Pretty impossible idea, at least for the moment, right? However, let's jump into the future. Suppose we have fusion power. Is it possible to make it to Alpha Centurai in less than a decade travel time? I'm not looking for yes or no, I'm looking for plans.
As far as I know the fastest thing in development are scramjet and theya re projected to go Mach 24... at that rate it would take about 157,852 years to get to Alpha Centauri. To do the trip in a decade or so you would have to be going just under the half the speed of light. (*quickly does maths in head* it takes light 4.3 years so for us to take 10 years would be just under half-ish) I can't think of a solid plan to get there in a decade but if you not worried about time I say make a death star and live in it like a planet... then your Great x 5,846 child will get there.
The best way would be too close your eyes and dream.
If we were focused on it, and spending money developing technologies to get us there exclusively, we could probably start a trip within a decade and get there around 8 years later.
The idea that I've heard that would be the easiest to implement technologically is one where you essentially have a sail ~20 miles from a small spacecraft attached by heavy cable or advanced fiber. You then detonate a large H bomb near the sail to accelerate the craft to about .5c which would take you to Alpha Centauri in about 8 years.
However, let's jump into the future. Suppose we have fusion power.
We have fusion based power already.
Is it possible to make it to Alpha Centurai in less than a decade travel time? I'm not looking for yes or no, I'm looking for plans.
That should be 'Alpha Centauri'. Maybe? Beats me. It's a long ways off; I'd speculate we'll all be long dead by the time that comes around, if it ever does.
It's impossible traveling faster than light, Einstein proved it, so no you can't go to Alpha Centauri in less than a decade. Also location of Alpha Centauri.
@ Hidden Distance. Firstly, we do not currently have fusion based power, we have fission based power. There's a difference. Fission splits unstable atoms to obtain energy, wheras fusioncombines atoms. Also, fission tends to deal with heavier elements, and fusion has to deal with the lightest elements. Here's what I was hoping you guys would come up with, at least for an engine plan. Fuse hydrogen together to gain energy, then use the positrons and combine them with electrons, making a huge flash of energy (matter+antimatter=BOOM!). Then, you can use whatever gravity handles that are available, probably in the inner solar system, as they're not too far away from each other, to accelerate yourself to as fast as you could possibly go. Hopefully, though, you have a space elevator so you're not using fuel to escape the gravity well of Earth.
Slingshoting a space craft around in the inner solar system won't generate fast enough speeds to make it to Alpha Centauri in a decade. So it's not a viable means to power a craft for travel outside the solar system.
Also, if we have working fusion reactors that are small enough to fit onto a space ship, there would be very little need to use a space elevator to escape the gravity well of earth.
