[LibWhacker]

That translates into research dollars let loose to fund new avenues for space travel. Last year, a report to President Bush underscored that very issue.

Here's hoping these efforts are fully funded, and soon.

[_Jim]

Before you know it - we'll be building Star Trek class 'replicators' ...

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Consort]

Einstein and all the others provided great small first steps, but we have to get past that and move on. And, what's all the facination with the speed of light?

[sandydipper]

Makes me salivate for younger days - " -- the final frontier". Dave - will I dream?

[Orangedog]

Work is underway to harness antimatter as a way to shave travel time to the Moon down to minutes, or between Earth and Mars to a day. And while they're at it, they might want to consider spending some resources on some kind of inertia dampening system, because if they don't, the astronauts on those space craft will be squashed like tomatoes when the engines fire up.

[xrp]

I can't wait til this baby gets built.

[Crazieman]

It would be so cool if we didn't have to pay for all this war on terror stuff to push ourselves into space.

Unfortunately, the real world takes precedence. :(

[boris]

"Here's hoping these efforts are fully funded, and soon."

I had a brief exchange with Millis at a conference. I basically tossed the Fermi Paradox at him:

"If any of these schemes were feasible, they would have been reduced to practice by intelligent aliens thousands or millions of years ago. We do not observe their traffic. Hence either there are no intelligent E.T.'s or none of these schemes are feasible."

He was unable to muster (what I considered) a feasible reply.

--Boris

[Colorado Doug]

The BPP effort spent a little over $1.5 million -- spread out over seven years

Seems like a bargain to me.

Here's hoping these efforts are fully funded, and soon.

I say just take the money out of The Endowment For The Arts and Public Broadcasting

[R. Scott]

Whenever I read on this topic – and the replies – I am reminded how accepted reality changes.
Long ago it was deemed impossible to cross the oceans – the distance was just too great.
In the Nineteenth Century some scientists deemed it impossible to travel over 35 (?) mph in a steam powered train because it would be impossible for us to breathe at that speed.
In the Twentieth Century it was deemed impossible for many to travel faster than sound.
Also in the Twentieth Century many deemed space travel impossible because there is no atmosphere for a rocket exhaust to push against – which ignored Newton.
The common wisdom now is that intergalactic distance is too great to traverse. With today’s technology and scientific understanding that is true – but who knows what the 21st or 22nd Century will bring?

[hosepipe]

Anti-matter....
Ummm, finger to temple....
Whats a pound of anti-matter weigh ?
or if its anti-matter does it exist at all ?...