Reply #57: I can't imagine someone who could move a ship between stars [View All]

Would need a mediocre energy source like uranium. Remember the faster you go the shorter the trip is to you so a good enough fuel will get you there and back without needing to muddle about training the next generation to tend the engines. Relativity works in favor of the people making the trip if they don't mind going home 150 years after they left.

Antimatter makes a much better boom and could be produced in useful quantities using solar energy if you do it close enough to the sun. Sure, it'll take a while or a lot of football field sized collectors around the orbit of Mercury but hey, if you're planning interstellar trips you're already thinking big. Funny story, they made some antimatter at CERN a couple of years ago. They had a few particles sitting there for study but let them go because no one wanted to stay and watch the machine over the Christmas holidays! Poof!

When I think about why someone would go that far searching for resources doesn't seem reasonable. Not when there's whole nebulae made of booze out there waiting to be tapped.

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/beercld.htm

Why bother going to where the scrabbley little monkeys call home if all you need is metal? There's way better sources for most stuff out there and no creatures to feel bad about squishing with the automated mining contraptions. The only things that might make it worth the trip would be the Earths biology or philosophy.

Intellectual and biological diversity that may not be found anywhere else.