Warp drive

[btleslie]

What about transporters and replicators. I'd really like a replicator. Limitless ammo.

[TexasAviator]

That would be great, though I am dubious about the in our life time (or my 8 year old daughters for that matter) claim.

By effectively expanding space behind you and compressing it in front of you, you never actually travel faster than light. But as has been stated the amount of energy to do this is immense. Even if they could get the amount of exotic matter down, we need to find it, we need to learn how to work with and control it, with all of those challenges I see it taking quite a while!

A good book on this type of stuff is Physics of the Impossible. It talks about warp drives, force fields, phasers, transporters, all the sci-fi stuff, and the science that could some day make it happen (or not). BARNES & NOBLE | Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group | NOOK Book (eBook), Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook

If it happens though, I want a ride!

[MadKaw]

You are both right and wrong at the same time. In space, c is the limit. BUT>>>> if you compress space in front of you and stretch it back behind you like an inch worm you can go faster than c.

Alcubierre drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The down side is the energy to do it is extreme. Something like a mass the size of Jupiter made of exotic matter. The OP's link says they are cogitating on how to bring that down to 500kg. The problem is that nobody has EVER found ANY "exotic" matter. So for now, warp drive remains a hypothetical possibility with the use of matter never identified outside of other theories that may not be correct!

So if you want warp drive, put the dvd in the car and watch star trek while going down to get your goobermint cheese.

However, there is no evidence that the wave function responsible for distorting space (gravity?) propagates faster than the speed of light. That is a function of the principle of Lorentz covariance. Now, if you postulate a Poincaré deformation of symmetry, you can get effects such as you are talking about - but, again, there is a total lack of evidence for such a deformation in the real world.

[NativeTexan]

Well.....I guess this gives them something to do. We don't really have a space program anymore.

Not sure how they think this is beneficial or practical. Assuming they figured this out......the closest star is 4 light years away - travelling the speed of light for 4 years. We can't even figure out the logistics of taking a one year trip to Mars. How are we going to do something like that?

Yeah, I was kinda wonderin' how they could afford this research AND teach the muslims how great they are at the same time.

[MadKaw]

Yeah, I was kinda wonderin' how they could afford this research AND teach the muslims how great they are at the same time.

Well, if they succeed in making a micro black hole, we could gift it to the Muslims...

[whichfinger]

I don't see a problem here. With the recent discovery in a Siberian crater of vast quantities of dilithium crystals, we'll be spreading death and destruction throughout the galaxy in a matter of decades.

[daytonaredeye]

This type of device seems to already be at work inside my wallet. I put money in and it seems to just vanish!

Aw, somebody's messing around with ya with that transporter beam again . . . .

OK, given whichever quantum physics route ya take, and whichever theory (string, M, etc.) ya still gotta worry about not running into anything while travelling at light speed. There's that damn Heisenberg uncertainty principle again (no, not the one wondering how far "Bad" Walter White will break, the other one . . . )

[94lt1]

Right now its all theory.. we'd have no way to reliably power such an engine except for nuclear power.

Could you imagine what might happen if they do open a warp bubble?? Since it folds space right?? Hmm...

[TexasAviator]

Right now its all theory.. we'd have no way to reliably power such an engine except for nuclear power.

Could you imagine what might happen if they do open a warp bubble?? Since it folds space right?? Hmm...

Space already gets, bent and twisted by gravity so it shouldn't do much. But the power requirements are way more than nuclear could provide, we are talking exotic matter or stuff like dark energy. I don't even think anti matter would work, but I'm not a theoretical physicist either so who knows!

[gyro_cfi]

Not sure if this is for real, but I'm thinkin' I could maybe swap the motor in my Suzuki SV for one of these things..... ...

I've got a Honda lawn mower engine, that will double the power for you.

I read this article the other day. After they figure how to do that, they'll need to figure out how to stop the effect of acceleration on the body. Speed of light = 300,000,000 meters/sec. Continuous acceleration at 3 Gs would take 10 million seconds to get to light speed (or 115 days, 17 hrs., 56 min., and 40 seconds). Try sitting on the pot or eating at 3 Gs.