Is probably more how it's gonna go down.
Correct. Which is why we'd need a different form of propulsion.
Best would be if there would be an hostile Alien race.so we can eradicate em. For "Mankind"
Nooooooooo! We can't be! We are the good guys! Have you never seen a movie?
I disagree with this. With the moon we run into the facts that:
And bring the chicks this time.
Are you on crack? Do you know how far 20 LY is? The fastest manned flight ever was Apollo 10 @ like 24k mph it would take a half million years to get there. Even at 1000x THAT speed 24 million miles an hour ( which is 3.5% the speed of light) it would take like 550 years. We will NOT be able to travel at even double Apollo 10 within 2-3 generations with out killing people due to acceleration G forces, unless some majorly, majorly, MAJORLY HUGE fundamental physics findings are made in the near future. I'm talking about as major a leap as it was to get from alchemy to quantum physics. We are no where near understanding how the universe (or even gravity) works for that matter, and the universe is a HUGE place.
Any feasible manned inner and extra solar travel (like Mars) will have to involve launching from the moon with current technology. Before we can even think of inter stellar travel, we need to be able to colonize in orbit around our planet, the Moon, Mars, and possibly Jovian moons. I don't think you appreciate just how hard it is for NASA to just launch the Space Shuttle and coordinate unmanned space exploration. Rocket science ain't easy like brain surgery.
But what about when the sun dies! Noooooooo...
Our current best estimate is that the sun will burn out in about 5 billion years. What a coincidence.
I see what you did there.
Like I said I don't think the tech is going to advance enough to ever see it happen in our lifetime. Manipulating space-time and gravity is a mighty leap. To be honest right now, it's like a caveman trying to build a computer.
Actually, we can travel faster in space these days, or could if we just threw enough money at the issue. If we really wanted to we could get up to speeds much faster than were used to get the moon, but it would either involve high risk or lots of money/resources (just build a bigger ship that carries more fuel and accelerate longer). There are also various propulsion systems that are in development that promise to provide much more efficient propulsion as well, without the great risk (nuclear pulse propulsion) or cost (conventional chemical propulsion). If ion propulsion pans out it will be roughly 10 times the efficiency of chemical propellants.
Just think, in about 200,000 years that's what people will think of us!
Yeah except it'll take a whole shitload of fuel and a shit load of time to accelerate at levels low enough not to kill a person. Realistically you can't have a person even doing 2 g's for like 10 years.
