Interesting thread topic idea, interstellar travel and associated difficulties.
To keep it pertinent to the EvsC forum maybe it could include some thought about the problems posed by the evolution of man under those constraints and whether we would be suitable to re-inhabit a planet after traveling for that duration through space.
What would be the maximum reasonable speed, relative to c, that we could attain?
The issues are more technological than theoretical in nature.
quote:
OK, so the speed simply isn't there for a quick flight over 4.3 light years. But there is an even bigger problem than that. How would these interstellar spaceships be fueled? According to Brice N. Cassenti, an associate professor with the Department of Engineering and Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at least 100 times the total energy output of the entire world would be required for the voyage. "We just can't extract the resources from the Earth," Cassenti said during his conference presentation. "They just don't exist. We would need to mine the outer planets."
For mankind to extend its reach into the stars, we need to come up with a better plan. Even the most advanced forms of propulsion (even anti-matter engines) cannot make the gap seem any less massive.
Which, if it proves true, leaves us time until the sun expands or the earth's core cools enough for the magnetic field to disappear or maybe the stability of planet orbits will cease before that.
There is also the YEC problem that after traveling toward the stars for a period of time they may simply disappear as the light created in transit is all there ever was..
Which raises the question, with an expanded sun would some of the other moons of the solar system become habitable with the use of terraforming?
Maybe we should seed the appropriate lifeforms to start the process now..