AP: First detection of extra-solar terrestial sized planet?

Man, with all the smart folks in the world you would think a new propulsion system to allow these distances to be traversed would have been invented! mabie im just a bit impatient!

ion drives, solar sails (with optional high powered laser near/on mercury), lobbing a nuke out the back window every couple of minutes and surfing along on the shockwave... plenty of options have been thrown out. None have got the funding to be tested, with the exception of the ion drive.

Traveling the distance is one part of the problem. Stopping when you get there is another problem entirely!

im holding out for something that doesnt concentrate on pushing us faster and faster, be it by catching the solar winds, or rocketing us forward. hopefully in my lifetime someone will figure out how to use the properties of space to allow us to travel huge distances in a short time. not holding my breadth though!

The British Interplanetary Society ( www.bis-spaceflight.com/ )published a design in the 1970s for a spacecraft to go to Barnard's Star in just 50 years powered by nuclear fusion.

This design would go the 20 LY in less than 200 years...if it had enough fuel.

Half the journey... accelerate.
Second half.....swing around and decelerate!

Project Daedalus:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Daedalus

Peter.

The British gave up calling a million million a "billion" about 15 years ago.

Not entirely. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

ROI use the short-scale - ie one billion is one thousand million.

P.S. I've read in several places that the Voyagers will reach the distance to the Alpha Centauri system (If they were going there) in about 80,000 years.

That would mean that they would get to 20 LY in less than 400,000 years.

Peter.

Correct - but they are not manned spacecraft. Our current fasted manned spacecraft would take 5 billion years.

The British Interplanetary Society ( www.bis-spaceflight.com/ )published a design in the 1970s for a spacecraft to go to Barnard's Star in just 50 years powered by nuclear fusion.

This design would go the 20 LY in less than 200 years...if it had enough fuel.

Half the journey... accelerate.
Second half.....swing around and decelerate!

Project Daedalus:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Daedalus

Peter.

Again, this is unmanned.