Without an FTL drive, it's just not feasible to build a generational starship to go to even the closest star, "just" 4.2 light years away as the problems are numerous and insurmountable, not to say unethical. This video pretty much explains it and there's even more reasons why it can't be done than explained here. For example, everything breaks down and degrades, not lasting thousands of years like would be required here. This means that the ship and its crew must be able to repair every single component of the ship, including the engines, replacing the whole hull if necessary and much more - and be able to do it repeatedly over the aeons that the trip will take. Nah, not gonna happen.
Now, a Star Trek style faster than light (FTL) warp drive may not be so far-fetched after all and that would change everything, making such a mission very doable, perhaps even routine one day, especially if it goes at many times FTL, reducing travel time to just a few weeks or days. Here's a Wikipedia article on it:
en.wikipedia.org
Alas, we're nowhere close to actually building this thing, but we can dream and scientists can keep plugging away at this problem until one day hopefully the massive obstacles to creating it are overcome and Star Trek finally becomes reality.
Now, a Star Trek style faster than light (FTL) warp drive may not be so far-fetched after all and that would change everything, making such a mission very doable, perhaps even routine one day, especially if it goes at many times FTL, reducing travel time to just a few weeks or days. Here's a Wikipedia article on it:
Alcubierre drive - Wikipedia
Alas, we're nowhere close to actually building this thing, but we can dream and scientists can keep plugging away at this problem until one day hopefully the massive obstacles to creating it are overcome and Star Trek finally becomes reality.
