As I've read this thread I've noticed one commonality that gets my goat, people saying it is impossible to travel faster than light. As a correction it is impossible or, in my opinion, damn hard to accelerate faster than light. Accelerating to said speed would require not just huge amount of power but a huge burst of power, a slow acceleration is not feasible as it would be cheaper to build a generation ship.
In order for any object to archive light speed, one very important thing must be archived, the object MUST be massless, that is, it must have absolutely no mass.
FTL communication is a different story. There is a theoretical particle called a Tachyon that travels constantly faster than light. There has also been strong evidence that from the big bang to an unknown point in universal creation that the universe expanded faster than light as well. Anyways, if one could essentially "catch" a tachyon and redirect it so it travels in a loop the tachyon could be seeded with a message and directed towards another receiver etc.
Hold your horses, tachyon, as you said, are a theorical particle, thus basicly we know nothing about it, we are not even sure it exist.
And on to space colonization, this is the future of humankind our survival ultimately depends on it. Not only are there unlimited resources in space but unlimited commercial options and the ability to spread out our species as well.
There is a whole universe of factors that could spell our doom if we remain a single planet species, not just planet killer objects.Alien attack, famine, massive tectonic movements, and loss of the atmosphere to name a few of the possibilities.
And according to one of the laws of quantum physics nothing is impossible, we could all turn into massive poop sculptures tomorrow, some are just VERY unlikely.
Three hundred years ago, people though the timber (wood) in North America's forests was unlimited......... and have you heard about petroleum and codfish?
I'm no scientist, but I believe part of Quantum Physics is based on probabilities. An event might have a probability of 1e-853 of happening. Who would call such a thing possible?
The commercial aspect is one of great interest to me and many others, Imagine a world where gold is commonplace, as Astronomers spotted an asteroid made of nearly solid gold, and metals are pefectly blended. In this world steel could be harder than diamond, though I cringe a the amount of pressure and heat needed to achieve a 10 on the moh's scale, and radioactive waste is easily dealt with, lauching it into the sun detonating it in deep space etcetera, a plethora of wealth awaits us in space.
For one who just mentioned Quantum Physics, you really don't understand what physics is. The same physics that apply here on Earth will apply anywhere and everywhere in the known universe. Atoms will behave in the same way, energy will never be destroyed or produced, magnetict objects will always be bipolar never monopolar, mass will never be destroyed or produced, for any force applied there will always be an equal and opposite reaction, gravity will exist, and time will always move forward.
What we call steel is physically unable to be stronger to what we call diamond. Such a strong molecular structure is not possible with steel's molecules.
