> Universe has plenty of space

True, but that might actually be the challenge. There's too much space out there.

I live in California. Let's say the Sun is a soccer ball right here next to me. Then the Earth is a large grain of sand a few meters away. Jupiter is a marble a few blocks down the road. Speed of light is like an ant running.

And the nearest star is another soccer ball way out in Greenland. Think about that for a second.

http://florin.myip.org/blog/i-had-no-idea-just-how-big-solar...

To get out of the confines of the solar system, we need some massive breakthrough. Probably entirely new physics.