Wired Magazine throws cold water on the notion that we’ll ever get to the stars. Why? … it’s too expensive & takes too long with conventional propulsion. And with exotic but plausible drives like Daedalus, the engineering isn’t there yet. And then there’s alternative & breakthrough propulsion systems that have the problem of being fictional, er, we mean to say that the physics isn’t there yet.
But for those who enjoy a challenge such as working on hypothetical interstellar space drives (propulsion without propellant), here’s a handy summary of what NASA has considered thus far…the chart is from document NASA/TM—2004-213406 entitled Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project: Project Management Methods:
…and at the moment NASA’s no. 1 candidate for achieving exotic propulsion seems to be the dark matter drive which proposes to use presumably ubiquitous dark matter as a source of reaction mass.
Rocket Scientists Say We’ll Never Reach the Stars – Wired, August 19 2008
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I’m a little worried we’ll never get to Mars, let alone the stars, at this rate.