Scientists are usually a realistic bunch—our salaries depend on proposing projects that are doable with the tools we have in our hands, and our plans usually involve prudent small steps rather than aiming for risky big leaps. But we sometimes dream too, and when we dream, we dream big, even if we dream very seriously. In a project that was part dream and part technical design exercise, a group of scientists drew up a plan to send humans to the outer fringes of our solar system in the later half of the 21st century. The result was a spaceship that may look similar to Discovery 1 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
