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Some time ago I tackled the reason for the name of Project Icarus, the project I’m working on to create a theoretical design of an interstellar probe. I’m amazed that every time an article appears someone comments “They should have done some research into the name. Icarus fell into the sea!”, as if they have some special niche knowledge of mythology that we silly engineers clearly lack. Oh well, gotta laugh!
But the other question I get asked a lot is a much better one, though harder to answer. The question is “Why do you put so much time into working on Project Icarus when you’re not being paid for it?”
It’s a good question, and I don’t have an obvious answer for it.
It’s not because I think that somehow I’m helping to develop the first interstellar probe. It would be nice to think so, but realistically it’s unlikely that the first probe that’s actually built will follow the Icarus design. A long time will have passed between the delivery of the final Icarus design report and the commencement of work on a real probe. I would guess that we won’t see such a probe launched until at least 2100 – and 2200 is a more realistic date. Technology will have moved on by then, and the designers of the day will have their own ideas – probably much better ones! I’ll be happy to watch the launch of whatever craft they come up with.
I think it’s much more plausible that Icarus will feed into a next generation of design work, in the same way that Icarus is based on the Daedalus design of the 1970s. Perhaps in the 2040s another team will come along, dust off the old Icarus studies and ask themselves “How can we do this better?” That’s a nice thought. Perhaps in the 2070s yet another team will come along, and they might come up with a design that makes people say “Hey, you know, we could actually build this now.”
But ultimately, I enjoy working on the project for its own sake. It’s a very interesting problem, with some horrific constraints which make the engineering required very difficult. I’m trying to get an insight into what the solution might look like. By working through a full design, we get a much better feel for the possible solutions, so we can get a better idea of when humanity might be able to launch such a craft, and what problems we’ll need to solve on the way. It also gives us some data on what it is possible for a civilization to do, which feeds into questions about the capabilities of any extra-terrestrial societies out there (if there are any).
Of course, if you ask other team members, you’ll probably get totally different answers!
If Icarus was easy, it would be as pointless as train-spotting.
One joy of watching the project – for me at least – is to see the co-operation across traditional boundaries, both geographical and intellectual… and getting a handle on those very human issues will be just as important an achievement as any of the technological ones that will need to be overcome.
You’ve hit the nail firmly and squarely on the flat bit.
Organising this project is turning out to be a very interesting challenge, given the facts that it (a) is a volunteer project, and (b) consists of people distributed across time zones.
We are experimenting with various methods of managing comms. We have a forum, of course, but we have also held some video conferences between team members.