FSTDT Forums
Community => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Askold on November 30, 2013, 02:57:53 pm
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Or atleast they are studying the possibility of faster than light travel.
http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive
A few months ago, physicist Harold White stunned the aeronautics world when he announced that he and his team at NASA had begun work on the development of a faster-than-light warp drive. His proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks — and all without violating Einstein's law of relativity. We contacted White at NASA and asked him to explain how this real life warp drive could actually work.
So, apparently a scientist called Miguel Alcubierre discovered in 1994 a theory that would allow FTL travel which apparently does not violate any known laws of physics. Wether this is also achievable by our (or any) technology is another matter but NASA is willing to find out. So far they've been just looking at the theory to find some way to take advantage of the phenomenom but their goal is finding a way to make it work in practise:
Theoretical plausibility is all fine and well, of course. What White needs now is a real-world proof-of-concept. So he's hit the lab and begun work on actual experiments.
I think this is incredibly cool and even if it turns out to be impossible I think things like this are worth looking into.
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Heck yes. I look forward to the day when instead of "artistic interpretations" of extra-solar planets, we can see them first hand. I hope it's in my lifetime, but I doubt it will be. We could have a Phoenix (geek out) in the making eventually.
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Ah, yes. The theoretical 'Alcubierre drive'. I'm intrigued!
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When that theory first came out it was thought that you would need a space ship with the mass of Jupiter to use the drive, so it was considered too impractical for real life.
Now with the latest research into it the amount of energy and mass has been reduced significantly and they believe a ship as small as 1600 pounds could use the "warp-drive." Too bad that they still need some "exotic" material to make it work.
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Does this mean we're one step closer to my dream of joining a space navy?
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Rule number one of science reporting: Never take the headline at face value. NASA is not building a warp drive. NASA is building an experimental device that will help test the plausibility of a proposed theoretical way of FTL travel. Or maybe they already built it, the article is a year old.
That should be awesome enough on its own without having to coach it in terms of how NASA 'might build its first warp drive'. Sure, if this works, and all the other theoretical problems are solved, and so on and so forth.
When that theory first came out it was thought that you would need a space ship with the mass of Jupiter to use the drive, so it was considered too impractical for real life.
Now with the latest research into it the amount of energy and mass has been reduced significantly and they believe a ship as small as 1600 pounds could use the "warp-drive." Too bad that they still need some "exotic" material to make it work.
If I'm reading it right, 1600 pounds is not the mass of the ship, rather the mass equivalent of the energy you'd need to warp spacetime in the manner required by this version of the Alcubierre drive. It's an amazing improvement over Alcubierre's original version, though still a shitload of energy (on the order of exajoules, or a significant fraction of the world's yearly energy consumption).
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According to Star Trek, we still have about 50 years before warp drive, so no pressure. That is, however, factoring in World War III occurring in the 2050s.
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Rule number one of science reporting: Never take the headline at face value. NASA is not building a warp drive. NASA is building an experimental device that will help test the plausibility of a proposed theoretical way of FTL travel. Or maybe they already built it, the article is a year old.
I know, I just used that title because it was funny and that is what the article had as its headline. You'll notice that the very first sentence in my post was that they are rather just studying a theoretical FTL method to see if it would work in real life applications.
If I'm reading it right, 1600 pounds is not the mass of the ship, rather the mass equivalent of the energy you'd need to warp spacetime in the manner required by this version of the Alcubierre drive. It's an amazing improvement over Alcubierre's original version, though still a shitload of energy (on the order of exajoules, or a significant fraction of the world's yearly energy consumption).
Well, I'm just a simple engineer and, yes it appears I misunderstood that part. They do point out in the article that even though the amount of energy required is too much to be produced by todays technology they seem to be hoping that we will find a more powerful powersource in the future. Or maybe find an even more energy-efficient method for the "war-bubble-drive. (The theory states that you create a "bubble" of "warped" space around the ship in order to move the space around it thus in effect making it move from location A to location B faster than light WITHOUT the ship INSIDE THE BUBBLE actually moving faster than the speed of light. Therefore "warp-drive" is a pretty good name for it.)
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I've decided to incorporate a fictional version of the Alcubierre drive into my sci-fi novel.
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Well, perhaps once we find a way to efficiently create and store significant quantities of anti-matter and actually USE it without running a gigantic risk of bathing everyone in the vicinity in a hellish amount of radiation (IIRC, matter-anti-matter reactions do produce gamma radiation), perhaps we could make 'er work. If its workable, and happens in my lifetime, I'd trample motherfuckers to be one of the first civilians to travel faster than light.
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Well, perhaps once we find a way to efficiently create and store significant quantities of anti-matter and actually USE it without running a gigantic risk of bathing everyone in the vicinity in a hellish amount of radiation (IIRC, matter-anti-matter reactions do produce gamma radiation), perhaps we could make 'er work. If its workable, and happens in my lifetime, I'd trample motherfuckers to be one of the first civilians to travel faster than light.
Pfff. I'll be bringing a bulldozer.
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I'll let other people test out that whole traveling in a bubble of warped space time thing first. If no one comes out the other side mutated into a monster, possessed by demons from another dimension, or phasing in and out of existence, then I might try it.
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Yeah I think I'll stay here and play video games involving FTL travel rather than try to experience it myself XD
I'm not a risk taker.
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If I come back possessed by Cthulhu, I'll make sure to eat the babies first.
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A lot of the stuff on Star Trek, the electronics and such (TOS and TNG particularly), look technologically primitive compared to what we have NOW, so... hey... what the mind of humanity can imagine, the hands of humanity can create. Eventually, anyway.
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This is really freaking cool and would be badass if this worked somewhere down the line, but yeah, I agree with the sentiment of not being the first person to line up for testing it.
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That attitude might help explain why Zefram Cochrane both invented warp drive and made the first test flight in Star Trek: nobody else was willing to get into the cockpit of something that potentially dangerous.
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Helped that he was three sheets in the wind at the time too.
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That attitude might help explain why Zefram Cochrane both invented warp drive and made the first test flight in Star Trek: nobody else was willing to get into the cockpit of something that potentially dangerous.
If they could get 200,000 people to apply to Mars One, I'm sure there'll be little trouble finding volunteers to test the first warp drive.
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I didn't think Mars One was supposed to be going FTL though. I think that's where the whole "not wanting to be the first" sentiment is coming from.
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It's more a general point about willingness to do dangerous things in the name of "Space is awesome!"
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Plus, I'd love to have my name in the history books near the real-world Zefram Cochrane.