Stefan Viljoen wrote:

> This is what always bursts my bubble about space travel - whenever I hear of
> the incredible distances involved. 

The distances are *astronomical*!

Literally. As in, that's where the term comes from. ;-)

> it is still 4 YEARS in space to the nearest start.

I'm glad it's not just me who constantly mis-spells "star". :-D

> To even get to more "close" stuff, 6 YEARS, 10
> YEARS - or -thousands- of years (at LIGHTSPEED!) to another galaxy.

Indeed. Without warp drive and the ability to vastly exceed the speed of 
light, it will just take such an absurdly long time to go anywhere that 
it doesn't bare thinking about. Think about it: how long ago did we land 
on the moon? And how long after that did we land on Mars? Oh, wait...

In fact, half the stars in the night sky probably DON'T EVEN EXIST ANY 
MORE. It's just that it's taken that long for the light to reach us.

> Of course, time dilation at high relativistic velocities might mean you can,
> from your relative viewpoint, complete the journey within a human lifespan
> of 70, or 80 years, depending on just how close you can get to the
> magical "c". Nothing would be left back home though, since thousands of
> years might have passed there...
> 
> It just somehow... sad.

Yeah.

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