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Welcome to Mars express: only a three hour trip (WARP ENGINE USAF/NASA)
scotsman ^ | Thu 5 Jan 2006 | SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

Posted on 01/06/2006 10:07:57 AM PST by epluribus_2

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.

Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.

However, Prof Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned it was based on a highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics.

"It would be amazing. I have been working on propulsion systems for quite a while and it would be the most amazing thing. The benefits would be almost unlimited," he said.

"But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion.

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

He said the engine would enable spaceships to travel to different solar systems. "If the theory is correct then this is not science fiction, it is science fact," Prof Hauser said.

"NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [US] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works."

The US authorities' attention was attracted after Prof Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a paper called "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory".


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: airforce; drive; podkletnov; warp
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To: ElTianti

You're = your. I'm so stupid.


41 posted on 01/06/2006 10:45:42 AM PST by ElTianti
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To: Vermont Lt

Because the mass of an object increases the faster it goes. This is not a big issue for the slow speeds that we travel at, even the space shuttle is slow. But as you go faster, your mass gets bigger, so you need more thurst to push you faster, but more thrust equals more fuel which equals more mass. So you just can't win. Supposedly, if you *could* reach the speed of light, your mass would be infinite and thus you would need infinite energy to push you.


42 posted on 01/06/2006 10:46:24 AM PST by TOWER
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To: Red Badger


IMHO there are several different ways to travel FTL, some are faster than others.

Folding space or using a "gravitationally stable" Einstien Rosen bridge is plausible from going to point A to point B using a worm hole through the fabric of quantum space, which inherently is faster than light travel...though you're not really traveling faster than light speed. But, again it's all theoretical.

However the Germans are taking the viewpoint there could be as many as 11 dimensions in Space Time (or more depending on your take on String Theory and or Loop Quantum Gravity), as opposed to the 4D (four dimensions of space time we experience 3 linear, 1 time) it's in these extra dimensions of space where light (or photons)presumbaly travel Faster than they do in 4D...accessing these dimensions of space has always been problematic because of the energy necessary to render space time. (think of using an electron microscope to proble the sub microscopic world but now using the power of a galaxy to probe the ultramicroscopic world)

No one knows because the lab equipment necessary to make a controlled observation just inst powerful enough...ha there is no known supercollider with the power of a galaxy. That is where astronomical observation comes into play...there are forces in the universe which are speculated to contain such energy...such as black holes...but again that is problematic...because it is only speculated by theoritcal physicists as to what powers those. Many believe, like Dark Matter, Exotic Matter Exists...which is the energy reaction which drives a Black Hole...and that has been given further credence because it has been proven that black holes to radiate energy...disproving a long standing theory of Hawkings.

Science it is a beautiful but scary thing...and the more you know, the less "unlikely" certian things seem.

In Hoc.


43 posted on 01/06/2006 10:48:17 AM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis.")
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To: Red Badger

The article reports that the spacecraft would drop into another dimension when the drive was engaged and return to normal space when it was disengaged. For this to occur, I suppose that the gravity field generated somehow modulates normal space. Since physics as generally accepted has not yet worked out how gravity and quantum mechanics relate to each other, it is probably more accurate to say that the supposed new space propulsion mechanism has not been demonstrated than to say that it is impossible.


44 posted on 01/06/2006 10:50:06 AM PST by Rockingham
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To: Tennessee_Bob

"Let me guess - it runs on dilithium?"

LOL -- my nod for "post of the day"...


45 posted on 01/06/2006 10:50:18 AM PST by DJ Frisat
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To: Vermont Lt
e=mc^2........

e = ENERGY

M = MASS

c = SPEED OF LIGHT

^2 = (SPEED OF LIGHT x SPEED OF LIGHT)= HUGE NUMBER Re-Arranging the formula mathematically proper:

c = Sq Rt[ E / M ] So, in order to achieve c, the Speed of Light, Energy (e) must be humongous, while Mass (m) must be very, very small.

IOW, the Energy required to accelerate a grain of sand to the speed of light would require the energy output of a small star........If I remeber right.......

46 posted on 01/06/2006 10:50:19 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him)
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To: epluribus_2
"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. "


Yeah, but wouldn't this cause at least a localized distortion of the space-time continuum?


47 posted on 01/06/2006 10:55:49 AM PST by Blzbba (Sub sole nihil novi est)
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To: Vermont Lt

"How come nothing can travel faster than light?"

Essentially, light acts as an absolute speed limit (usually referred to as the constant "c"). The apparent mass of a particle with a nonzero rest mass increases asymptotically as its velocity approaches c, and would reach inifinity if it did achieve c. Long before it reaches c, the particle masses so much that it is inside its own Schwarzschild limit and becomes a black hole.


