ScienceDirect - Technol Rep Tohoku Univ ... - Garryck Osborne

NICK COOK 95
But ASTP did not end there. In addition to examining ways to provide
cheaper access to low Earth orbit and coming up with propulsion systems
that by the second half of the century will lead to "the commercialization
of the inner solar system," its original task went a lot further.
Into an elevator, half a dozen floors up, and we emerged into a world
of bright walls, carpeted floors, posters of exotic spacecraft and artists'
impressions of planetary systems, constellations and nebulae.
Up ahead, through an open door, sitting behind a large desk, Garry
Lyles—bespectacled, bearded and thoughtful-looking—was waiting.
"Within a hundred years," he told me over coffee, his soft southern
drawl catching with emotion, "we'll be going to the next star system."
He spoke about the journey with such absolute conviction that it was
difficult, in spite of the sheer fantasy at the heart of the idea, not to believe
him. Lyles was a dreamer, but his dreams were rooted in work that was
going on within the Wernher von Braun administrative complex as we
spoke. ASTP scientists at Huntsville—people working right on the edge
of what was known and understood in the harsh world of propulsion
physics—were collaborating with other NASA facilities on science that
would enable astronauts to make a "fast trip" to the Alpha Centauri star
system, Earth's nearest stellar neighbor, 4.3 light-years away. As head of
this portion of ASTP, Lyles was bound up in the immensity of the
challenge.
I asked what he meant by a "fast trip."
"We have set a goal to go to Alpha Centauri in 50 years—a 50-year
trip." He stared at me intently as he rocked back in his chair. "You have
to really use your imagination to come up with a propulsion system that
will do that."
"When will you be able to make that trip?" I asked.
He gestured to another part of the complex visible beyond the blinds
of his window. "We have a group of thinkers out there that's beyond antimatter.
They're looking at space warp, ways to get to other stars in a Star
Trek-like fashion. If we're not thinking about that kind ofthing today,
we won't be going to the stars in a hundred years' time. But I have to tell
you that if you talk to these people, these engineers who are working on
interstellar missions, they think they can do it. And I have no doubt that
they're right."
The trip, he reiterated, would be possible before the end of the 21st
century.
The phone rang and Lyles took it, allowing me a moment to
consolidate my thoughts. His team, he said, had opted for a 50-year trip
because it represented a time span most engineers could get their heads