Space Travel - Theoretical question?

What would it take for a person to travel through space? I'm not talking about to the moon or ISS, but through our own galaxy and beyond for numerous years.

Does any of that technology exist today? When do you think it would/could happen?

Where would I sign up to make that journey?

There's no technology today even close. You would need a new propulsion system and a self sufficient vehicle or some form of suspended animation to go long distances and then how do you choose where to go ?

There are a few random ideas: interstellar ramjets, ships pushed by nuclear bombs, laser pushed solar sails, and the theoretical possibility of bending space (warp drive), have all been proposed, but none are yet practical with today's technology.

Sign up at NASA. Maybe start out by going to Space Camp. And the rest I don't know, ask NASA.

I guess one of the prerequisites for a person to be able to fly to the outer space at this moment is the ability to withstand rapid acceleration. So a person must be fairly well acquainted to the modern aviation. Maybe he should be a jet pilot or something of that kind.

A person should be also trained to behave him/herself in the absence of gravity (think about using toilets, eating tubed foods, sleeping...) and in the shortage of available space (think about living in an elevator or several elevators connected to each other with narrow manholes)

So, as I see it, to be able to see outer space, one should either go straight to the air force and enroll in a space shuttle team, or have a lot of money and buy himself a trip to orbit like those space tourists.

Currently it would take forever to get anywhere because we just can't go that fast. The 2 Voyager probes have left the solar system, but are still in the suns shock wave. They have been traveling out there since the late 1970's.

The ONLY way to speed things up would to be able to travel at least the speed of light and then other stars would still be years away.

Technically it could happen, however not for the foreseeable future. NASA is wrapped up with the return to the moon program and being a government agency, will take its sweet time on that program. We are likely looking at least 100 years or so just to think about going the speed of light.

should be a top priority

The closest thing to that kind of technology would be a nuclear engine which would have so much thrust - it would kill you on launch. We just don't have the Star Trekish "Inertial Dampeners" to counter the g-forces involved.

For now, the closest thing to deep space travel we can experience, is relegated to the Sci-Fi movies. Unless the Space Tourism (Earth Orbital only) takes off soon.., movies is it.