How NASA might build its very first warp drive

io9 ^ | November 26, 2013 | George Dvorsky

[EveningStar]

A few months ago, physicist Harold White stunned the aeronautics world when he announced that he and his team at NASA had begun work on the development of a faster-than-light warp drive. His proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks — and all without violating Einstein's law of relativity. We contacted White at NASA and asked him to explain how this real life warp drive could actually work.

[Star Traveler]

Ummmmm ... relative to his vivid imagination, doncha know ... :-) ...

[FredZarguna]

It's nothing, but its geometry has to obey certain laws.

A decent analogy (which, like all analogies has its problems) is the surface of the earth. To a very primitive person, there appears to be no limitation in the way you can travel around on its apparently flat surface. But the real truth is that you are limited to travel only along pieces of arcs of great circles [with the radius of the earth as their radius.] This becomes apparent if you have very good measuring equipment: after going only a few miles on an apparently flat plane you discover you've gone farther than a straight line would.

[The Cajun]

No one has ever visited us from the future.

They're real careful going about it, after all they're from the future :)

[Pox]

Very important point. Deflector shields and all that. Such details are exceptionally important.

[max americana]

Make it so.

[Pontiac]

That's a significant change in calculations to say the least. The reduction in mass from a Jupiter-sized planet to an object that weighs a mere 1,600 pounds has completely reset White's sense of plausibility — and NASA's.

While this is a unimaginable improvement in the prospects of interstellar travel let’s not get too excited.

After all we are still talking about an expenditure of unprecedented amounts of energy.

The Hiroshima bomb converted 2/3 of a gram of mass to energy so I don’t see the advent of this kind of travel in my life time.

[EveningStar]

Fair enough. :)

[max americana]

“Where do the dylithium crystals go?”

In the flux capacitor.

[Rembrandt]

“There’s just one tiny little problem about space travel...fuel.”

Star light. I consulted with the Messiah.

[EnigmaticAnomaly]

"We take the warp drives out of the spaceships in Area 51, put them in our ship and walla problem solved."

And VOILA', problem solved...;-)

[FredZarguna]

They’re serious about doing basic research, while pretending it has practical applicability in order to get gullible people (in the government — but I repeat myself) to fund it.

[Pontiac]

Very important point. Deflector shields and all that. Such details are exceptionally important.

Deflector shields are not necessary because the spaceship itself is not moving and there for the prospect of the ship striking another object is nill.

The warp drive moves space around the spaceship while the ship remains stationary.

I am assuming you were serious.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/science/faster-than-the-speed-of-light.html?_r=0

[Star Traveler]

Faster Than the Speed of Light?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3096740/posts

[Windflier]

Here's another story about this same line of research, posted here tonight:

Faster Than The Speed Of Light?

[Windflier]

They’re serious about doing basic research, while pretending it has practical applicability in order to get gullible people (in the government — but I repeat myself) to fund it.

Everyone's a cynic. Dime a dozen...

[Windflier]

Ooops.....I just noticed that you yourself posted that thread.

Never mind .. LOL

[Star Traveler]

Ummm ... I posted it ... LOL ...

Read my comments about that article in the New York Times, up above, in Post #23.

[Stingray]

“...what happens when those ripples reach Earth?”

Hopefully, they reach earth and create a timeline where “The Zero” was never born, Nancy Pelosi OD’d on Botox, and Harry Reid was a serial killer serving 30 consecutive life terms with no hope of parole.

[FredZarguna]

No cynicism involved. Just a brief flirtation with academia in the 1970’s and 1980’s and resultant inside knowledge of the whole racket.