Former astronaut Mae Jemison will lead the 100 Year Starship Project

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Former astronaut Mae Jemison will lead the 100 Year Starship Project

Former astronaut Mae Jemison, who was not only the first Black woman in space, but the first astronaut to appear on an episode of Star Trek (TNG “Second Chances” May 24 1993). And now, she’s going to be heading the ambitious 100 Year Starship Project, that will outline a 100 year plan to lead up to (hopefully) and actual starship.

Jemison apparently won a contract for her proposal titled “An Inclusive Audacious Journey Transforms Life Here on Earth & Beyond,” BBC said. Her organization, the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, is already a partner on the project with a non-profit called Icarus Interstellar and a group called the Foundation for Enterprise Development.

The details of her proposal are still unavailable, but it was apparently selected after a conference in Orlando last fall that launched a formal government request-for-proposals. The contract, worth $500,000, is designed to seed some type of entity that will take over the next 100 years’ worth of project planning. It’s also unclear yet whether this would be a non-profit or for-profit venture.

Jemison, who is also a physician and engineer, left NASA in 1993 after a six-year stint in which she served as science mission specialist aboard space shuttle Endeavour, becoming the first black woman to fly in space. Since leaving the space agency, she has been involved in education and outreach efforts and technology development. Rounding out her resume, Jemison also served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia, is a professionally trained dancer, and speaks Russian, Swahili and Japanese along with English.

Via