Travel to Mars in 3 hours (Air force studies Trek tech)

The Scotsman ^ | January 5 2006 | Ian Johnston

[jbwbubba]

AN EXTRAORDINARY "hyperspace" engine that could make interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other dimensions is being investigated by the United States government.

The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.

The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.

Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.

The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy - which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine - say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.

[SlowBoat407]

I wonder if it will be friends with me.

[Doc Savage]

"Captain, I don't think she'll hold together!"

[RightWhale]

Tax code also affected private charitable donations to the point that the wealthy no longer donate the lion's share but the middle class does. Gov't has changed the behavior of the people by tax policy, resulting in Gov't taking over more charity and research. All true.

[Dr. I. C. Spots]

Because evolution is a lie, and God actually created all that exists, any theory outside of this will fall flat. Since the fall of man everything has been deteriorating and "dying". It has been documented that the speed of light is slowing down, also. Here is just an some historical facts of astronomical studies of the speed of light.

The early measurements typically tracked the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter when the planet was near the Earth and compared it with observations when then planet was farther away. These observations were standard, simple and repeatable, and have been measured by astronomers since the invention of the telescope. These are demonstrated to astronomy students even today. The early astronomers kept meticulous notes and sketches, many of which are still available.

Setterfield expected to see the recorded speeds grouped around the accepted value for light speed, roughly 299,792 kilometers /second. In simple terms, half of the historic measurements should have been higher and half should be lower.

What he found defied belief: The derived light speeds from the early measurements were significantly faster than today. Even more intriguing, the older the observation, the faster the speed of light. A sampling of these values is listed below:



In 1738: 303,320 +/- 310 km/second
In 1861: 300,050 +/- 60 km/second
In 1877: 299,921 +/- 13 km/second
In 2004: 299,792 km/second (accepted constant)

Setterfield teamed with statistician Dr. Trevor Norman and demonstrated that, even allowing for the clumsiness of early experiments, and correcting for the multiple lenses of early telescopes and other factors related to technology, the speed of light was discernibly higher 100 years ago, and as much as 7 percent higher in the 1700s. Dr. Norman confirmed that the measurements were statistically significant with a confidence of more than 99 percent.

Setterfield and Norman published their results at SRI in July 1987 after extensive peer review.

If this is true than any speed we can imagine is possible, since at the creation, light was instantaneous. All these theories of alternate dimensions are nonsense.

[El Gato]

186,000 miles per second..it's not just a good idea, it's the law!

Well in this universe/dimension it is. YMMV in others.

[Ramcat]

I'm not flying to Mars unless they get the flight time down to two hours or less.

I'll keep your seat warm for you till then as long as I get to drive.

[El Gato]

I'm curious are there any new technologies developed by people of today.. Everything I've seen recently has been based off of technology or papers that were published in the 50's and earlier...

There's really nothing unusal about that. Truly new science often takes killing off a couple of generations of engineers and applied scientists before it actually gets incorporated into anything. It took over 30 years for E=MC^2 to result in "BOOM!", and even longer for quantum theory to turn into transistors and I-Pods.

[RichInOC]

...and then some jackholes will get the bright idea to put casinos up there and the ships will be backed up like I-15 every holiday weekend.

[Dead Corpse]

Oh man... you aren't gonna turn this into another CREVO thread are you?

[talmand]

First I would have to think that light does not move at a constant speed simply because of blackholes. If light cannot escape a blackhole it therefore has to be able to slow down. Now, going faster than what we consider its speed limit? That's a different matter altogether. It's a simple matter of observing it whenever that opportunity presents itself.

The idea of creating a magnetic field for propulsion and then possibly using it to slip into another dimension where physics work differently such as light traveling faster than it does here. And what exactly are they basing these theories from? The Philadelphia Experiment? How do they know physics would work differently in that dimension? And what of the possibility someone mentioned that what if light speed was 3mph? Wouldn't we have to search for a proper dimension at that point?

If it's a magnetic field does that mean the entire ship and everything on it would have to immune to its affects? Is such a thing possible? What about the computers on board? If I put a magnet next to my monitor here it freaks out. I have a metal rod in my leg, is that a potential problem?

Turn on magnetic field and slip into alternate dimension. Turn off magnetic field and you return to our dimension. Riiiigggghhhhtttt, and who exactly is willing to test that theory out? Wouldn't it be more likely to turn into a Sliders situation?

Plus are we assuming that the other dimension is uninhabited? What if the people (or aliens, whatever you like) don't like the idea of us using their dimension as a shortcut? Would we have to pay a toll?

Plus wouldn't the moment you had that type of acceleration every single person on board would be flattened into pink jelly on the nearest wall perpendicular to the direction of acceleration? More likely the entire ship would flatten as the front end would get smashed into the rear unless they create a few more Star Trek technologies.

I'd much rather they spend the money on something far more feasible and useful such as, I don't know, maybe getting stuff into orbit safely and cheaply? Our current method costs millions of dollars a pop with the distinct possibility of it breaking and blowing up. Plus how are they going to get this stuff up into orbit and then towed to a safe distance from the planet since we have a problem just getting to our moon nowadays? Are they proposing spending the money on this thing, toss it into orbit and flicking the switch when we have no idea what would happen? Sounds safe to me.

As for creating new technologies today based off of theories from the 50's. That sounds about right to me because I can easily describe to you what a possible device can do and how it might work today but it not be possible to build under current technologies and may take fifty years before it's possible to build it. Men dreamed of flying machines well before it was possible to build one.

[Vinnie]

I don't think it takes 3 hours for light to get from Earth to Mars.

Yeah, but there's TSA security checks, waiting for baggage....

[Dead Corpse]

In effect, once you had the field established your local reference frame would be normal. It'd be the field bubble itself that would be in motion.

Also, if you can pop into orbit with this like you'd head out for take-out, I'd say that would be worth it.

[eyespysomething]

How long will it seem sleeping on the floor with the dog for light years?

[HereInTheHeartland]

"allowing incredible speeds to be reached."

They have obviously never seen me move when my wife gets mad at me.

[kalee]

ping

[uglybiker]

I wonder if it will be friends with me.

Oh no! Not again!

[SlowBoat407]

even allowing for the clumsiness of early experiments, and correcting for the multiple lenses of early telescopes and other factors related to technology,

What allowances were made, and by what means were those allowances determined? Without being able to repeat the experiments, we have no way of knowing what the variations were between the readings taken at the time, and the readings that would have been taken with more modern, sensitive equipment.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

They're goint to have to hurry or we'll miss the Vulcans in 2061.