[eudox]

I honestly can't imagine why NASA even acknowledges the idea of FTL travel - Is there some kind of propeller beanie PAC forcing their hand?

They should just have a page that says: "FTL is impossible, but that's fine, once you get used to the way things are."

[fooqux]

>They should just have a page that says: "FTL is impossible, but that's fine, once you get used to the way things are."

No offense intended to you, but I feel this is a disastrously negative attitude to have. Except where morals dictate otherwise (which are outside the scope of science anyway) nothing is banned from exploration. Suggesting otherwise implies that we know all there is to know about a subject; to me, this is analogous to willful ignorance. Science is dedicated to removing ignorance, not enforcing it.

[logfromblammo]

I would amend that to "FTL is economically impossible", rather than an unqualified impossible. It may be allowed by physics, but if we have to effectively bankrupt a whole galaxy just to move quickly from one star to the next, humans simply won't ever do it.

As it is now, with our current level of understanding, the best way to move around in space is by throwing tiny things very fast in one direction, to make a big thing move in the opposite direction, then wait a few thousand years for that big thing to get somewhere.

Given that we sometimes have difficulty being alive after waiting a few thousand years, it is understandable that some people have a problem with this, and want to explore other options.

[crusso]

nothing is banned from exploration

Nothing is banned, per se... but there's just too much search space to sift through to not be smart about where you look.

[yazaddaruvala]

I don't know about you, but for me, some of the best things I've ever found were in places I shouldn't have been looking.

[ceejayoz]

Scientists, rightly so, are a little leery of stating "we know everything". There's no guarantees our current theories are perfect - in fact, it's extraordinarily unlikely that they are.

Also of note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

[jp555]

I consider how we understand that at the speed of light, all distances are zero. So even if you can somehow travel at C, there would be nowhere to go, because you're already everywhere. Given this, travelling faster than C can be seen as travelling a distance of less than zero... which makes no sense.

[ceejayoz]

Humans have always had a big gap between "how we understand" and knowing everything. Plenty of stuff in physics doesn't make intuitive sense, and there are things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive theorized that wouldn't require brute force exceeding C.

[jp555]

That drive has a bit of an issue that even if it worked, it would probably destroy it's destination in a annihilating blast of gamma radiation on arrival.

[mcguire]

NASA is made up of the same Science Fiction-obsessed, excessively optimistic people who also probably make up most of the employees of wherever most of us work. Some of them, I understand, even go to 'cons and such. I suspect it's based on disappointment over not being capable of actually launching anything. In any case, they're regrettably not all hard-headed realists like you and me.

[ctdonath]

I've long observed there's a small but profitable industry in proposing & researching megaprojects: suggest doing something so intriguing and outlandish and expensive that somebody will figure it's worth coughing up a minuscule percentage of the ginormous price tag to fund at least an amusing cursory overview, at a price sufficient to employ a small team for several years. Space elevators, floating (ocean) cities, bridging the Strait Of Gibraltar, world-spanning freeway, FTL interstellar travel, mile-high buildings, etc all are engaging concepts that people with deep pockets are willing to toss some "pocket change" at, giving a group a tidy sum to live on for a while doing something amusing.

[madaxe_again]

The sun orbits the Earth, but that's fine, once you get used to the way things are.