Warp Drive: Not Impossible?

Started by ShinjisLover May 6th, 2009 1:58 PM
  • 760 views
  • 14 replies

ShinjisLover

Seen May 11th, 2016
Posted July 5th, 2010
3,043 posts
14.5 Years
Spoiler:
The warp drive, one of Star Trek's hallmark inventions, could someday become science instead of science fiction.

Some physicists say the faster-than-light travel technology may one day enable humans to jet between stars for weekend getaways. Clearly it won't be an easy task. The science is complex, but not strictly impossible, according to some researchers studying how to make it happen.

The trick seems to be to find some other means of propulsion besides rockets, which would never be able to accelerate a ship to velocities faster than that of light, the fundamental speed limit set by Einstein's General Relativity.

Luckily for us, this speed limit only applies within space-time (the continuum of three dimensions of space plus one of time that we live in). While any given object can't travel faster than light speed within space-time, theory holds, perhaps space-time itself could travel.

"The idea is that you take a chunk of space-time and move it," said Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project. "The vehicle inside that bubble thinks that it's not moving at all. It's the space-time that's moving."

Already happened?

One reason this idea seems credible is that scientists think it may already have happened. Some models suggest that space-time expanded at a rate faster than light speed during a period of rapid inflation shortly after the Big Bang.

"If it could do it for the Big Bang, why not for our space drives?" Millis said.

To make the technique feasible, scientists will have to think of some creative new means of propulsion to move space-time rather than a spaceship.

According to General Relativity, any concentration of mass or energy warps space-time around it (by this reasoning, gravity is simply the curvature of space-time that causes smaller masses to fall inward toward larger masses).

So perhaps some unique geometry of mass or exotic form of energy can manipulate a bubble of space-time so that it moves faster than light-speed, and carries any objects within it along for the ride.

"If we find some way to alter the properties of space-time in an imbalanced fashion, so behind the spacecraft it's doing one thing and in front of it it's doing something else, will then space-time push on the craft and move it?" Millis said. This idea was first proposed in 1994 by physicist Miguel Alcubierre.

In the lab

Already some studies have claimed to find possible signatures of moving space-time. For example, scientists rotated super-cold rings in a lab. They found that still gyroscopes placed above the rings seem to think they themselves are rotating simply because of the presence of the spinning rings beneath. The researchers postulated that the ultra-cold rings were somehow dragging space-time, and the gyroscope was detecting the effect.

Other studies found that the region between two parallel uncharged metal plates seems to have less energy than the surrounding space. Scientists have termed this a kind of "negative energy," which might be just the thing needed to move space-time.

The catch is that massive amounts of this negative energy would probably be required to warp space-time enough to transport a bubble faster than light speed. Huge breakthroughs will be needed not just in propulsion but in energy. Some experts think harnessing the mysterious force called dark energy — thought to power the acceleration of the universe's expansion — could provide the key.

Even though it's a far cry between these preliminary lab results and actual warp drives, some physicists are optimistic.

"We still don't even know if those things are possible or impossible, but at least we've progressed far enough to where there are things that we can actually research to chip away at the unknowns," Millis told SPACE.com. "Even if they turn out to be impossible, by asking these questions, we're likely to discover things that otherwise we might overlook."



For the original article.

At first I was like: O.o
And the I was like: . . . O.o

So, yeah, basically, I was like: O.o

XD

Male
My evil little world....
Seen November 25th, 2010
Posted April 20th, 2010
392 posts
14.1 Years
Even though it's a far cry between these preliminary lab results and actual warp drives, some physicists are optimistic.
Yeah. Another article I read said that there probably wouldn't be warp drives for many generations to come. And the idea would be really expensive to implement.

But once you think about the long-term opportunities warp drives would represent, I guess you can just give this a big Booyeah! and wait for it to happen.
-----------------------:t140: -----------------------
Pokémon HeartGold | 1978 2716 2742
Pokémon Platinum | 1849 4303 8906
-----------------------:t155:-----------------------
Age 37
Seafoam Island
Seen February 2nd, 2010
Posted February 2nd, 2010
3,537 posts
19.7 Years
We'll if you go by the Star Trek timeline/cannon....

Faster then light speed travel might just happen after a major disaster, like WWIII. I could be one of those things that unite the human race for one goal, similar to the US for the moon.

or in reality...

Someone discovers it by accident like Penicillin.

I haven no clue, we can't even get to Mars yet, so I'm not holding my breath.

