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.
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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.
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I think Dr Karl is being a bit optimistic about humanity still being here to do it though 
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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.
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Blimey, light years, at this age your lucky you can make the end of the street 
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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 Trek…
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Blimey Graham, that is a lot to take on board.
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