Why Is It So Tough To Go To Alpha Centauri? How Long Would It Take Us To Go There?

So, you're dying to get to Alpha Centauri... Not you personally, of course... Let's say you're hoping humanity can get there soon. Right? But when? And what will we send up there? Humans or machines?
It's not an easy question to answer... but before diving into that, let's recap the situation a bit...
Alpha Centauri is a system made up of three stars: Alpha Centauri A (officially Rigil Kentaurus), Alpha Centauri B (officially Toliman), and Alpha Centauri C (officially Proxima Centauri). Alpha Centauri A and B form a binary pair of Sun-like stars orbiting their common center of gravity, while Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf orbiting the main pair at a distance of about 0.2 light-years. Then there's Proxima b, a planet orbiting Proxima at about 0.049 Astronomical Units—over 20 times closer than Earth is to the Sun, but still within the star's habitable zone.
Proxima is only 4.246 light-years from Earth, roughly 40 trillion kilometers, making it the closest star to our Solar System. This also makes Proxima b the closest known exoplanet to Earth and the eighth on the list for "Earth Similarity Index" among all cataloged exoplanets.
So, it's no surprise that since its discovery in 2016, Proxima b has become the target for a potential interstellar mission. This marked a significant leap in our determination to achieve this feat. Before its discovery, our desire to reach Alpha Centauri was rather vague and ambitious. But with the discovery of a potentially habitable planet, we finally had a clear goal! Isn't it true that Proxima b could become our "second Earth" in the distant future?
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Credits: Ron Miller, Mark A. Garlick / MarkGarlick.com ,Elon Musk/SpaceX/ Flickr
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00:00 Intro
2:00 Proxima Centauri Distance
12:00 does time dilation solve the problem?
15:30 Fermi Paradox involved
17:30 Von Neumann Probes
18:10 Laser Sails
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