Recently, a group of scientists, engineers, and scifi writers gathered at the Royal Astronomical Society to discuss the latest ideas about how interstellar travel might actually happen. Here's what they talked about.
Indeed, as a new The Economist article points out, starship research is enjoying something of a boom these days. Just a few years ago there was only one organization working on the prospect of interstellar travel, but now there's at least five, including NASA, DARPA, and several private organizations.
The London event, which happened on October 21, was keynoted by the Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, and featured talks by James and Gregory Benford, Stephen Baxter and Ian Crawford. The organizers also compiled a Starship Century book, which included essays and fiction from the above speakers, but also Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson, Paul Davies, Robert Zubrin, David Brin, Neal Stephenson, Joe Haldeman and Nancy Kress.
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