In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre published a paper showing how faster than light travel appeared possible by using local contraction and expansion of metric space. The problem was that it required more energy than was possible to gather.
A few months ago Harold White discovered a way to re-produce the same faster than light speeds using much less energy, making faster than light speed a plausible reality. Work has now begun building tiny warp drives to prove it works.
Inter-galactic space travel within all our life-times is looking like it will become a reality.
http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will...rst-warp-drive