Semi-OT: We will go to Stars.

[oleg]

Almost universaly, Star travel in Sci-Fi. involves some sort of Faster-Than-Light travel. Warp drive, Worm holes, Star Gates, etc. Good (read popular) literature reflects the real life and up to a point, SF books tell what we want or at least fantasise about - would't it be nice to travel to stars and still have time to enjoy romance, political intrigue and peacefull retirement. Unfortunately, FTL is likely to be a sweet dream and nothing else. We must confine ourself to at least dozens of years of star travel. Even taking into account the relativistic time dilation, the changes back on Earth make star travel unappetising.
However, this is a dull perspective of a sentient being with about 100 years of life span. But how universall is it ? Now, imagine some extraterrestial life form with life expectancy of , for example, an equivalent of 500 Earth years. It is nothing extraordinarly even by Earth standards and could be possible in slightly different conditions and biology background that favor longer longivity. For such beings, 50 year travel to Alpha Centauri at 0.1c can be perceived as 10 yearsfor us - two election terms only and about the duration of Galileo mission to Jupiter. We are planning a mission to Mars. It will take several years at least but there will be no shortage of volunteers. Similary, for longer living ETs, dozens or even hundreds of years of inter-star travel is no problem at all. It is just our perception of time needed to travel relative to our life span put brakes on our imagination.
In summary, there is no need for FTL to make space exploration attracive. The only problem is our pitifull life span. Progress in Medical science and Genetic engineering should surely solve this, right ?