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Considering all of the engineering challenges and breakthroughs needed, I don't see actual humans entering another star system earlier than the middle of next century at best. Most importantly with travel speed breakthrough, which will need to be FTL for carbon based humans. So we'd need some really extreme progress in something like warp drives. But also shielding, both for radiation and interstellar particles. Will also need gravity simulation.
However I do believe that if it is possible at all, it will likely happen no later than 500 years. So I think between 150-500 yrs.
I voted 500-5,000 years, even though it really seems impossible right now. I don't think most people realize how far the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, really is from Earth. I was just reading today a story that puts a picture to the distance between our sun and Proxima Centauri. If the Sun is the size of a grapefruit located somewhere on the East Coast (Ex. New York City) of the US, Proxima Centauri would be situated on the West Coast (ex. San Francisco) of the US, about 2,500 miles away. Guess where Earth would be located? About 50-60 FEET away from the grapefruit. I calculated Earth's distance myself being that Earth is about 8 light minutes away from the Sun and Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 light years away from the Sun.
Now think about the nearest galaxy, Andromeda. Andromeda is about 2.5 million light years away from the Milky Way. That's an almost unimaginable distance for most people to picture. And that's just the NEAREST galaxy. Think about the at least 100 billion other galaxies in the observable universe. I'm just thinking there's got to be life out there somewhere.
If we attempt to travel to an exoplanet, it will be one that can support life as we know it. So far none of the roughly 3,000 exoplanets that have been discovered supports life.
Say we eventually find one that supports life. It will likely be far away -- many light years far away. If a spaceship can be built, it will have to be able to support many generations of humans on board to reach said exoplanet. How much food, water, air, etc., etc. are needed for such a mission? I can't even imagine the complexity needed for such a spaceship.
It's far cheaper to send frozen human eggs and sperms along with robots who will help populate the new planet with humans. But if robots will be that smart and capable, they might as well be us.
And they will be -- when we figure out how to create a digital version of our brain and upload it to a robotic body that never gets sick and doesn't need to breath, eat, drink, pee, and poop. When that happens, we won't be limited to where we can live. We can live on the moon, Mars, Titan, etc., etc.
Anyway, to answer the original question: I don't have a clue.
Why can no-one see further than our current technology and science? In the last 100 years we have made leaps and strides into new technology, so why not more in the next 50-100 years. If we dont destroy ourselves first.
If anyone bothers to follow the trail down the rabbit hole of at least 20 alien UFO crashes and what happened to the debris, it is likely that the governments of the world have the necessary technology already. Where do you think the trillions of missing dollars are going but into black projects which are 50 years ahead of the technology we can see around us.
There are plenty of whistleblowers who have come forward to confirm each others testimony and to say that we are developing this technology already. If you doubt this, watch the video of the 2013 Citizens Hearing on Disclosure. It will probably change your viewpoint and show you our current real state of technology which is enough to reach the stars now. If it does not change your opinion, you probably do not want to believe such deception from your world governments.
The question should be
When will we hear about it in the mainstream news and be able to use the associated technology?
...If anyone bothers to follow the trail down the rabbit hole of at least 20 alien UFO crashes and what happened to the debris, it is likely that the governments of the world have the necessary technology already...
Someone asks a perfectly normal, science-based question and we get this as a response.
We'll do it within 100-500 years. I don't think it will be within 100 years... in fact I doubt we'll even begin to colonize mars or our own moon within the next 25 years.. that's probably 50 years out yet... unless they actually do have anti-gravity technology or some form of propulsion that they've got classified but that seems unlikely or the would have declassified that technology since the days of the x-files when I used to think they had such technology.
The biggest barriers are financial in nature. R&D of new technology and the manpower to make it happen.. if it's not commercially viable it's not going to move along fast. Luckily you've got companies sitting on goldmines of cash like Google that do promote development of ideas and concepts that can better mankind as a whole.. still they have to think of their shareholders...
My guess is some time between the years 2218 and 2282
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