to go this far

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=convert+20.5+light+years+to+miles&btnG=Google+Search

(20.5 light years).

I want to be the first one here:

http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/243780/cs/1/

At the speed of light?

Heh-heh.  I assume it would take 20.5 years?  Or do light years translate that way?

That's pretty much how it works.

I think time for you would slow down for you or even stop.

Goddamnit woman, I'm an Impractical Economist, not a Theoretical Physicist.

" It is the total distance that a beam of light, moving in a straight line, travels in one year."

After having expressed my woeful ignorance, I then Googled the answer to my question.

Sigh.  Even in warp drive, I wouldn't get there fast enough.

Now to look up the highest speeds you can travel in "warp drive"...

"he warp factors above warp 10 in the TOS, such as the one above, were slower than warp 10 on the new scale. According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia, warp 6 (new scale) is equal to 392c (392 times the speed of light, c) and about warp 7.3 on the old scale, whereas warp 9.2 new, to about 1649c and warp 11.8 on the old scale."

Erm.. 20.6/1649 About 4 days.

Thank you.  I am satisfied.

Hey, if it's answers to fake physics questions, I'm all over it.

From Earth's point of view, or the travelers?

Once you get over about 50% C, time and relativity factors enter into play.  If you COULD do it close to the speed of light, your clock would slow down to the point where it wouldn't be 20 years for you.

Of course, there's all that tedious speeding up and slowing down, those take some time.

Doesn't warp bend space rather than make you move through it? So you would not have the relativistic time dilation effects.

Also, don't fall for that 'habitable' planet stuff. Planet with that length year is not going to have an atmosphere - they are just trolling for links.

Not that there is a planet there anyway. It's not like they have ever actually seen a planet. They just look at minute periodic fluctuations in light intensity and claim that means they've discovered a planet.

> Doesn't warp bend space rather than make you move through it?

That was the explanation in the pilot episode that went unaired, but the explanations changed after that.

Here's some warp drive ideas NASA is thinking about:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/ideachev.html

More of the same: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/possible.html

Those Zero-Point Modules (ZPMs) from Star Gate are a real thingy sort of.

ZPMz are pretty bad ass motherfuckers:

"there is enough energy in the volume the size of a coffee cup to boil away Earth’s oceans" - NASA