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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Banshee16" data-source="post: 5277420" data-attributes="member: 7883">60 to 70 years to reach another star.  That's an immense amount of time.  I don't think it's even practical to contemplate.  You basically either need to have one of two things (IMO):A) Super-developed AI's, in combination with workable cryogenic technology allowing you to freeze your crew, and only bring them out in moments of crisis, or when you are almost at your destination.orB) A super huge ship with a large population, more than we've ever put into space before.  60 or 70 years?  Assuming that your astronauts are 20 years old when they launch, they're going to be 80 or 90 years old when they get there.  So either you've got astronauts who have enough life in them to push some buttons and make sure to be able to send a message back to say "yeah", there's a good planet here, send the next ship...with that message getting home in how many years after that?  Or you have to have that ship with a huge population, so that you can support astronauts having babies in space, with all the medical complications and supply issues that entails...because it's going to be 3 generations after liftoff that you finally get where you're going.To me it just doesn't seem realistic.  I don't think it means we don't look for solutions...I just kind of think that getting to another solar system is more science fiction fantasy than anything else.  Look how much human civilization has changed in 70 years.  How can you stick astronauts on a ship to another solar system, and have them arrive 70 years later, sane, unless basically what you're sending is a colony ship of sorts?Banshee</blockquote>

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