48 posted on 01/06/2006 10:57:16 AM PST by BeHoldAPaleHorse (MORE COWBELL! MORE COWBELL! (CLANK-CLANK-CLANK))
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To: epluribus_2
BREAKING:

FIRST PICTURE OF EXPERIMENTAL TOP SECRET SPACECRAFT


49 posted on 01/06/2006 10:57:24 AM PST by Dallas59 (“You love life, while we love death"( Al-Qaeda & Democratic Party)
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To: Vermont Lt
"Didnt we used to think that travelling faster than the speed of sound was impossible? "

We used to think humans couldn't travel faster than sound. We knew light travelled faster than sound.

How come nothing can travel faster than light? "

"Because of the equivalence of energy and mass( E=mc2 ), the energy a body has due to its motion will add on to its mass, i.e. makes it harder to increase its speed further. At 10% of the speed of light, an object's mass increases by 0.5%. However, at 90% c, its mass increases by more than 200%. As the speed approaches c, its mass approaches infinity so it takes infinite amount of energy to get it there. For this reason, all bodies with an intrinsic mass is confined by relativity to move at speed slower than that of light." -- source

50 posted on 01/06/2006 10:58:24 AM PST by Mark Felton ("Your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.")
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To: conservative barking moonbat
"Do you need a certain level of intelligence to design this engine."

No, none at all. Darwinism teaches us that the machine will be created at random with no pre-initiating intelligence whatsoever. Just like us!

All we have to do is just...wait.

51 posted on 01/06/2006 11:00:52 AM PST by Mark Felton ("Your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.")
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To: Vermont Lt


In the 4D space we experience, the universal speed limit is 186,000 miles per sec...Einstien's general and special theory of relativity always hold true.

However, quantum theory contridicts Einstien when taking into account extra dimensional space. (And has been mathematically proven) Such that space at the ultramicroscopic level (quantum) is vastly different than the 4D we experience. Which has been the ultimate question that theoretical phsycists have tried to answer for decades..."How can we link the two theories?"

It is the belief that in other dimensions the speed limit of light (186,000 miles per sec.) is much higher.

The only observable inclination to believe this to be true is that of what some astronmers have seen by looking out into the universe, and evidence of what "space" was like post Big Bang...it's speculated that post big bang space resembled that of what quantum space is considered to be...and there is some observance that light did travel faster then. (i.e. when taking into account the calculated distance between certain stellar objects and when the big bang was considered to have ocurred). This theory is considered to run somewhat counter to Inflation theory of universal expansion, but some think they could run hand in hand.

As a side note, inflation theory, and light being faster than it is now at the time of the big bang...are theories generated to answer the astronomical question of:

"If the universe is only 14.5 billion years old...and light only travels at 186,000 miles per sec and has always been the universal speed limit...then why are there objects farther away from the epicenter of the big bang then they could possibly be if the fastest and object could go was the current speed of light?"


52 posted on 01/06/2006 11:08:44 AM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis.")
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To: in hoc signo vinces


I should have added post big bang for about 300,000 thousand years or so, after that the universe started to cool...stars et. al. started to form. etc. So, for only a minute amount of time was post big bang space similar to quantum space.


53 posted on 01/06/2006 11:11:31 AM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis.")
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To: saganite
Zephraim Chochran is the lead scientist on this project.

And he's been drinkin'!

54 posted on 01/06/2006 11:14:45 AM PST by Dont Mention the War (This tagline is false.)
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To: in hoc signo vinces
Science it is a beautiful but scary thing...

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

55 posted on 01/06/2006 11:17:57 AM PST by epluribus_2
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To: epluribus_2


That passage reads remarkably familiar. Very True.


56 posted on 01/06/2006 11:20:14 AM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis.")
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To: in hoc signo vinces

H.P. Lovecraft. Bin Ladin probably loves his sick but compelling stories... (IAA! IAAA!)


57 posted on 01/06/2006 11:21:36 AM PST by epluribus_2
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To: Mark Felton; Vermont Lt
Actually, isn't everything traveling at the speed of light..if you can treat time as a vector, then the magnitude of resultant velocity through 3-d space and time always equals C. Travel Faster in Space, travel through time appears to decrease when observed from a non-accelerated reference frame. (special relativity).

At least that is my understanding from a brief Modern Physics course, and Brian Green's Elegant Universe.
58 posted on 01/06/2006 11:29:18 AM PST by Dead Dog
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To: Dont Mention the War

LOL! Yeah, and he has a really warped sense of humor when he ties one on.


59 posted on 01/06/2006 11:34:01 AM PST by saganite (The poster formerly known as Arkie 2)
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To: Personal Responsibility
Sounds a lot like the Infinite Improbability Drive to me!

Do you have a nice, hot cup of tea?

60 posted on 01/06/2006 11:37:28 AM PST by zeugma (Warning: Self-referential object does not reference itself.)
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