In the midst of the nation’s dire financial crisis, the U.S. government has given a former astronaut half a million dollars to launch a seemingly delusional idea to send “explorers” to another star system. By the government’s own account it’s a “dream” that may never come true considering these facts published in the mainstream newspaper that reported the grant; trips to the moon take three days each way and Mars, the next planet over, takes a robotic flier nine months to reach. Based on those speeds the journey to the nearest neighboring star would take tens of thousands of years....