The options for space travel will determine how much of our corner of the Milky Way we might explore in the future. Whether exobeings will have crossed the frontiers we recognise in this field now is an open question. The speed of light will be the same absolute barrier for them as it is for us. Indeed, reaching a significant fraction of this speed will represent an immense technological challenge. This means that, for all practical purposes, the search for life elsewhere is, and will be in at least the near future, limited to our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. Life can only arise on planets (leaving moons aside for a moment) and these are relatively small compared to stars. And, of course, they only reflect light from the latter so that detecting planets in other galaxies is presently out of the question, despite advances in technology.