The past

[bozo]

I'm no scientist but time travel has always attracted me as something I would love to be alive for.
I watched a recent series by I think it was Steven Hawking who categorically stated that travel backwards in time is impossible cause of the " paradox " ( don't ask me to explain what it is!!! )
However he postulates travelling into the future will be possible when we have a very very fast enough spaceship.

[lilphil1989]

However, surely from your position on the ship you would see the Earth clock running quickly so that when you eventually returned to the Earth, you have hardly aged at all whilst your friends and family are much older.

No, everyone sees moving clocks running slowly. To the spaceshipe observer, the Earth clock is moving at 0.5c, so he sees it running slowly.
Of course if he wishes to return to Earth, he can't do it in a frame that's moving away from the Earth! So he has to turn around to come back. It's the turning around that introduces the big age difference between our astronaut and his earthbound friends.