If I'm not mistaken, NASA and DARPA have already initiated plans to turn this into reality under the "100-Year Starship" program: http://www.kurzweilai.net/nasa

If I'm not mistaken, NASA and DARPA have already initiated plans to turn this into reality under the "100-Year Starship" program: http://www.kurzweilai.net/nasa-ames-worden-reveals-darpa-funded-hundred-year-starship-program http://www.kurzweilai.net/nasa-ames-worden-reveals-darpa-fun... EDIT: As to this: "This is premature," Ed Mitchell of Apollo 14 wrote in an e-mail. "We aren't ready for this yet.", I think it's really necessary. A large part of the plan is a push for private investment and developing the private spaceflight industry. If what's happened in the past with both automobiles and aviation is any indication, there won't be any sort of massive innovation or progress unless spaceflight is commercialized. The amount of stagnation in the development of human spaceflight is absurd considering the way aviation took off in the last half of the 20th century. Burt Rutan makes a very compelling argument to this end: (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/burt_rutan_sees_the_future_of_space.html http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/burt_rutan_sees_the_future...)