Good news, bad news.

[N35t0r]

Still an impossible distance, tho. Barring a revolution in physics or the evacuation of earth due to disaster, I don't think we're sending anyone anywhere, ever. Einstein has to be wrong, or else we have to discover a ridiculously implausible technology that lets us "fold" vast regions of space on the cheap.

I don't think we're that far off from a spaceship that can manage to get there in under 50 years with a human colony on board. If the mars one guys do manage to set up that base on Mars, and it keeps for a decade or two, it'll already be a huge leap towards an interstellar voyage, IMHO. I'm not saying our lifetime (well, yours, I'm immortal), but within the next 100 - 150 years for sure.

If we don't all just kill each other first, of course.

[Docfeelgood]

I don't think we're that far off from a spaceship that can manage to get there in under 50 years with a human colony on board. If the mars one guys do manage to set up that base on Mars, and it keeps for a decade or two, it'll already be a huge leap towards an interstellar voyage, IMHO. I'm not saying our lifetime (well, yours, I'm immortal), but within the next 100 - 150 years for sure.

If we don't all just kill each other first, of course.

[regexcellent]

why would you leave earth it's pretty nice here.

[MikeH]

Well yes, but we're not going to discover any habitable planets only as far away as Mars.

Important to note that being "In the habitable zone" doesn't mean they are going to be any more habitable than Mars.

[N35t0r]

We're going to Mars

[Lorizael]

Important to note that being "In the habitable zone" doesn't mean they are going to be any more habitable than Mars.

It's true.

[Colon™]

I don't think we're that far off from a spaceship that can manage to get there in under 50 years with a human colony on board. If the mars one guys do manage to set up that base on Mars, and it keeps for a decade or two, it'll already be a huge leap towards an interstellar voyage, IMHO. I'm not saying our lifetime (well, yours, I'm immortal), but within the next 100 - 150 years for sure.

The main hurdle for interstellar voyage is getting past mere speculation how faster-than-light travel could be achieved. If it were possible and we could get to other planets that are habitable, ie have a breathable atmosphere and tolerable gravity, a Mars colony is going to be as helpful as a colony on the bottom of the ocean.

[Lorizael]

Guys, ftl is not required. The technology (not the science) is way beyond us now, but there are plenty of ways to get to other star systems. Use relativity to limit local time on the ship, or only send robots and DNA samples, or freeze your passengers, or upload their brains into computers and then download them into robot bodies (okay, that science is beyond us now). Th question of why you would want to do all that is a good one, but it's entirely separate from the question of how. For answers to the former question, read some decent SF.

[Elok]

Without FTL, any and all colonists sent would be dead to us. It would take almost fifty years to complete one round of communication with these people--we say hello, and today's babies are middle-aged when their "hello" comes back. There'd be no point in sending them, beyond the abstruse benefit of "if a hypothetical catastrophe wipes out earth, the human race will continue in some form, somewhere." People don't spend billions of dollars for things like that. Nor, I think, should they.

[Lorizael]

I think it might be useful to place some value on the survival of the human race. That said, I doubt we will really attempt interstellar colonization until it's trivially cheap.

[PLATO]

The Chinese are probably already planning to build a Generational Ship...once the Americans make the plans for one they can steal.

[Docfeelgood]

Docfeelgood thanks for your sharing about good and bad news. It’s interesting for us.

Thank You

[Donegeal]

I have tried this once before, but instead of just saying 'It's too hard' or 'it can't be done', lets disscuss how it could actually be done. How do you get to another star? What would it take? What do we need to do?

[PLATO]

1.) LEO facility for construction

[Elok]

The Chinese are probably already planning to build a Generational Ship...once the Americans make the plans for one they can steal.

Well, that would be a great waste of cash some regional bureaucrat could point to as "increase in GDP." Beats the hell out of more bullet trains and bridges in that respect. And it would allow them to get rid of some excess population. Not really cost-effective in that respect, though. They'd probably be better off just starting a war for that.