Science News: Warp Drive may be possible!

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television's Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say.
A warp drive
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would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light
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. A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, however subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy.
Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially brining the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science.
"There is hope," Harold "Sonny" White of NASA's Johnson Space Center said here Friday (Sept. 14) at the 100 Year Starship Symposium
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, a meeting to discuss the challenges of interstellar spaceflight.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012...scientists-say/?intcmp=features#ixzz26qisV7dd

SWEET!!!
 

Hayabusa Rider

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Jan 26, 2000
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I'd have to see specifics before making an assessment, but converting a hundred kilos or so of matter is no small feat in itself, much less gathering "exotic" matter, whatever that might be.

Where I could see this being useful if true and possible would be in the launching of small robotic probes. If Von Neuman machines can be developed that had the ability to reproduce and reconstruct this technology the exploration of our corner of the galaxy could be done in a trifling time, say a thousand years.
 

Icepick

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2004
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Good. Now they need to design an inertia damper so they don't blow the ship apart during the jump. :)
 

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
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Good. Now they need to design an inertia damper so they don't blow the ship apart during the jump. :)

I don't believe there would be any inertial effects from warping spacetime. That's the point -- you're not actually accelerating to the speed, you are just changing what "stationary" means.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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I'd have to see specifics before making an assessment, but converting a hundred kilos or so of matter is no small feat in itself, much less gathering "exotic" matter, whatever that might be.

Where I could see this being useful if true and possible would be in the launching of small robotic probes. If Von Neuman machines can be developed that had the ability to reproduce and reconstruct this technology the exploration of our corner of the galaxy could be done in a trifling time, say a thousand years.

Good ol Von Neuman...proof that there are no other intelligence life forms out there older than humanity. :(
 

DominionSeraph

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Jul 22, 2009
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I miss the connection.

If the mass of the universe is below a certain level, at some point every component particle could be shooting away from every other at greater than the speed of light. So each little bit of you will be travelling at warp speed away from every other.
Whee!
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
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If the mass of the universe is below a certain level, at some point every component particle could be shooting away from every other at greater than the speed of light. So each little bit of you will be travelling at warp speed away from every other.
Whee!

Ahh.

The problem (besides being the end of everything) is that our perceptions would be tied to light speed since that's invariant. The volume of observable space decreases as the effect increases. Eventually even quarks would evaporate surrounded by the inability to be effected by anything else. Once the Planck Length is equivalent to the limit of causal distance then that's all she wrote. It's an interesting concept and a strong argument for not taking up an offer of immortality.
 

DominionSeraph

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Jul 22, 2009
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The problem (besides being the end of everything) is that our perceptions would be tied to light speed since that's invariant. The volume of observable space decreases as the effect increases.

The expansion of spacetime != movement through spacetime.
 

Hayabusa Rider

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The expansion of spacetime != movement through spacetime.

I know that, but the radius of what can be observed decreases since objects recede faster than light can transit. Even refers to that in the article. Our "event horizon" where things are causally connected changes. That is the same effect which drove a stake through the heart of the Steady State cosmology. Obler's Paradox had to be resolved.
 

Uhtrinity

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Dec 21, 2003
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I become skeptical whenever I hear the term "exotic materials". "With a little bit of Unobtanium it may be possible".
 

DominionSeraph

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DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
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Sweet! One of my students who graduated last year is now at MIT working to become an astronautical engineer. I told him a long time ago that once he/they developed warp drive, and NASA is in the mood to try that whole "hey, let's send a teacher into space for good PR," I've got dibs.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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You failed to notice the person to which I responded did not say "Exotic Matter" like you pretend, but actually said "Exotic Material".

Good thing you stopped claiming you are smarter than everyone else, since you continuously prove you are not.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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Sweet! One of my students who graduated last year is now at MIT working to become an astronautical engineer. I told him a long time ago that once he/they developed warp drive, and NASA is in the mood to try that whole "hey, let's send a teacher into space for good PR," I've got dibs.


Best of luck to him, and to you, going to the Moon (or Mars) would be sweet.
 

Steeplerot

Lifer
Mar 29, 2004
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1. Pack up all the religious nuts and leave them on Mars to finally have it out.
2. Visit the green skinned hotties on Orion
3. Grab a new towel
4. Kick back with a pan galactic gargle blaster or two.

Sign me up