[cripplecreek]

Of course, by then we may have something new to travel in...

1/8 light speed seems like a reasonable 100 year goal. In fact I think speed should be as big or even bigger of a priority than landing a man on Mars. After all, many of the problems with space travel are closely tied to transit time.

[SunkenCiv]

Probably in ten years (if there was a NASA/gubmint commitment to do so) a probe could be sent on its way to Alpha Centauri (the closest sunlike star) using one or more of the proposed systems. It would have to be crewless, and one would like to think be able to be operating and able to send data back here, fifty to one hundred years from now when it makes its too-fast journey through that star system.