Article A trip to Proxima Centauri and other far-out ideas NASA is exploring

[C C]

https://gizmodo.com/a-trip-to-proxima-ce...1851143279

EXCERPTS: NASA, in its relentless pursuit of space innovation, announced on Thursday the selection of 13 new projects for its 2024 Phase I awards under the Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. These awards, totaling up to $175,000 each, are granted to teams proposing advanced and unconventional space technologies.

[...] Among the 13 new projects selected [...] a coordinated fleet of miniature spacecraft setting off for Proxima Centauri within this century...

[...] Closer to home [...] a proposal for the first-ever flight of a fixed-wing, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft on Mars...

[...] While NASA and its international partners hash out a plan to return surface samples from Mars .... something even more ambitious: returning surface samples from Venus...

[...] Other proposals include technology to allow for more efficient and long-lasting storage of fuel in space (making it easier and more feasible to send crewed missions to Mars), a system to break down and eliminate harmful chemicals, called perchlorates, from the Martian environment, an ISS project to study hibernation and its energy-saving state, torpor, in microgravity (for the purpose of facilitating interplanetary space travel), and developing new technologies for storing cryogenic propellants, like liquid hydrogen, in space (for refueling spacecraft on crewed missions to Mars and back), among others... (MORE - missing details)

[Zinjanthropos]

A swarm would tolerate significant attrition en route, mitigating the risk of “putting all your eggs in one basket,”

This sounds like a good idea, wonder how many they expect to lose?

They mention a 20 year cruise, is it one way? When and if they decide to do this or even once the swarm has taken flight, what happens if there’s a giant leap in technology that basically makes this mission obsolete?

[C C]

A swarm would tolerate significant attrition en route, mitigating the risk of “putting all your eggs in one basket,”

This sounds like a good idea, wonder how many they expect to lose?

I doubt they have any legitimate idea at this point. Just hand-waving at Murphy's law. 

They mention a 20 year cruise, is it one way?

Definitely, since (though claimed to be autonomous) these wouldn't be replicating machines like those below (or nanobots) that could build lasers to propel a new generation back the other way.

Cosmic expansion is a given. Who inherits the cosmos is not
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-15241-...l#pid61791

When and if they decide to do this or even once the swarm has taken flight, what happens if there’s a giant leap in technology that basically makes this mission obsolete?

Even the resurrection of Project Orion would only yield a third of the speed of light, versus one-fifth for a related project like Starlight. That wouldn't be enough to antiquate or overtake either the latter or the Swarm's importance at the time.

If AI unlikely solved or discovered "exotic matter" and FTL warp drive was speedily realized, a team would still be committed to the degraded-in-value mission, similar to how they're still playing with Voyager spacecraft after all these decades.

[Zinjanthropos]

All this probing of a galaxy sounds great but if a berserker probe finds us first then it won’t matter.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker_hypothesis

Heard Cox on a YouTube short also mention this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis