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".
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
A three-hour tour.
I'm holding out for the cloaking device...
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...
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.
wrong! It's your job to prove whether theory is right or wrong.
It can't work... unless the chief engineer is Scottish.
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.
Do you need a certain level of intelligence to design this engine.
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.
Yeah, I hear it's their next big project once they finish building that portable outhouse in the Gaza strip, sometime in 2012.
As in Sagan's book, that's what pulsars are. Someone's engineering project......
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?
bump
but the original student got an "A" because the prof thought the unintended effect was "cool".
"Let me guess - it runs on dilithium?"
Nah. It's all based on wormhole technology.
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.
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