------------------
I came here as a and will always be one.
------------------
PC Family | Pair of Angela | Twin of Sammi | Chi Cousin of Midori Chi
------------------
Seafoam Island - PC Community Site - Pokemon International Forums - Seafoam Island Forums
Seafoam Island Oekaki - Seafoam Island Topsites - Join ShiningMisdreavus Chat!
Male
My evil little world....
Seen November 25th, 2010
Posted April 20th, 2010
392 posts
14.1 Years
*excited voice* What if...what if some government had already made a warp drive, and they're keeping it a secret?! No, seriously! Or maybe a group of people started their own secret country that's covered by a shield, and nobody even knows it exists, just the 100 people inside. But really, seriously, think: What if? Maybe that same group of people already started a united planet-country, and that planet is shielded by a cloaking device.
Remember me when that day comes, because I foretold it. =)

My imagination soars.
-----------------------:t140: -----------------------
Pokémon HeartGold | 1978 2716 2742
Pokémon Platinum | 1849 4303 8906
-----------------------:t155:-----------------------
Male
My evil little world....
Seen November 25th, 2010
Posted April 20th, 2010
392 posts
14.1 Years
*Laharl Laugh* HAAhahahahaaa! Now we turn it on, and.... (ZAP!) It's gone! we've done it! The Warp Drive works!!

...Okay, then, how do we get it back?
Lol! "Houston, we got there!.....what?..um....Houston, we have a problem. The warp drive has two 692-alphanumerical passwords...and...um...we forgot the keyboard."
-----------------------:t140: -----------------------
Pokémon HeartGold | 1978 2716 2742
Pokémon Platinum | 1849 4303 8906
-----------------------:t155:-----------------------

♣Gawain♣

Onward to Music!!!

Age 32
Male
Moscow, Russia
Seen December 2nd, 2013
Posted November 29th, 2013
4,997 posts
15.4 Years
Well, it already stated on Einstein's Theory of Relativity that faster than light travel is impossible. And so far, the only thing that can induce an object to speed up to light speed is a black hole. A black hole is so dense that it rips through the space-time continuum(although it's gravitational field doesn't change). And anything that goes near it will be first revolve around it until it reaches light speed, and then be sucked till kingdom come. But past scientist theorize on the formation of a "white hole"(I somewhat doubted this theory...) within the black hole. You could travel through one end of the parallel universe to the other end. And that's their concept of warp-drive travel; creating a white hole. But the question is, will they survive the travel.

Imagine being stretched to spaghetti will traveling, which is not the most convenient way of space travel.

On the Star Trek series they used "dilithium" crystals for warp drive.

And besides, they're might be other theories that may enables us to travel like that. And we hope for the best.

VM Δ PMPairsDeviantArtPlaying...ClubsTheme

Sola84

I'm just a ray of sunshine

In my head
Seen August 12th, 2010
Posted July 1st, 2009
41 posts
14.1 Years
We owe Star Trek for the inspiration to people to create things like mobile phones, compact computers and touch screen computers, ect.

It wouldn't surprise me if we manage warp drive or something simular. After all, I'm sure that's why they're really running the Hadron Collider or at least will be a key
component in it's eventual creation. I don't expect it in my lifetime however.

I also heard that some scientists are trying to create teleportion, although they doubt they'll be able to make anything like the ones in Star Trek that'll be safe for humans.

BlazingLink

Sergeant Serious

Age 26
Male
Rhode Island, USA
Seen October 31st, 2013
Posted March 21st, 2013
135 posts
14.4 Years
Warp Drive isn't impossible, it's just impossible right now.

We'd have to invent something to make sure Humans survive the travel. Wanting to be a scientist myself, I guess that we'd have to wait until LONG LONG LONG! after our lifetimes.


Age 31
Maryland, USA.
Seen August 18th, 2010
Posted June 25th, 2010
159 posts
14.1 Years
You could read more on the Alcubierre Drive which, as the wiki article states, is a "model of a spacetime exhibiting features reminiscent of the fictional "warp drive" from Star Trek, which can travel "Faster-than-light."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

Just a theory of course, as always.
Age 32
Fort lauderdale Fl.
Seen April 2nd, 2013
Posted April 2nd, 2013
377 posts
18 Years
Tachyon are particles who can't move slower than the speed of light, pretty much moving backwards in time. If we can cloak these around an area of space time, faster than light travel is possible. Moving faster than light just merely sends you backwards in time though. As you approach light speed the time it takes to get anywhere reduces, and the energy it takes to move another unit of space increases, until at light speed, the time it takes to get anywhere drops to zero, and the energy required to move is infinite. Quantum physics is fun =D