AD Astra!

R. L. Forward. (1996), JBIS, 49, pp.23-32

Refcode: 1996.49.23

Abstract:

It was only a few centuries ago that people began to realize that, those points of light in the night sky were suns, like our Sun, and like our Sun, they might have planets around them. Many visionaries then dreamed and wrote of visiting those other planets in ships that travelled between the stars. Later, when astronomers were able to estimate the distance to the nearer stars, others concluded that because interstellar distances were so immense and human life so short, interstellar travel was impossible.