NASA is "actually working on a warp drive"

Bakerman on 3/12/2012 at 06:27

From the (http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/29/nasa-is-actually-working-on-a-faster-than-light-warp-drive-but-it-might-blow-up-any-planet-it-travels-to/) National Post:

Quote:

Faster than light (FTL) travel has always been a hallmark of science fiction, but buzz kill scientists have always said the concept was impossible because it violates the cardinal rule of Einstein's relativity, namely that the very building blocks of the universe mean that nothing can go faster than light.

Now NASA may have found a loophole, enabling them to travel to distant stars that are several light years away, all without violating relativity. The only problem? It might blow up whatever is waiting at its destination.

So how do you feel about it? It smells like a bit of a hoax to me. Then again, I think I'm just having trouble making mental room for the existence of space-bending engines. I would want it to be at least 2020 (or maybe even a good solid 2050) before people started talking seriously about this.

EDIT: (http://techland.time.com/2012/09/19/nasa-actually-working-on-faster-than-light-warp-drive/) Apparently NP was late to the party. Ah well.

demagogue on 3/12/2012 at 06:48

By "working on", I assume they mean "working on the mathematics of it", to think about what's even theoretically possible, not as an actual engineering project. I believe that much because there have already been a couple of papers that have come out on the physics of space-warping travel.

Phatose on 3/12/2012 at 21:44

“I suddenly realized that if you made the thickness of the negative vacuum energy ring larger — like shifting from a belt shape to a donut shape — and oscillate the warp bubble, you can greatly reduce the energy required — perhaps making the idea plausible.”

Well damn - fictional technobabble becoming actual technobabble.

But you know, it occurs to me this is the kind of tech that might have non-boldly going anywhere applications. Not the least of which is weaponry - a gun you point at your foe, through the earth, which digs a hole there and then causes a giant explosion from all the dirt swept up in it's warp wake.

Course, that's hopefully even more techno-bullshit then the article itself.

catbarf on 3/12/2012 at 22:07

It's called an (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive) Alcubierre Drive and as the article mentions the concept has been around for close to two decades now. The thing is that it's nowhere near the stage of being an engineering challenge, since right now the only thing that suggests that it's possible is that mathematically it seems to work out. That intermediate step of figuring out how to warp space is a bit of an issue.

This article is misleading. It's not that NASA's made any significant headway on the project, what they've actually found is that, even if it is possible, the side effect is a wave of instant radioactive death to anything at the destination point. The Alcubierre Drive is currently less practical than it was ten years ago.

Call me cynical, but in general I've found that any pop science article that starts with a picture from a known sci-fi franchise is probably going to be bullshit.

Fafhrd on 4/12/2012 at 06:20

The article isn't misleading at all. The limitation of the Alcubierre drive in the original equations was that it took roughly the mass energy of Jupiter to get the desired effect. White has re-worked the math and gotten that down to the mass energy of the Voyager space craft. (http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive) And they are working on practical lab experiments (see the 'Hitting the lab' section).

demagogue on 4/12/2012 at 10:46

Maybe they can build a small scale version of it first, that might not have the radiation problem. There could be more terrestrial applications for the theory beyond intergalactic missions or probes.

Phatose on 4/12/2012 at 16:45

If I understand correctly, terrestrial applications would have the explosion problem worse then interstellar ones. The explosions is from particles caught up in the warp wake. The atmosphere should make that real dangerous to use.

Renzatic on 4/12/2012 at 21:02

Got a question. Since an Alcubierre Drive basically moves the universe around the ship rather than propelling the ship at FTL speeds, does that mean travelers onboard won't experience time dilation? As in we won't have to do with a "3 hours for me, 30 years for you" situation?

ZylonBane on 5/12/2012 at 01:04

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive) Wiki says no time dilation.

Peanuckle on 5/12/2012 at 01:25

Would the radiation even be a problem if you kept it limited to space travel? Space is already full of all kinds of radiation from stars anyways, as long as you don't emerge too close to a planet you'll be fine.

And then you just chug along conventional engines.