Welcome to Mars express: only a three hour trip (WARP ENGINE USAF/NASA)

scotsman ^ | Thu 5 Jan 2006 | SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

[in hoc signo vinces]

VSL (Variable Speed of Light) theory has been around for quite some time in the land of theoretical physics.

Don't dismiss so quickly.

There's a book called "Faster Than the Speed of Light", published by an accredited Physicist Jaoa (I can't spell the guys last name) and several other theoretical physists have discussed the plausability of being able to Travel Faster than Light within extra dimensional space...see the works of such PHD's as Lee Smolin, Brian Green, and others.



Again, It's all theory and the energies necessary to allow such a thing are mind boggling but if you have an exotic matter reaction, such as a black hole, to generate the necessary energy...it's plausible.


In Hoc PHD

[Mark Felton]

"The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe...

[RedMonqey]

A three-hour tour.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I'm holding out for the cloaking device...

[Mark Felton]

"The power requirements would be insane."

Drive it into the sun for a fill-up...

What do you think those solar flares are? Simply launch gasses from travelling sales-creatures passing through for a fill-up...

[Rockingham]

The energy requirements might be met through some form of scalar or zero point energy. There are indications of intense secret research on these subjects and on the gravity effects of high energy electromagnetic fields.

[Mark Felton]

""It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that.""

wrong! It's your job to prove whether theory is right or wrong.

[TOWER]

It can't work... unless the chief engineer is Scottish.

[js1138]

That's where I stopped reading............

Good plan. Perhaps they can get the infinite energy required for this project from some of the free energy folks.

I wouldn't want to be within a few parsecs of this thing when they fire it up.

[conservative barking moonbat]

Do you need a certain level of intelligence to design this engine.

[Red Badger]

I don't discount the theory, I just don't subscribe to it. In this dimension, the speed of light is way too slow and energy requirements are too extreme to achieve it. But Einstein's Universe is not averse to folding space like a piece of paper. Put yourself at one corner of the paper, your destination at the opposite corner. Fold the paper / space until the two points are adjacent, step out of one onto the other. Let space "snap back" to it's unfolded state. Viola! you are now billions and billions of miles, parsecs or galaxies away............all you gotta do is figure out how to fold space. Gravity dents it, so something else must be able to fold it.......

[in hoc signo vinces]

All that takes is the ability to manipulate photons (the messenger particle of light) around a physical structure.

A cloaking device is not outside of reason but the power requirements are substantial.

There perhaps are several cheats...but a true cloaking device would have to be a brian child of particle physics and unified field theory.

At the end of the day it's all about unified field theory...and the interaction of the relitavistic world with that of the quantum world...something Einstien/Teller/Dirac/et.al. all died trying to prove out...let's just hope Edward Witten (Holds Einstien's position at Princeton) is as smart as we all think he is.

[Ashamed Canadian]

I hear the "Palestinians" are working on one too.

Yeah, I hear it's their next big project once they finish building that portable outhouse in the Gaza strip, sometime in 2012.

[Red Badger]

I wouldn't want to be within a few parsecs of this thing when they fire it up.

As in Sagan's book, that's what pulsars are. Someone's engineering project......

[Vermont Lt]

OK, this is a serious question. Please dont beat me up too much--I took phys-ed Physics in college.

How come nothing can travel faster than light? Didnt we used to think that travelling faster than the speed of sound was impossible? Just because we cant see anything that moves faster than light (duh!) does it mean that nothing CAN move faster? Or is there a physical property that doesnt allow it?

[kimosabe31]

bump

[epluribus_2]

but the original student got an "A" because the prof thought the unintended effect was "cool".

[toddlintown]

"Let me guess - it runs on dilithium?"

Nah. It's all based on wormhole technology.

[Mark Felton]

"All that takes is the ability to manipulate photons (the messenger particle of light) around a physical structure. "

Certain crystalline structures of amorphous silicon dioxide (SiO2) have been shown to manipulate photons, bending waves of photons, altering wave speed and even focusing photons.

[ElTianti]

How come nothing can travel faster than light?

As you accelerate you’re mass effectively increases. That’s why a fast car will push back into the seat. The more you accelerate the more energy you need to accelerate further.

Were you to plot this curve you’d see it is asymptotic as you approach the speed of light. Thus it takes an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light.