If there's and Earth-like planet in the closest known and easiest to observe system, it makes me wonder if they're everywhere. It intensifies the Fermi paradox. In a few generations, people could be eagerly watching the first human set food there four years earlier.

If FTL travel and the ansible are possible, people will be living sci-fi dreams of an interstellar republic.

This sits in a field just outside the security gate at KSC...maybe with a little work? http://www.starznbarz.com/Space-shutt...

Joshua Dalzelle. I got them on Audio books from Audible. But they are also paperback.

If there is a intelligent objectivist life form there wouldn't they consider the Clinton's and Barracula an act of aggression??

Thanks.
Author?

Silicon-based animals would likely burn up in an oxygen atmosphere. At least one entertainer speculated such life might live underground.

Black Fleet may fit the bill, very character driven, but somewhat dark.

I haven't read too much SF lately but they seem to be much more highly technical and less on the adventure side. When it comes to space operas, I prefer the "Guardians of the Galaxy" style novels. I'm less interested in how the machine works than the fact that it does or doesn't get you there, depending on the plot.

Excellent selection! Use the slogan "For the People!" :)

I know of several novels that have similar issues (The Black Fleet Trilogy is one), but not that specific scenario.

Thanks Doc!

"The Starshot spacecraft will consist of a wafer-size chip attached to a super-thin sail. This paired duo will be launched to space aboard a mothership, and then propelled to the stars by laser light beamed from a high-altitude facility here on Earth."
Not exactly what most people think of when discussing a spacecraft, and it depends on tech that has not yet been invented or proven.
Thanks for the info, DrZ. Clearly shows that there are some exploration plans afoot.
http://www.space.com/32546-interstell...

While 4+ light years isn't exactly down the block, it is within range of various methods of going there. Just imagine, however, in the myriad of years that it takes to get there humans discover a way to overcome the speed of light and are already there to greet the slowpokes when they finally arrive. Could be the basis for a novel?

I have been working on interstellar probe studies since the early 70's;

(http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=198...) I am C. Ivie

The Centauri system was one of our study samples. It is a trinary star system consisting of Alpha Centauri A and B as well as Proxima Centauri. It lies about 4.3 light years away from our solar system and planets have been detected around all three stars.
In our initial studies we realized that propulsion presented a major engineering challenge. We initially considered a high specific impulse ion drive powered by a 10 megawatt breeder reactor. That design could reach a peak velocity of abut 3 percent of the speed of light or 9,000 kilometers per second after about ten years of constant acceleration. If a flyby was intended there would be no need to slow down at the destination so the mission could only make a series of observations of the three star systems.
Subsequent studies included a positron annihilation antimatter reactor which could achieve peak velocities of about 15 percent of light speed. With this system mission times on the order of 60 years became feasible.
Now there is a new concept promoted in part by Stephen Hawking that involves laser powered light sails. In principal this system can achieve velocities approaching 70 percent of light speed in just a few days. So far, none of the studies have identified any fundamental showstoppers but the engineering challenges are enormous. It is conceivable that unmanned exploratory probe missions could be launched toward several of the nearer stars within 10 years. Right now interstellar missions are in the same place as interplanetary missions were in the late 1950's. Now we have sent probes to all of the major planets in the Solar system and have landed on several of them. A powerful influence will be the participation of private companies in the development of the technologies necessary.for truly ambitious and advanced missions. There are a number of companies that are seriously studying asteroid mining which could become a multi trillion dollar enterprise within the next ten to twenty years. I am consulting for one of these. I was involved in the first American artificial satellite, explorer one, and several of the lunar and planetary missions that have flown since. Technology and capability have advanced much more rapidly than any of us could have anticipated in the 60's and 70's. Very exciting stuff.

Send the whole lot as with the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, With the planned crash landing

And Ferengi women wear nothing at all!

beam me up....launch the fleet..

Only if life is based upon carbon! Life may flourish in a number of non-human environments, even on exoplanets described as "earth-like" or in the "Goldie-locks" zone......

I volunteer the Clintons and 0 and if the ship ins big enough the whole of the congress to make the trip.

Project StarShot plans to send a mini-probe propelled by a microwave-boosted sail to the Centauri system. They expect to achieve speeds of 0.2C (20% speed of light, or 133,920,000 mph), and reach the system in about 20 years. Given the additional 4.2 years for a report from the probe, that would give a thumbs up/thumbs down in less than 25 years. I suspect we'll have figured out how to get there faster during those 25 years.

Interestingly, we are on the cusp of finding a new and much more effective means of utilizing energy that also opens up a whole new world of physics that may provide the means of traveling many times the speed of light thus making such trips not only possible but almost routine.

It is now believed that gravity waves travel at about 800 times the speed of light and that the use of gravity is truly free energy that will change the way we live forever. It will be most interesting to find out what the God particle is actually capable of. The folks in Cern probably have an inkling!

We'd be better off colonizing Mars as Gulch. Politics aside, that is doable in our lifetimes and with current technology.

Galt's Barsoom, baby! ;)

I've been noticing that Disney box office flops John Carter and The Lone Ranger are on TV quite repetitiously with advertisers paying for their spots.