This initiative to develop propulsion systems and energy sources to enable people to fly to the stars saw NASA enlisting the help of more than 80 scientists and experts from industry, as well as sci-fi authors Robert Forward and Gregory Benford.
Interstellar travel is slow and costly.
Even a spacecraft powered by the annihilation of matter and antimatter would require 500 supertanker loads of fuel just to reach Proxima Centauri. And the journey would still take 100 years. The BPP researchers are considering some clever theoretical alternatives, such as wormholes and warp drives. If this technology could be extended to our other senses, it might be possible to explore the Universe at first hand from the comfort and safety of a perfect virtual world. Instead of risking life and limb travelling into space, we'd simply send probes bearing the electronic equivalents of our five senses.