Subject: Is space/time a distraction as we try to travel at light speed?

Curiosity I suppose. Here's the full question: If a man on earth holds onto a 
piece of string of infinite length that is attached to a spaceship, and that 
ship travels the speed of light for 1 year and returns to earth, how old is 
the string? See, Einstein has established that the man on the ship would age a 
year, but the man at home would be dead. Yet there is something physical 
connecting both points. Is the string 1 year older? Is it the age of the dead 
man on earth? Is the string different ages, meaning the string would decay on 
earth but not the part that is attached to the ship? Now, what if this string 
was indestructable? What if it couldn't age, or at least it couldn't suffer 
from the negative aspects of aging? What I am propositioning then is that the 
physical world holds the answers for lightspeed stravel, not quantum mechanics.

Re: Is space/time a distraction as we try to travel at light speed?