Questions concerning possible FTL drives.

[M83]

So I was looking through the "What not to suggest" and saw FTL drives as a possible implementation and I've heard stuff about it being possibly a late-game addition (and to also not suggest it). However, I was thinking about this, if we have FTL drives, shouldn't there be some form of experimental intermediary stages of development between them? It seems odd in my head to jump from stuff like ion and nuclear engines to FTL speeds.

So does anyone have any (rational) idea as what would be a good intermediary steps to get from where we are to FTL? Discuss away.

[Fifi]

Electric sails, nuclear pulse propulsion (like the Project Longshot).

[AngelLestat]

solar sail - kerbol system

Fission - kerbol system

Nuclear Pulse - Kerbol and 0,1 ly

Microwave sail - between kerbol and 0,1 ly

Beamed sail - (Best choice), from 0,1 to 10 ly

Fusion - kerbol system to 0,1 ly

Fusion activated by antimatter

Antimatter Kerbol system to 10 ly

Antimatter and bussard ramjet

Beamed sail + Antimatter + fusion + bussard ramjet + mag sail

Micro black hole propulsion

Zero Point Energy

FTL - After this point everything is possible.. Goku teleportation sounds better.

Edited August 8, 2013 by AngelLestat

[Winter Man]

Let's be honest, by the time we have a practical black hole or zero point-based generator, we'll have FTL. It's all that could power one if current theories hold up.

edit: or any respectable quantity of antimatter

[TwoHedWlf]

Let's be honest, by the time we have a practical black hole or zero point-based generator, we'll have FTL. It's all that could power one if current theories hold up.

edit: or any respectable quantity of antimatter

The respectable quantity of antimatter produced by a generator powered by a black hole or ZPM (Or Zed PM if you're from the Commonwealth)

[Winter Man]

The respectable quantity of antimatter produced by a generator powered by a black hole or ZPM (Or Zed PM if you're from the Commonwealth)

Eh? You can just collect antimatter in space, you don't have to generate it. Big charged wire sphere. And yes, it's totally zed (on account of when you extend three spatial dimensions to 6 in some theories, you have x, y, z, xi, yi and zi - the first one needs to be zed ).