Starbound - Interstellar Travel and the Limits of the Possible

This book is for anyone enthralled by the romantic dream of a voyage 'to the stars.' From our current viewpoint in the twenty-first century, crewed interstellar travel will be an exceptionally difficult undertaking. It will require building a spacecraft on a scale never before attempted, at vast cost, relying on unproven technologies. Yet somehow, through works of science fiction, TV and movies, the idea of human interstellar travel being easy or even inevitable has entered our popular consciousness. In this book, Ed Regis critically examines whether humankind is bound for distant stars, or if instead we are bound to our own star, for the indefinite future. How do we overcome the main challenge that even the nearest stars are unimaginably far away? He explores the proposed technologies and the many practical aspects of undertaking an interstellar journey, finishing with his reflections on whether such a journey should be planned for.

Preface; 1. Origins of the Dream; 2. The 100 Year Starship; 3. Three Icons of Star Travel; 4. Project Orion; 5. Where To?; 6. The World Ship; 7. Hail Mary Propulsion Systems, Inc.; 8. The Fate of the Crew; 9. The Moral Status of the Trip; 10. Let Us Hibernate; 11. Why Go?; 12. The Odds; Tables and Figures; Bibliography; Index.