We were about to head of for the stars in the 60's - see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project...ar_propulsion)) But the Nuclear test ban treaty killed the project before it got started, as we all know, we cannot breach light speed, so anywhere at all will be a long and resource hungry effort. Lets hope one takes this sort of thing seriously again some day.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...figuration.png