I mentioned at the start that space is unimaginably big, and its true. Whilst we can accurately say how far away Alpha Centauri or the Andromeda galaxy is, there really is no way for you to imagine that distance. I can tell you that the nearest solar system to us is 4.37 light years, or forty-three billion kilometres, or twenty-six billion miles away. If it was headed in the right direction, the only man-made object to have ever left our solar system (Voyager 1) would not arrive at the closest solar system to our own until the stars at its centre had exhausted all of their fuel and went dark. If you were to try reaching Alpha Centauri using todays methods of propulsion your spaceship would have barely even made it into the interstellar void before you died an excruciatingly dull and futile death. Assuming of course that the effects of living in a 0G environment with very limited space and resources for decades doesn't send you over the edge first.
