Ah, looks like I misread things. 17kps makes a lot more sense - 17kph is like bicycle speed. We can create anti-matter all right, but AFAIK, that isn't the exo

Ah, looks like I misread things. 17kps makes a lot more sense - 17kph is like bicycle speed. We can create anti-matter all right, but AFAIK, that isn't the exotic matter required by an Alcubierre drive. Anti-matter could in theory be used to create the most efficient rocket drive possible, but apparently even that isn't all that great. According to this http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/images/content/84509main_warp06.gif http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/images/content/84509main_w... sobering chart, even a theoretical anti-matter rocket would require 1 million kg of propellant to send a small capsule past the Centauri cluster in 900 years, without counting stopping. Going back to chemical rockets, there is apparently not enough mass in the entire universe for that rather underwhelming plan! I don't know that FTL is out of the question, but apparently it is impossible to have it without time travel. I'm not looking for any of that to happen tomorrow, and I don't think anybody alive now has a clue when anything like that might be ruled in or out for sure, but with the right theoretical breakthrough, a lot of interesting stuff could potentially happen very fast.