For most of us who has been talking about space travel these last few months, this following little senerio should prove to be both fun and thought provokitive. <_<

Suppose the space faring governments pooled resources and developed a real (per say) starship. <_< \
It is capible of velocities of up to five and one half times the speed of light, and can carry a couple hundred passengers. Best of all, they are looking for ordanary people for the voyage to other stars. :P
Would you go?

Now before clicking that post message and typing, "yes in a New York minute" really think about what this would likely entail. :unsure:

This journey will take the rest of your life and still not be complete. Although you will get to visit at least a few stars before you die, it will take years, and for some of the little bit farther ones, decades to get to them.
Those you leave behind you will never see again. While communications with Earth and loved ones there will be allowed and even encouraged, it will be corrispondance much like snail mail. :blink:

Never again will you see a snow capped mountain, run through a forest, or prarie, and smell the fresh air, such as you have here. No riding in a car, snuggling next to a warm campfire, or fireplace. No vacations. :huh:
No telephoning who ever you want, when ever you want. No more internet such as you know today.
No freedom to wear whatever clothing you want, or run naked through your home if you so desire.
Your selection of life mates will be limited to those on the ship, unless you are currently married and take your spouse with.
Would you go?

Procreation will be an absolute requirement. B) But you can't have a lot of children either.
You will have to either be of child bearing capibility, or at least willing to contribute to the ship's gene pool by whatever means technology on the ship provides.
Your choice of medical care will be limited to the staff on the ship. No selecting your own Primary Care Physian. No 2nd opinions, and no disputing doctor's instructions. h34r:

Any family members who go with have to do so by their own free will, and be in good health without defects which would place a burdon on the starship mission or your abilities to fulfill your duties.
No one with genetic handicaps such as downs syndrome or sickle cell will be going on the trip, however, if such are born on the ship is another matter and will be dealt with case by case. h34r:
It is also entirely possible your significant other will not accompany you on the voyage, either because of lack or willingness, or health will not allow, or inability and/or unwillingness to procreate in order for succeding generations to continue the journey. :angry:
Would you go?

The ship will have provisions to last 300 years for the number of people on the ship at launch. B)
A means of artificial gravity is in use, and the danger of radiation or other contamenents from operations of the ship are miminal. Living quarters will be provided for families, and couples. Single people will have a same gender barracks like living environment until they select a life mate or spouse of the opposite gender.
Recreation facilities will be included on the ship, but the selection will not be so unlimited as on Earth.

Finally, you will have a say as to where the ship can go and what to explore with the following limitations.
Maximum speed is five and one half times the speed of light. It will take a full week to reach maximum speed. As you near a destination, deceleration to managaible orbital or exploration speeds from full speed will take a full month.
Your range is generally limited to around 500 light years from our solar system. Because a direct return trip for whatever reason should not take much more then a single human life span.
Missions to real and present dangers must maintain a safe distance.
For example, if a black hole is discovered, get no closer then absolutly neccesary. Or a visit to the red supergiant varible star Betelguise be under extreame caution because of the possibility of that star going supernova with little or no notice.
Other limitations not thought up before as may arise must be dealt with via common since.

Now, would you go? and if so where, and what would you want to explore?

I'm hoping to hear a big varity of replies, and hopfully this string will be at least as interesting and as much fun as the favorite planet or moon string has been.

Enjoy. Thus saith the Planetwatcher.

No, not for that long. If we could reduce the round trip to a couple of years though.

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A mere 500 light years? I'd like to go to the Orion Nebula, but of course thats 1500 light years away...

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The Pleiades... I believe that's within reach

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"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark, near the Tanhauser Gate... all those moments will be lost, in time... like tears in the rain..."

I'll go anywhere you like as long as we can stop at 7/11 on the way.

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If this was my only chance at an interstellar journey, then I would take it. Sadly I'm not sure exactly what stars or objects would be in reach of 500 lightyears...

I would sign up! I had been saying traveling with teenagers is a terrible fate, but I would hope they would want to go with me. I'm not sure how many years we could stand "Are we there yet?"

Any chance of 'cold sleep' or suspended animation?

