. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/44 "2011-10-12T20:51:00Z")
Build a star: 1. Make an orbiting thing that turns hydrogen into helium through fission and emits light. 2. Go visit it. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/45 "2011-10-13T14:53:06Z")
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#): > > Let’s put it in a relative concept as it was explained to me: > > If our solar system was contained in something the size of a teacup then: > > Let me interrupt. The Sun is about 93 million miles from the Earth and the Earth is one of the inner planets. Neptune, Uranus, look it up. > > So the outer planets are within the diameter of the teacup. Where would the closest star be? > > Remember we are talking relativity. Our entire solar system is within the teacup. The nearest star would be about 3,000 miles away on a relative basis. Your calculations are seriously off. Taking the diameter of Neptune’s orbit (about 9_10^9 km) as the size of the Solar System, the ratio between that and the distance to Alpha Centauri (about 4_10^13 km), comes out to about 1/4500. Ergo, your “teacup” is evidently about 2/3 of a mile across. (Now, if you mean to represent the Sun itself, you only need about a 6-inch teacup – a bit large, but within reason.) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/46 "2011-10-13T18:56:20Z")
**bup** , there’s something wrong with that suggestion. How do you turn hydrogen into helium through _fission_? > **[Nuclear Fission and Fusion - Difference and Comparison | Diffen](https://www.diffen.com/difference/Nuclear_Fission_vs_Nuclear_Fusion)** > > Nuclear fusion and nuclear fission are different types of reactions that release energy due to the presence of high-powered atomic bonds between particles found within a nucleus. In fission, an atom is split into two or more smaller, lighter atoms.... ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/47 "2011-10-13T21:58:25Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > **bup** , there’s something wrong with that suggestion. How do you turn hydrogen into helium through _fission_? > > [Nuclear Fission and Fusion - Difference and Comparison | Diffen](http://www.diffen.com/difference/Nuclear_Fission_vs_Nuclear_Fusion) _Cold_ fission. It’s unproven, unhypothesized too, but what the hell, we’ve got 100 years to work out the bugs. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/48 "2011-10-13T23:27:42Z")
> [@Reverend\_Meade](#): > > Cite? > I find this mildly libelous. From my viewpoint DARPA has always seemed to understand that defense =/= killing. Defense involves killing, lots of it and they would love to show you new and better ways to do in, but there are other things involved and they study those too. Things like not keeping all our people in one spot where they are one big target, but spreading them out to other planets. This contest is totally within their sphere of operations and consisting of their usual \*modus operandi \*of geting outsiders to do most of the work so as to maximize spread of reaserch money. If you want to covince me of anything else you’ll have to produce some evidence, because right now you just come off as insulting and ignorant. Yeah, well, tough noogies Reverend (Fort) Meade, because this is IMHO, not GQ or GD. Slimy spooks don’t get a pass, whether you think they’re all that and a bag of chips or not. I’d like to see any evidence that DARPA (not their own propaganda) really wants to go to a star, because pretty much every entity that knows about such things knows it’s not in the cards. Again, they’re trolling for something else, and trying to be cheap about it, and they can fuck off. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/49 "2011-10-14T15:01:00Z")
So what? So what if what they really want is improved space propulsion so they can send Space Marines to Neptune? Or harvest Helium3 from Jupiter? Or ice mine Saturn’s rings? Who the hell cares, if it spawns investment in space technology? The same technology that can deflect a projected Earth impacting asteroid can also deflect an asteroid into Earth. It’s all in the targeting and timing. ---
**Author:** ![Reverend\_Meade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Reverend\_Meade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverend_Meade)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/50 "2011-10-14T16:18:50Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > Yeah, well, tough noogies Reverend (Fort) Meade, because this is IMHO, not GQ or GD. Slimy spooks don’t get a pass, whether you think they’re all that and a bag of chips or not. I’d like to see any evidence that DARPA (not their own propaganda) really wants to go to a star, because pretty much every entity that knows about such things knows it’s not in the cards. Again, they’re trolling for something else, and trying to be cheap about it, and they can fuck off. Touche, I am slain by the sheer majesty of your wit. You must have a truly cunning mind to catch that I have the same name as NSA headquarters and try to make that somehow relevent. Verily, such skill is only humbled by the excellence of your argument, that anything related to the military can only be used to kill or spy because they’re slimy. Bravo my good sir. In addition I must applaud the strenth of your moral fiber to be able to public proclaim that you don’t mind reaserch into such devices of destruction as long as the government wastes money doing it. In these tough economic times many would quail at saying such things but you have no problem objecting in terms that I’m sure would impress a four year old. Leaving sacasm territory, I will point out they never said they’re trying to get to a star. They are looking for ways to convince people to invest in long term research, towards getting to a star. If you can think of a way to weponize an investment scheme I’m sure you could get a good deal more than half a million. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156/51 "2011-10-17T17:28:10Z")
Space Bonds? No. Maybe “Space Exploration bonds.” They could be advertised as SEx Bonds! Maka bunch of money that way. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darpa-is-offering-0-5-million-for-organizational-proposal-to-get-to-a-star-in-100-years-ideas/599156.md?page=2)