A "Transgalactic Travel Guide"

[LongTomH]

Do a Google search on 'Marc Millis' and, among the hits will be a page at the NASA Glenn Research Center for Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP). The BPP program was headed up by a young physicist, Marc Millis.

Marc has been announced as a speaker for the 2013 Starship Congress sponsored by the Icarus Interstellar Foundation.

Physicist Marc Millis has been announced as a speaker for Icarus Interstellar’s 2013 Starship Congress, with the following two talks: “Transgalactic Travel Guide” and “From Sci-Fi to Sci-Method – A Case Study with Space Drives”.

Described as “a rock star in the world of space geeks” [Slate, Oct 2011], Marc Millis is best known for creating NASA’s visionary “Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project” and for his subsequent book, Frontiers of Propulsion Science (AIAA 2009). This book is the first scholarly compilation of research toward interstellar space drives and faster-than-light flight. When NASA went retro with “Apollo on Steroids” and on a “Food Stamps” budget, Millis decided to take an early retirement (2010) to devote full time to his nonprofit Tau Zero Foundation. Tau Zero uses the long-range goal of star flight to provoke revolutionary advancements. With a network of fellow pioneers and scouts in technical, journalistic, and artistic venues, incremental studies have begun, and that progress is conveyed to the public via their Centauri Dreams news forum. On the more conventional side, Millis has designed ion thrusters, electronic instrumentation for rocket engines, and even a cockpit display to guide aircraft microgravity flights. Millis earned a BS in Physics from Georgia Tech (1982), a MS in Physics Entrepreneurship from Case Western Reserve University (2006), and is an alumnus of the International Space University Summer Session (1998). For recreation he also enjoys building scale models, gadgets, and Halloween costumes.

Following is the abstract for Marc’s talk Transgalactic Travel Guide:

Traveling through our galaxy takes time. How fast must our spacecraft travel to reach interesting destinations before the spacecraft’s warranty expires? Our galaxy is so astronomically large that it is difficult to comprehend. To help convey these vast distances in human terms, a “Transgalactic Travel Guide” is offered. This simple chart plots distances to intragalactic destinations versus time, as a function of 6 different flight speeds. Speeds range from the poky 0.00006c of Voyager all the way to lightspeed. Interesting destinations include the edge of our solar system, the Oort Cloud, Alpha Centauri, and estimates for the closest habitable planet and extraterrestrial intelligence. Time scales span a week through the final demise of Earth. A tutorial is presented to teach you how to read and use this chart, so you can plot your own galactic adventures.

Abstract for the second talk, From Sci-Fi to Sci-Method – A Case Study with Space Drives:

Science fiction can be upgraded into scientific inquiry. By contrasting the highly desirable goals from science fiction against accrued scientific knowledge, the critical unknowns and issues can be identified. These can be distilled into problem statements – the first step of the scientific method. The problem statements then guide the collection of relevant information, the second step of the scientific method. This process is illustrated for the case of non-rocket space drives, the kind of propulsion that enables craft to levitate above the ground and then ascend effortlessly into space – and then travel more ably than propellant-constrained rockets. Multiple fictional images are toyed with, explained with analogies, and then finally set in the context of a problem definition to guide genuine scientific inquires. Whether or not the desired breakthroughs are achievable, this line of inquiry presents different perspectives toward solving the lingering mysteries of physics. Specifically, space drive inquiries highlight physics issues about the inertial frame properties of spacetime.

I heard Marc give a talk, titled "Warp Drive: When?" at an International Space Development Conference, in the late 90s, when the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project was still active; it was terminated in 2003 to free up funding for the Bush-legacy Moon-Mars program.