Mae Jemison, Who Was the First Black Woman in Space, Will Now Lead 100-Year Starship Project
A project to pave the way for humanity's journey to the stars will be helmed by a former astronaut, Mae Jemison, already a pioneer in her own right. She will lead DARPA's 100-Year Starship project, the BBC says, citing DARPA documents. Jemison, the first black woman in space, was one of scores of people to submit proposals for DARPA's ambitious project. It doesn't seek to build an actual starship per se but rather a program that can last 100 years, and might one day result in one. As DARPA told us last summer, it's more of a thought experiment than a construction project. The idea itself sparked some other pretty audacious proposals, including one by J. Craig Venter to send human genomes toward the stars and reconstruct them upon arrival. Related ArticlesLet's Reconstitute Humans From Genomes Launched Into Space! and Other Ambitious Proposals for Galactic ColonizationNASA and DARPA Plan ‘Hundred-Year...