what if we will never reach the stars?

Hi dawnald, thank your for your comment. Can you be a bit more specific in regard to that point. Do you allude to the funding of such space projects or the deprivation of the possibility to people?

I'm talking about funding, yes.

that's a clear statement. Thank you! I guess funding is indeed considered by many people a huge issue in space exploration.

doing that ''now'' meaning within a time span of about 17,000 years (!), i.e. Voyager 1 would reach the nearest star Proxima Centauri which is 4.2 light years away within that time if it was travelling straight to that star. Sometimes things change pretty quick. If for example the quantum computer was made real this would be a quantum jump in processing speed from a few billion calculations per second to virtually unlimited calculations per second. So may be it could happen rather sooner than later if someone finds a way not conceived yet. But I also consider the possibility that it might not even be possible at all. Hence the topic question. What if not? Thx for your comment.

I got the question. But I don't think it's a question that needs to be asked. I believe it's logical that the stars are where we're heading, evidenced by the fact that we can already get there. It's just not efficient. But it will be. We're very young.

in the current situation it is definitely a question to be asked. Of course you don't need to answer it if you don't want to are unable to do so. If politicians or scientists keep telling people that reaching other stars is possible that might lead to the idea that exploitation of Earth is okay coz sooner or later we may be able to exploit other planets instead if this one is exhausted. And no, we cannot get there, just our machines

your last statement, I absolutely second that even if it's just inter-planetary travel (holiday on Mars or Jupiter's and Saturn's Moons would be fun Either cancel gravity or perhaps cancel mass? Coz gravity only affects mass, right? I remember CERN trying to find out what gives matter its mass, calling it the HIGGS field. If they can ''turn off'' that field maybe matter loses its mass and then it could be accelerated indefinitely... or so I would think

Hi stk40m, If you think we've not been visited then you have certainly mistaken, do you think that someone like Michio Kaku will waste his time on something which is not possible. He can't tell you the truth because even he has to survive in this world where governments are investing money in covering it up. From Roosvelt event in 1947 to Dyatlov pass event, every time when we have encountered them, we've found something much much advanced. If you've doubt in believing that we've been visited, watch these videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW0ApDr032I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XSqcAq0A9k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6QNzH4x1rY Apart from this you can search for Puma Punku, Machu pichhu, Nazca lines, band of holes all these are located in peru, ask yourself why and how these things were built on earth and who could have done that. In our religion n number of times it's been mentioned that people at that time used to travel in time. There is one incident where a king traveled for one month in space for a war and when he came back there were millions of years passed here on earth. So it's not impossible, it's just that we're not advanced enough to even confidently think in these lines. That's why Michio Kaku says we don't even rate 1 on the classification of civilization scale.

sounds promising. I guess it also depends on how far evolution can take us. Will our brains be capable of understanding the hidden truths of the universe? What if the truth is that we can only improve the already developped technologies but not invent such that could take us there. There might also be insurmountable limits. The universe could be designed in a way that prohibits interstellar travel within a life-span of a human being. In that context I often ask myself: if there are advanced civilizations out there why haven't they already visited us? Maybe that's a hint for the impossibility of getting there (or here). Still fascinating thoughts. Thx for your comment!

as for the Moon, recently I read an article about that. ESA seems to plan to go there near 2020. If they do it I'll definitely follow it closely. There have been only a couple of people there in the whole (known) history of mankind! So it will be a must see. Yeah, I agree, if it would be possible in theory it would certainly take hundreds of years to figure out how to put theory into practice.