I would first want to check out our next door neighbors at Alpha Centuri, then I'd just be along for the ride.

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Other good destinations would be Sirius, Vega and the sol-like stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani.

Let's see I read somewhere that there are 1,000,000 stars within 500 lightyears of Sol. I guess I'm going to have to do some research for make my final list.
but for starters:

Alpha Centauri - its the closest. Wolf 359 because I'm a star trek fan, and last but not least Pleiades which is 500 light years away. Though I'm not sure if they are all going in the same direction. I hope it doesn't matter.

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The Pleiades (M45) is an open cluster, and a relatively young one at that, so the constituent stars should have a common proper motion.

I'm not sure that visiting young stars would be all that interesting other than for astrophysical research. Little or no chance of life and a lot radiation.

Dave Mitsky

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De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

I think Polly V meant that she (?) wasn't sure if alpha centauri and the Pleiades were in the same direction ... not if the Pleiades cluster were moving in the same direction.

Personally I'd like to fly out of the plane of the galaxy. Hopefully far enough to see the shape of it from above or side. That'd be pretty spectaculat. would 500Light years be enough for that?

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I would be at a loss myself to decide where to go first.
It would be between Alpha Centauri, and Epsolin Erideni, which are pretty much opposite directions. To know where the stars are would likley help. So I'll try to explain the few closest.

Looking at our Solar system from some distant point to celestrial north, or toward Polaris, imagine a clock for positions.

At 12:00 would be Sirius. Between 12 and 1 is Procyon, and Kaptens Star.
Near 2:00 is Epsolin Eri. At 3:00 would be Tau Ceti (also known as UT Ceti)
Near 5:00 is Ross 248 (I think, one of the Ross stars for sure)
Between 6 and 7 is Barnard's Star.
Between 8 and 9 is Alpha Centauri
At 10 is Wolf 359 and Lalande (forgot that number again)

Now looking at it from on plane is different.
Alpha Centauri and Barnard's Star is below the Celestrial Equator, and the rest are above.

Alpha Centauri lies well south of the celestial equator. Wolf 359 is located in Leo, a spring constellation that lies along the ecliptic. The Pleiades are also near the ecliptic but appear in the late fall sky in the opposite direction. These destinations are, in fact, widely separated in direction.

Considering that the Milky Way has a diameter of about 100,000 light years and is several thousand light years thick I doubt that a position 500 light years above or to the side of the plane of the galaxy will afford a very good perspective.

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Well bugger that idea then. That's it, I'm not going.

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How about alpha centauri. That is the closest star to our solar system

Solstation.com, If your computer is Java enabled, this is your virtual Tourist Brochure.
The Orion Arm, for a more distant demonstration of our neighbours.
If I were to suggest a journey, A slight detour to those journeying on to the Pleiades, May I recomend a stop over at the Hyades cluster ? please find inclosed 3d movie
The Orion Arm, for any more questions please do not hesitate to contact me

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I would like to go to a black hole or neutron star, but not too close!

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Well thanks fellas, for that information. And may I say Dave, that you are a fountain of information.

I'm going to have to research this journey in much greater detail.

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And all this science I don't understand, It's just my job 5 days a week.---Rocket Man--(BT/EJ)

This was a really tough question to answer honestly. I think that, once we we're capable of launching one colony ship, that others would follow. With mechanation and an increased birth rate, humans would quickly set up colonies on any habitable planet. Some would do it for adventure, some for profit.

Would I want to be on one of the first ships out? Probably not, but I'd certainly be willing to invest in some of it - owning part of a colony would be really cool. But, once a 'ring' of colonies formed around earth, I'd be quite interested in moving to one of the more successful ones.

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We can get to space as a species. The above link is information about life-extension (living longer) so that you can personally see a space-based civilization.

The MPrize (a prize to encourage life extension research now contains over 3 million dollars.

Ahh, it would also be intresting in going to a colony not as succesful and making it successful. Imagine what you could create, and own!

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Okay folks, check out this link.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010318.html

If I pasted this correctly, you will get a little diagram of the 25 nearest star systems. Thought this might make a good reference of how the nearest star systems are positioned in relation to us.