[TheOtherHobbes]

The costs are not the problem.

We can barely get to the Moon and have no realistic prospect of making a self-sustaining Mars colony any time soon.

How is it credible to claim we can build starships that can cross lightyears without technological or sociopolitical problems?

The engines - which we're nowhere close to creating - are the easy part.

[loup-vaillant]

Getting to the moon only takes another JFK. We have the tech, we have the people, all we lack is the budget and a 5-10 year deadline. Also, another hard part is getting there safely enough. A 5% chance of dying out there is probably not acceptable nowadays. We probably need to go below 0.1% to attempt it again, and that's not trivial, especially with the possibility of solar flares beyond the magnetic protection of the Earth.

The real question is, is it worth making it a priority?

[petre]

> is it worth making it a priority

It will follow by itself once space mining kicks off.

[knaekhoved]

I was responding to "physical realities in this area are pretty rough" - obviously there are other blockers