Kaosdad008 wrote:
When talking about space travel, folks always focus on propulsion. There is another, equally important problem: space junk. Not only "human debris" but just small chunks of rock floating out there naturally. Ever wonder what that big dish was on the Enterprise? It was a shield emitter that cleared crap out of the way of the ship. As Roddenberry put it; "At warp speed, something the size of a pebble would rip a hole in the Entrprise saucer big enough to drive a truck through."
a very valid point, I was not at all trying to hone in on propulsion, however it seems to be the most imminent issue. You are exactly right that a massive shield of some sort is needed for the bits of rock and debris that are floating around this Universe. That is to say nothing of entire planets and solar systems which become an issue the longer and faster you intend to travel. Space charts and cartography as a whole will really need to step up to the plate to facilitate travel on so grand a scale.
That being said, I think the research with respect to energy generated from a feasible interstellar powerplant would yield energies and technology feasible for implementation in a shield or deflector of some sort. Furthermore, we don't really know what happens to matter at that speed, it's all theory. Matter may simply phase out of sync with objects it travels by, though I seriously doubt it. That is probably a few quantum leaps away from the technology enabling intersteller travel.
I think our momentum stopped with Apollo. I am not sure what mankind was expecting once we arrived at the moon, but whatever it was they didn't get it. We arrived to find a giant burnt sphere. As with any great scientific venture, more questions were raised than answers provided. Rather than take the knowledge gained and stab further outward, society wailed a collective, "Aw fuck it" and gave up. The Space Shuttle never had the momentum of any previous space program, and is now limping along well past its intended sunset date. It has been reduced to a low orbit 18 wheeler.