I saw part of an old Star trek episode the other day and it got me thinking how sad it is it's probably always be just a dream!
You see the problem with space travel is the scale. As Douglas Adams said is his book Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy, "space is big, really big, you think popping down to the shops is a long way, thats peanuts to space" At least I think thats what he said in his great book. Thats certainly true anyway.
If you got in the space shuttle and went belting off into space at top speed and started when your 30 years old by the time you get to 60 your... well somewhere near Pluto. yes you haven't even left our solar system yet. As Adams said, space is big.! Indeed if you press on regardles towards our nearest earth like planet Proxima Centauri you will be a bit older when you get there.... Actually quite a bit oulder. About a 166.000 years older to be precise, and you'd be a fair bit dead.
Thats assuming of course that the shuttle lasted that long and you could carry a lifetimes supply of air food and water. And more importantly if Proxima Centauri is actually earth like, thats a really just a best guess at the moment. So massive fuck up to arrive there at the ripe old age of 166.030 years old to find id a barren rock covered in dust.
Oh the joy of landing and thinking WTF? it wasn't like this on Star Trek! No pretty green women to "cop-off with", no aliens to fight, no precious stones, bugger all! Might as well have gone to the beach.
Oh theres talk of warp drive and wormholes, but it's all just fantasy now, maybe it will become real some time in the future, but then maybe as a species will have died off long before then, maybe there really is never going to be travel outside our few local planets. Live long and prosper.
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