Warp Speed More Possible Than Thought?

[Totenkindly]

Okay. This is COOL.

HOUSTON — 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 brining the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science...

Read the rest and look at the pics.

http://news.yahoo.com/warp-drive-may-more-feasible-thought-scientists-161301109.html

 

[EcK]

That is so fucking awesome. I was toying with the idea of the shape of the structure creating the spacetime warp/differential about 2 years ago actually. Then I kinda. em life happened and I had to, make changes. haven't thought about it since.

reminds me of beautiful shapes <3

 

[EcK]

But wait a second. Now if you take the higgs and all that, that kinds of deny spacetime as a continuum. I'd kind of have to reconstruct the whole logic of quantum physics and einsteinian stuff all around myself for a few days and wrap myself in it to grasp the consequences of all that stuff. I sadly dont have that luxury now even though I can feel my 'N' on the verge of jumping on that opportunity to be inspired by something not work related

 

[Metamorphosis]

Nerdgasm. And people complain about spending money on NASA/Science.

 

[Totenkindly]

Nerdgasm. And people complain about spending money on NASA/Science.

i don't really have the specialized knowledge to be able to critique the article, but I think it's effin' awesome.

I was just sitting out watching stars a few weeks ago and thinking about Sirius, Vega, Arcturus, and how we'd never visit them (I think it's something like 8LY, 25LY, 35LY, or similar to reach them) ever... and how sad and lonely the universe was with all this space between us and the next brightest stars. I think Alpha Centauri is the closest star, and it's still 4LY away.

But if this could be done, could you imagine? especially if we can go ten times the speed of light? You could get to sirius in less than a year. That's nothing.

I probably won't see it in my lifetime, or not until I'm an old woman, but how amazing if we could...

 

[EcK]

As I was just telling vas. The issue with 'exotic mater' is that if it's not effing around us chances are its because its also highly unstable. and just maintaining an exotic matter structure around (at first thought we're basically talking about negative or/and mass humongously high density materials) etc. would take a shitload of energy.
also since the higgs isnt that kind of a non point? I havent thought about the higgs. As said previously i'd need days of Neing through it. And I know I can because my brains want to but I have work to do!

 

[Cellmold]

i don't really have the specialized knowledge to be able to critique the article, but I think it's effin' awesome.

I was just sitting out watching stars a few weeks ago and thinking about Sirius, Vega, Arcturus, and how we'd never visit them (I think it's something like 8LY, 25LY, 35LY, or similar to reach them) ever... and how sad and lonely the universe was with all this space between us and the next brightest stars. I think Alpha Centauri is the closest star, and it's still 4LY away.

But if this could be done, could you imagine? especially if we can go ten times the speed of light? You could get to sirius in less than a year. That's nothing.

I probably won't see it in my lifetime, or not until I'm an old woman, but how amazing if we could...

To hang on just long enough to see this would be truely wonderful.

Thanks for the thread, it's awesome!

Also I thought this some fantastic advice:

If we're ever going to become a true spacefaring civilization, we're going to have to think outside the box a little bit, were going to have to be a little bit audacious

 

[WALMART]

I've never been much a fan of that whole 'can't be done' thing.

 

[sprinkles]

As I was just telling vas. The issue with 'exotic mater' is that if it's not effing around us chances are its because its also highly unstable. and just maintaining an exotic matter structure around (at first thought we're basically talking about negative or/and mass humongously high density materials) etc. would take a shitload of energy.
also since the higgs isnt that kind of a non point? I havent thought about the higgs. As said previously i'd need days of Neing through it. And I know I can because my brains want to but I have work to do!

Yeah a ship that travels indefinitely by itself would probably be really hard to do.

What I'm imagining is rather than a ship that has all that energy, there could be a slingshot device. A stargate of sorts.

Its purpose would be to energize the ships warp device initially and begin the initial spacetime warp to get it accelerated, basically making a larger warp bubble around the starship to slingshot it up to speed. That way the starship itself only needs enough power to maintain the warp bubble and mainly travels with its inertia and doesn't need the extra energy to accelerate itself.

Edit: basically it's fueling the device up for one short burst to get it going rather than a constant drain of energy.

Edit edit: This also isn't all that far removed from the way we do space flight now. We send a rocket the size of a sky scraper to carry something the size of a small car.

Even with the space shuttle, most of the vehicle was fuel. It's like launching a building and getting back a soda can.

 

[Mal12345]

Okay. This is COOL.



Read the rest and look at the pics.

http://news.yahoo.com/warp-drive-may-more-feasible-thought-scientists-161301109.html

So that explains all the cigar-shaped UFOs.