[Moonman62]

Unless SR and GR truly limit travel to below c (which to date looks like the case), meaning all of the exotic technology in the universe would still leave you "stuck" within your solar system (unless you devise a generation ship or use the Lorenz Transformation to "get there").

If you use a map from your home world, it will seem as if you're going much faster than c. If you use a relativity map, you still get the benefit of time dilation. A 1g acceleration will get you going pretty fast if it can be sustained over a period of months or years.

[RadioAstronomer]

The problem is that a continuous one g acceleration will still not allow you to exceed the speed of light (c). So even though you may experience time dialation relative to your starting point (home planet) due to the Lorenz Transformation on the ship, the time it take to "get there" is still less than c as observed from your home planet.

[boris]

"If you use a map from your home world, it will seem as if you're going much faster than c."

???!!??
A MAP?!?!

"If you use a relativity map, you still get the benefit of time dilation. A 1g acceleration will get you going pretty fast if it can be sustained over a period of months or years."

1 g = 1.032 ly/(year)². However, neglecting Einstein, each kilogram travelling at 0.99999c will have 4.89x10¹⁷ joules of kinetic energy. Since a year is roughly (pi)x10⁷ seconds, this works out to roughy 1.5 megawatt-years per kilogram. Call it two for various losses.

If you are carrying your propulsion with you, it must weigh much less than a kilogram and have a similarly small volume. The engineering problem (ignoring relativity!) is to stuff two 1,000-MW nuclear power plant into (say) 100 grams and a few cubic centimeters. Scale up until you hit 'enterprise'.

--Boris