Posted on 09/17/2012 10:28:10 AM PDT by justlurking
A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel a concept popularized in television's Star Trek may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say.
A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light. A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, however subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy.
Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science.
"There is hope," Harold "Sonny" White of NASA's Johnson Space Center said here Friday (Sept. 14) at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting to discuss the challenges of interstellar spaceflight.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Don't you remember the Enterprise (the prequel) episode?
The Orion "slave girls" were actually the masters.
/johnny
Of course, planets and stars would be more like trying to push an NFL linebacker out of the way of your Cheerio...
If we are talking interstellar space it is uncharted space for anything smaller than star.
Considering our starship will be smaller than a great many objects that could be in our path I think traveling at greater than light speed would be extremely risky.
Planet size objects could be in our path and we would have no way of knowing and traveling a greater than light speed we would never know.
It would be an interesting equation however an object of infinite mass striking an immovable object.
Maybe those unencountered particles will be ormus!
Satire is just plain impossible anymore.
DUH! Could have told you that...
bump
This thread has all the elements known to man for making it a classic. Good stuff!
“Nope, I get to rub the decontamination gel on any hot female science officers. “
Fine but I get to be “assimilated” by hot female borgs!
LOL, I had a great "collective" retort for that, but I think it might get me banned.
Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?
Silly, everybody knows that’s not warp drive but you would use your transporter.
Please ping me to aviation and aerospace articles. Thank you.
If you want added to or removed from this ping list, please contact EveningStar or Paleo Conservative.
Unobtanium.
The problem with interstellar space travel is that by the time you get somewhere, it is no longer ‘there’.
That’s how Einstein said we could beat the infinite mass at the speed of light problem. When in doubt I believe him until somebody makes the tech to try it out and it doesn’t work like he said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.