I think it's fair to say that if you've managed to get to another star system (our nearest being Alpha Centauri @ 4.367 light years) you've mastered manipulation of lots of stuff we're just beginners at.. bending gravity or folding time is a popular idea as are wormholes. and let's face it, until you crack it, you're just buzzing around your own solar system. I mean we do have hundreds of bodies in our own solar system and we've (apparently) only set foot on one so far and sent robots to a couple more. we've got lots of practice to do just learning to land / decelerate into orbit and get home again.
on the other hand you could send robots at a decent fraction of light speed without bending time and be at Alpha Centauri in 20 years.. but it would be so boring waiting a whole career to hear the robot say, yeah it was alright, there wasn't much to see ! I love Sci-fi for its ability to transport us to other worlds, other times and more importantly other paradigms.. how else do we get there ?