Faster Than the Speed of Light?

The New York Times ^ | July 22, 2013 | Danny Hakim

[Star Traveler]

HOUSTON — Beyond the security gate at the Johnson Space Center’s 1960s-era campus here, inside a two-story glass and concrete building with winding corridors, there is a floating laboratory.

Harold G. White, a physicist and advanced propulsion engineer at NASA, beckoned toward a table full of equipment there on a recent afternoon: a laser, a camera, some small mirrors, a ring made of ceramic capacitors and a few other objects.

He and other NASA engineers have been designing and redesigning these instruments, with the goal of using them to slightly warp the trajectory of a photon, changing the distance it travels in a certain area, and then observing the change with a device called an interferometer. So sensitive is their measuring equipment that it was picking up myriad earthly vibrations, including people walking nearby. So they recently moved into this lab, which floats atop a system of underground pneumatic piers, freeing it from seismic disturbances.

The team is trying to determine whether faster-than-light travel — warp drive — might someday be possible.

[skepsel]

It was bloody awful compared to the 1980s UK TV series.

[Farnsworth]

Go for it dude.

[Redleg Duke]

Your inner luddite is showing, my friend.

[diogenes ghost]

"Look up 'Falcon 9'".

Incorrect answer/response.

Correct answer is 'NO', or 'not now, but probably in near future'.

[cloudmountain]

From the Internet:
The Bussard ramjet is a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard, popularized by Poul Anderson's novel Tau Zero, Larry Niven in his Known Space series of books, Vernor Vinge in his Zones of Thought series, and referred to by Carl Sagan in the television series and book Cosmos.
Bussard proposed a ramjet variant of a fusion rocket capable of reasonable interstellar spaceflight, using enormous electromagnetic fields (ranging from kilometers to many thousands of kilometers in diameter) as a ram scoop to collect and compress hydrogen from the interstellar medium. High speeds force the reactive mass into a progressively constricted magnetic field, compressing it until thermonuclear fusion occurs. The magnetic field then directs the energy as rocket exhaust opposite to the intended direction of travel, thereby accelerating the vessel.

Hmmm, all moot for us folks today, but MOST interesting to read about. Thanks for posting.

[ShadowAce]

Actually, I was referring to the expansion of the universe. It travels at the speed of light in opposite directions, so it is expanding at twice the speed of light.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

“Shrodinger’s Kittens” is a good layman’s book about the history and issues of weird wacky world of quantum physics. The micro realms don’t play by the same rules that we do.

[Chode]

pretty much...

[Candor7]

If we had fusion power, we would soon have a drag strip for test vehicles that would be several light years long and a half light year across. Then maybe we could do the measurement that these scientists are attempting. You need a big space lab to do these things.

But who is holding their breath, with the rastas crowd controlling the White Hut of the United States of Zimbabwe?
They be too busy pimping their superior equality to bother.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The speed of dark is slightly faster then the speed of light.

When you turn on a light the dark has to run faster then light to keep ahead of it.

[JoeProBono]

[ROCKLOBSTER]

What then is the speed of darkness?

Zero.

[US_MilitaryRules]

But you didn’t survive obummercare! That will be the t shirt you will be wearing in your coffin!

[SunkenCiv]

Must be Obama thinks there are muzzies in other star systems. Thanks Star Traveler.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[onedoug]

When I see an example of it in the universe I’ll examine it, and likely it will prove an illusion.

[BwanaNdege]

Infinite Improbability Drive is the answer!

Just ask the Bowl of Petunias and the Sperm Whale.

[Bullish]

They should get obama to work on this project. After all, he’s already shown he can spend trillions faster than the speed of light.

[Woodman]

The flick was ok. Now the 4 book trilogy on the other hand is fantastic. There is not a single aspect of life that is not covered and totally ripped apart in some form or another.

“There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The trick is to throw yourself at the ground as hard as possible and miss. The first part is easy; the second takes some practice” - H2G2 (from memory, may not be the exact quote)

[roadcat]

Space is a convenient word used for the absence of things. Space is not something. Space can not be expanded.

You don't have children? Kids always expand their space, and fill it with lots of things!