Warp Drives May Come With a Killer Downside

[n2doc]

by JASON MAJOR on FEBRUARY 29, 2012


Planning a little space travel to see some friends on Kepler 22b? Thinking of trying out your newly-installed FTL3000 Alcubierre Warp Drive to get you there in no time? Better not make it a surprise visit — your arrival may end up disintegrating anyone there when you show up.

“Warp” technology and faster-than-light (FTL) space travel has been a staple of science fiction for decades. The distances in space are just so vast and planetary systems — even within a single galaxy — are spaced so far apart, such a concept is needed to make casual human exploration feasible (and fit within the comforts of people’s imagination as well… nobody wants to think about Kirk and Spock bravely going to some alien planet while everyone they’ve ever known dies of old age!)

While many factors involving FTL travel are purely theoretical — and may remain in the realm of imagination for a very long time, if not ever — there are some concepts that play well with currently-accepted physics.

The Alcubierre warp drive is one of those concepts.

Proposed by Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994, the drive would propel a ship at superluminal speeds by creating a bubble of negative energy around it, expanding space (and time) behind the ship while compressing space in front of it. In much the same way that a surfer rides a wave, the bubble of space containing the ship and its passengers would be pushed at velocities not limited to the speed of light toward a destination.

Of course, when the ship reaches its destination it has to stop. And that’s when all hell breaks loose.

more

http://www.universetoday.com/93882/warp-drives-may-come-with-a-killer-downside/

[longship]

1. I want my chronosynclastic infundibulum

Enough said?

[Ready4Change]

2. That explains an age-old mystery.

When you travel at the speed of light, what happens when you turn on your headlights?

Apparently, the stored emissions of your headlights vaporize your destination.

It's good to know this stuff.

[zipplewrath]

3. Just another feature to solve

Sounds like any such ship would have to have a particle collector as part of its design. Possibly ejecting the particles outside the warp bubble as it moves along. Of course this might leave a "warp trail" that could be used to track the ship.

The forward sensor array could probably be modified to.....

Well, you get the idea.

[Occulus]

6. I wonder if the transition could be done in stages?

I'm mathematically challenged (musicians only have to count to four) and just thinking out loud here.

[HopeHoops]

4. I still say the problem is thinking in four dimensions. Time isn't a constant.

[laconicsax]

5. I hate to say it...

The possibility of using a warp drive itself as a weapon could very well spur development.

[Occulus]

7. That's nice and chilling.

Thanks for this evening's nightmares. I'll enjoy them.

[Motown_Johnny]

8. oh come on

What do they think deflector arrays are for? Plus everyone knows you need to drop out of warp before you enter the system.