The 5 kinds of sci-fi space travel, ranked by realism

This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable’s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.

Space is big, as Douglas Adams famously wrote in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Like, really big. Alpha Centauri – the nearest star system to our own – is more than 4 light years away. Even within our solar system, massive distances make travel timely and difficult to plan.

With current technology, it would take us a century to reach Alpha Centauri. We don’t have a spaceship that can go faster than the speed of light; the fastest speed we can reach using nuclear power is 4.5 percent of lightspeed. Let’s just say you’re going to need a lot of podcasts for the trip Read more…

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