Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
It'll get delayed until a time traveler comes back with the necessary technology  |
Maybe not.
There are serious efforts looking into promising approaches to three of the SF staple drives: plasma drive, reactionless drive, and warp drive.
The former is up to the engineering demonstrator, the latter two are at the proof of principle test level; strange phenomena have been observed that suggest the advanced drives might not be totally impossible.
If the Skunkworks guys come through, the solar system at least will be wide open and unmanned interstellar probes will be doable, say within 10-20 lys...
It's the 21st century out there; things are getting interesting...