Travel to even the closest star with a planet that could possibly support life becomes immensely expensive the minute you involve human passengers. Even without humans, a fully automated spacecraft capable of reaching nearby stars and doing useful science is an expense well past the cost of most government institutions and more expensive than many smaller countries could cover even if the desire were present.
The conundrum is that scientists like Steven Hawkings have said that to survive, humanity must expand to the stars. However without funding well into the fantastic....it just is not likely to occur.
Over at IO9 however, Elise Ackerman has created a short list of possible ideas to raise the capital needed.
Her top three ideas:
- 1) Nationstates pool their resources
- 2) Religious groups launch missionary projects
- 3) the super-rich, in the future, may well be able to afford to fund interstellar colonization on their own.
Mz. Ackerman has a more in depth plan that is being published at Amazon.
IO9 article HERE
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