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Originally Posted by Incognitas
It's the power source that will be the biggest problem.We are still trying to find a cheap power source that converts easily obtainable renewable resources(therefore cheaper)that aren't toxic(who wants to be irradiated before the final destination) and gives out enough output to get up to speed so as to get somewhere within living memory.Then having got up to speed we have to make sure that we don't smear ourselves across the windscreen in a bloody pulp before we work out how to stop.Also before we go any distance away we want to be sure we can get back with whatever we discover or the whole experience will be wasted for those left back here on earth.
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If we were to commit the effort to it we could make a reasonable stab at it within a relatively short space of time. Daedelus was a proposed spacecraft in the 1970s that would use nuclear explosions to propel a craft. You wouldn`t need to use this method on its own, once your craft is up to a reasonable speed you can collect interstellar hydrogen in ramscoops to use as fuel, although for that it would be handy if you had a stable fusion reactor on board. As for the bloody pulp business, any GSCE science student should be able to tell you the answer to that one, just keep your acceleration within reasonable limits. Unfortunately this would most likely require a global effort, so don`t expect to see it happen any time soon.
As for concerns about toxicity, I wouldn`t care about that if you are wizzing through space. You're going to need enough shielding on your craft as it is, a bit more if required isn`t going to be a problem.
While not practical for us at the current time, you shouldn`t dismiss energy sources that may not require a vast supply of resources. If a civilisation is advanced enough to get here then it would be a fair bet that they would have things like zero-point energy sources, or some other exotic equivalent.