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Time travel and teleportation are staples in many sci-fi films, such as Star Trek.

But some physicists say they will likely become possible before the end of this century.

While time travel may be the most ambitious feat of engineering, they say that it might be possible by 2100, while space tourism and invisibility cloaks will probably become available within just 15 years. 

It's about time: British physicists claim that time travel - as seen in the Back to the Future film (a still of the time-travelling DeLorean is pictured) - might be possible by 2100, while space tourism and invisibility cloaks will probably become available within just 15 years

Physicists from Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow predicted when 'sci-fi technologies' as seen in Star Trek, Star Wars, Back to the Future and Harry Potter will probably become scientific fact during the lifetimes of current school children.

In research among a panel of top UK scientists and a study of 11-16 year olds commissioned by The Big Bang Fair, scientists said that teleportation could become a daily activity by 2080.

The children polled thought time travel, which is seen in Back to the Future, might be possible 63 years from now, but scientists were not quite so optimistic.

Colin Stuart, author of The Big Questions in Science, estimates humans will be able to jump ahead to see our future by 2100 – just 85 years away.

To boldly go: Teleportation, as seen in Star Trek (pictured) could become a regular occurrence by 2080, according to Dr Mary Jacquiline Romero of University of Glasgow. 'The good thing about teleportation is that there is no fundamental law telling us that it cannot be done,' she said

'Time travel to the future has already been achieved, but only in tiny amounts,' he said.

'The record is 0.02 seconds set by cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. While that doesn't sound too impressive, it does show that time travel to the future is possible and that the amount of time travel couldn't be far greater.

'If you travelled through space on a big loop at 10 per cent the speed of light for what seemed to you like six months, approximately six months and one day would have passed on Earth.

'You'd have time travelled a day into the future. Travel at the same speed for 10 years and you'll time travel nearly three weeks into the future.

'I would say we are looking at 2100 as a very optimistic timescale for travelling weeks into the future.'

Teleportation however, which is a key feature in Star Trek, could become a regular occurrence by 2080, according to Dr Mary Jacquiline Romero from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.

The end is in sight: We may get our hands on Harry Potter-style invisibility cloaks and be able to go on holiday in space in just 15 years' time. Scientists have developed many different invisibility technologies, but have yet to fashion a fabric cloak. This device aligns four lenses in a certain manner to make an object 'invisible'

A vision of the future: Chris Phillips of Imperial College London said: 'With developments such as 3D printing allowing us to create previously impossible materials, it's entirely feasible that we could see a Harry Potter-like invisibility cloak within the next 10 to 20 years' A still from the film featuring the extraordinary cloak is pictured

The polled children were just two years out, predicting this will happen in 63 years.

'Teleporting a person, atom by atom, will be very difficult…but perhaps developments in chemistry or molecular biology will allow us to do it more quickly,' she explained.

'The good thing about teleportation is that there is no fundamental law telling us that it cannot be done and with technical advances I would estimate teleportation that we see in the films will be with us by 2080.'

She said that physicists have achieved reliable teleportation, but it has only been done with electrons so far.

'To put this into perspective when thinking about human teleportation, an atom can have many electrons and a person is made of billions of atoms,' she said.

However, we may get our hands on Harry Potter-style invisibility cloaks and be able to go on holiday in space in just 15 years' time.

Chris Phillips, Professor of Experimental Solid State Physics at Imperial College London said: 'One way to create an "invisibility cloak" is to use adaptive camouflage, which involves taking a film of the background of an object or person and projecting it onto the front to give the illusion of vanishing.

'We're actually not that far away from this becoming a reality – rudimentary technology versions of this have already been created – but the main problem is that the fibre-like structures in the adaptive camouflage need to be so tightly woven that it's incredibly labour intensive.

Up up and away: The panel of school children predicted that it will take another 30 years' time before they will be able to holiday in space. However, commercial space flights are expected to blast off in 2015 with Virgin Galactic offering suborbital flights (illustrated)

'With developments such as 3D printing allowing us to create previously impossible materials, it's entirely feasible that we could see a Harry Potter-like invisibility cloak within the next 10 to 20 years.'

The panel of school children surveyed dramatically underestimated when they might be able to be tourists in space, believing that it will take another 30 years' time before this becomes a feature of their lives.

However, commercial space flights are expected to blast off in 2015 with Virgin Galactic offering suborbital flights. SpaceShipTwo is projected to fly to a height of 68miles (110km), going beyond the defined boundary of space 62miles (100 km) and lengthening the experience of weightlessness for its passengers.

Paul Jackson, CEO of Engineering UK, said: 'The amazing and seemingly impossible things they see in films and television is acting as a stimulant for young people to think about what they could be capable of doing in the future.

'Almost a fifth of young people surveyed said they dream of becoming a lightsaber developer and 22 per cent want to be a teleporting instructor.

'More than a quarter even said they would consider a career as a time travel engineer, so we will need to think carefully about how we could provide useful careers advice for that 27 per cent.'

The Big Bang Fair is the UK's largest celebration of science and engineering for young people, and aim is to inspire the of scientists. It will take place at Birmingham NEC from March 11-14, 2015.

Paul Jackson, CEO of Engineering UK, said: 'The amazing...things they see in films...is acting as a stimulant for young people to think about what they could be capable of doing in the future. Almost a fifth of young people surveyed said they dream of becoming a lightsaber developer. The weapon is shown in this Star Wars still