Actually, it is illogical for you to believe that scientific progress will stop. History repeats itself. Science and technology has advanced from the dawn of time. It is this principle that I am basing my argument for future space travel on. Now THAT is logic.
Scientific progress will continue most assuredly. Do you believe in physical laws of nature? Or does nature operate completely arbitrarily? i sincerely hope for your sake the former. Physical laws define what is possible and what is impossible. Scientific progress is the discovery of those laws
traveling faster than the speed of light is a huge hurdle, if they ever find a way. The theory of relativity, in part, states that moving through space at the speed of light...time stops to work. The faster something moves the space, the slower it moves through time. I probably didn't explain that very well, but you can see what kind of hurdle science is up against.
good news RKA (Russian Federal Space Agency) NPS Development Anatolij Perminov, head of Russian Space Agency announced that RKA is going to develop a nuclear powered spacecraft for deep space travel. Design will be done by 2012, and 9 more years for development (in space assembly). The price is set to 17 billion rubles (600 million dollar
600 million dollars Hmnnn. This would get NASA 2 toilets, a hammer and a stack of liability waivers. ps (I apoligize for the comment but couldn't reist)
At one point you referred to special relativity. If you actually know the mathematical details of special relativity (other than what wikipedia or pop-culture has taught you), then you would not be arguing the points you are arguing now. Traveling a great distance is not equivalent to the *time* taken to get there. That, and time is also a variable, not a constant. Take a more advanced physics class (high school and community college doesn't cut it) before you refer to these types of ideas. Distance and time are not a linear relationship... that's the whole point of special relativity you dummy In layman's terms, traveling at the speed of light has nothing to do with traveling across a tremendous distance. You're too wrapped up in your own thought process to even understand what Einstein was actually saying.
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http://news.discovery.com/space/warp-drive-spaceship-engine.html Might not be near, but it might not be that far either.