This time it seems they nailed it for real: gravitational waves

Oberon · 02-13-16, 07:14 PM

Aye, heck we could already have been out to further edges of the solar system and back had it not been for humanities inability to trust one another.
The Orion drive could have powered a manned ship to Pluto and back, and is still probably our best option for fast in solar system travel, but it's also one of the most dirty and primitive ones, so perhaps in the long term it was best that it was never used.

But yeah, I think that eventually we will get near light speed travel, and then faster than lightspeed travel most likely through some variation of the Alcubierre drive.
Technologically wise we are on the precipice of human expansion into space, and it can't happen soon enough given our frailty confined to one planet, taking just a well placed asteroid, nuclear war or epidemic to smash centuries of progress and achievement.

The big question is whether we, as a race, are ready for it.

02-13-16, 07:14 PM	#23
Oberon Lucky Jack Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 25,976 Downloads: 61 Uploads: 20	Aye, heck we could already have been out to further edges of the solar system and back had it not been for humanities inability to trust one another. The Orion drive could have powered a manned ship to Pluto and back, and is still probably our best option for fast in solar system travel, but it's also one of the most dirty and primitive ones, so perhaps in the long term it was best that it was never used. But yeah, I think that eventually we will get near light speed travel, and then faster than lightspeed travel most likely through some variation of the Alcubierre drive. Technologically wise we are on the precipice of human expansion into space, and it can't happen soon enough given our frailty confined to one planet, taking just a well placed asteroid, nuclear war or epidemic to smash centuries of progress and achievement. The big question is whether we, as a race, are ready for it.