This morning I was able to ask a question on local radio and have it answered by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, AM (Member of the Order of Australia), Science Communicator, The Julius Sumner Miller Fellow.
I put to him the question, "Will humans ever be able to travel outside our Solar System considering the enormous distances and our current speed of travel.
His short answer was YES.
Not with our current technology but when we can develop Nuclear Fusion Rockets that will enable speeds of up to 3000 km/second or 10 Million kmh.
Something to look forward to.
4 Likes
That is true. But the problem with that is someone would have to be figure out how to detect and avoid any pea sized space dust/partial first, I would assume.
3 Likes
I think Dr Karl is being a bit optimistic about humanity still being here to do it though 
4 Likes
Hi
3000km per hour sounds fast, light travels at 300,000 km per second.
The nearest star is light years away.
Humans are not going anywhere interesting in a life time.
4 Likes
Blimey, light years, at this age your lucky you can make the end of the street 
3 Likes
Unfortunately there are a few problems with this, not just meteor impact, radiation/gamma burst, food, oxygen, water and everything else to make a trip possible.
Using the velocity given, it would take 471.11 years to reach the nearest exoplant that exists in the habitable zone, which is around Proxima b, which is 4.24 light-years away, assuming you could survive the potential UV and radiation hazards that are believed to be there, as well as extreme temperatures.
The best candidate exoplant for habitation is believed to be Ross 128b, a mere 11 light-years away, which would take a mere 1,222 years to reach.
The only advantage would be the effects of relativity would not be a problem. Probably stand a better chance if someone invented Warp Speed as used in Star Trekā¦
4 Likes
Blimey Graham, that is a lot to take on board.
3 Likes
I think we can safely say no.
Some things are just outside of human capabillity.
I am aware that some things seen in science fiction have since become a reality, but I believe even putting a human alive on Mars, and return them home will never be acomplished.
2 Likes
The best one can hope for is to be āBeamed Upā 
3 Likes
Yeah, fusion rockets are probably our best bet, but the engineering hurdles are wild. Still, even just testing one in deep space would be historic.
1 Like
The hull would most likely gradually wear away from impacts of trillions of high energy objects.
Call it 300 miles per second, incredible impacts. 277.777777777777 Those are not good numbers.
Who knows the directions or speeds of those tiny lil wavy thingies.
Maybe our ship-world lights up like a Xmas tree! Most likely scientist need to study the hull of the
International space station with a microscope and take pictures of them.
Most likely the energy needs to use some kind of Electronic / anti mater Shield that repels the Wavy thingies would be near absolute energy areas.
4 Likes
The faster the speed you go the denser the Universe would most likely become.
It only makes sense as you blow āspace timeā behind you it becomes denser in front.
Astronomers Find Universeās Missing Matter Hidden Between Galaxies | Watch
The point is eternity is existing where / immediately in front of where you want to blow ass too!
2 Likes