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No, it's 12 years away by radio wave, which means 24 years for a round trip communication.

Physical travel is out of scope, but we could share knowledge in the (extremely) unlikely case that we found intelligent life with radio technology.



If we were to realize Breakthrough Starshot, then it'd be right around the cusp of how long I'd think we could maintain institutional interest in it. 60 years to get there, 12 years to get the signals back, so 76 years. If you worked on it right out of college and longevity stays around where it is, you might live to see some pictures. You definitely could tell your grand kids about it though.

It seems technically possible, it is just a matter of paying for something like this and pinning hopes on the next generations to follow through with it and appreciate it. It seems like if we had that sort of will, climate change and some other issues would almost be non-issues.




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