Agreed. Thing is we can still have our cowboys in space. The solar system is insanely huge and can be traversed in human time scales with technology based on kn

Agreed. Thing is we can still have our cowboys in space. The solar system is insanely huge and can be traversed in human time scales with technology based on known physics. The baseline world of The Expanse (minus the alien stuff) is entirely feasible. Interstellar travel is entirely possible too as long as you are okay with it being effectively a one way trip. Suspended animation is probably possible; we can do it to some animals and individual organs. So you go to sleep for a very long time and wake up in another star system. It would make the most sense to send a bunch of robots to build yourself a settlement first. Or alternatively send sentient AI which would find it much easier than humans to simply turn itself off for the duration of the trip.