Science fiction revisited: Ramjet propulsion

In science fiction stories about contact with extraterrestrial civilisations, there is a problem: What kind of propulsion system could make it possible to bridge the enormous distances between the stars? It cannot be done with ordinary rockets like those used to travel to the moon or Mars. Many more or less speculative ideas about this have been put forward--one of them is the "Bussard collector" or "Ramjet propulsion". It involves capturing protons in interstellar space and then using them for ...