More details have emerged on the US government's plan to build a spacecraft capable of "a journey between the stars". Astoundingly, it is expected that this can be achieved with no more than "several hundred thousand dollars" of government funding.

This is because the idea is that the starship will not, in fact, be built or funded by the US government – nor any other. Even the mighty USA, goes the reasoning, could never muster the necessary levels of investment and focus over many decades which would be required by such a project.

As we've noted on these pages before, it seems plain that someone has been reading Robert Heinlein's classic scientifiction* novel Time for the Stars. In the tale there is a miracle non-profit outfit in the future known as the Long Range Foundation which becomes colossally rich by investing in long-term but high-payoff projects such as weather control. It then ploughs its vast revenues into building relativistic "torch ships" able to travel to nearby stars at close to the speed of light...