Warp Drive Might Be Less Impossible Than Previously Thought 867
runner_one writes "Harold 'Sonny' White of NASA's Johnson Space Center said Friday (Sept. 14) at the 100 Year Starship Symposium that warp drive might be easier to achieve than earlier thought. The first 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, studies estimated the warp drive would require a minimum amount of energy about equal to the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter. But recent calculations showed that if the shape of the ring encircling the spacecraft was adjusted into more of a rounded donut, as opposed to a flat ring the warp drive could be powered by the energy of a mass as small as 500 kg. Furthermore, if the intensity of the space warps can be oscillated over time, the energy required is reduced even more."
But then, a slight solar wind... (Score:5, Funny)
Eject the core!
What did I tell you? (Score:5, Funny)
To all those anti-warp drive downers.. HAHAHAHA!!!!
Can I have one? (Score:5, Funny)
BTW: what is exactly ment with: warp drive could be powered by the energy of a mass as small as 500 kg In what time frame? I guess if you "annihilate" so much mass instantly ... you get indeed warped pretty hefty.
use the Naquadria drive (Score:5, Funny)
use the Naquadria drive
Ring/toroid shape? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But is it impossible for me to get first post? (Score:5, Funny)
guess you were travelling at impulse
Re:I'll believe it when I see... (Score:4, Funny)
(Gigglesnort)
I am reminded of various tougne-in-cheek jests by physicists about the universe hating the LHC.
Perhaps if you activated the alcubierre drive, you could only ever travel outside the vehicle's light cone, but never return back to It, because "mysterious, seemingly random events" will always, without fail, prevent you from pressing the button?
Now there would be a funny thing to put in science fiction!
Re:What about the radiation burst? (Score:5, Funny)
"Hey look. An earthlike planet, with nobody living on it. What a coincidence."
"Signal the colony ship."
Re:What did I tell you? (Score:5, Funny)
there are some people who will waive their hands
This I have to see.
Re:But then, a slight solar wind... (Score:5, Funny)
Eject the core!
Frog Blast The Vent Core!
Re:I'll believe it when I see... (Score:5, Funny)
But that's the point of how warp drive works - you bend space so that you don't travel faster than light.
You locally don't. The warp ship doesn't actually accelerate at all. This is how you get around the relativistic energy equation.
However, someone will observe you traveling faster than light.
So you use stealth technology. Duh.
Less Unpossible (Score:5, Funny)
Nearly not untrue!
Give me a little more non-fake false hope, and I'll use the slingshot effect to go back in time and uncancel the original series!
Re:What did I tell you? (Score:5, Funny)
A spelling mistake in a reply to a spelling mistake is probably exotic enough to power a small unicycle. -> They lose their quantum spin
Re:I'll believe it when I see... (Score:5, Funny)
But hey, maybe it's not a causal universe!
Dang.
I was really looking forward to Causal Friday.
Real world experiment (Score:3, Funny)
White and his colleagues have begun experimenting with a mini version of the warp drive in their laboratory. ...
"We're trying to see if we can generate a very tiny instance of this in a tabletop experiment, to try to perturb space-time by one part in 10 million," White said.
I can imagine how it might go:
White: "More ... power! We ... have ... got ... to get that ... table up ... to ... warp factor ... 0.00000001!"
Technician: "Aye, professor, but I'm already given 'er all the power we've got. She can' take no more"
Grad student: "My calculations indicate a slim chance of success if we reverse the polarity."
Technician: "I canno' do it. You'll blow the whole rig fo' sure!"
White: "We ... have ... no other ... choice. Reverse ... polarity!"
(All occupants of lab now alternately grab railings to the left then to the right.)
If my calculations are correct... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What did I tell you? (Score:5, Funny)
So what you're saying is, it never occurred to him to think of space as the thing that was moving?
Re:But then, a slight solar wind... (Score:5, Funny)
maybe not a coincidence, this Harold "Sonny" White who came up with the shape is part of the 100 year starship project, I'm suspecting he was a trekkie who tried out the warp field shape just to see what would happen. but he's too embarrased to admit it!
Re:What did I tell you? (Score:5, Funny)
We have seen this effect, just not in regular solid matter; we can see it in certain configurations of regular matter, such as the Casimir effect.
Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been...
Re:Make it so. (Score:2, Funny)
Religion had to have the right answer to something.
Re:What did I tell you? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I'll believe it when I see... (Score:5, Funny)
A PhD physicist invented the Alcubierre Drive, and physicists at NASA are now working on this warp drive concept, but a couple of armchair physicists on Slashdot think they know physics better than the experts.
Why should physics be different than any other topic?
Re:It's not hand-waving. (Score:5, Funny)
That explains why I rode her all night long. (I kid, I kid. Your grandmother is a very nice lady, who says you should call more often.)
Won't happen (Score:5, Funny)
Re:use the Naquadria drive (Score:2, Funny)