Warp Drive could Become Science fact - NASA small scale testing underway

[cubby]

You're working at 6:44 AM? Sorry to hear it. Though I guess there was a time in my life when my work day started at 4 AM...

Yeah, by choice though. Nice and quiet atm.

[Theodon]

I am not sure on the signal bit and I think communication would be a big hurdle to overcome but as far as extreme acceleration/deceleration goes you don't really do that. The ship is stationary and warped in a bubble which is warping space around you. The kinetic energy of the ship itself is zero.

1 less problem to deal with then, which is good! I should probably fully read an article in an OP before commenting on it The issue of communication may be overcome once quantum entanglement is fully figured out and implemented. I believe some short-range tests have already been successfully completed in that regard even.

[ngc2440]

I am not sure on the signal bit and I think communication would be a big hurdle to overcome but as far as extreme acceleration/deceleration goes you don't really do that. The ship is stationary and warped in a bubble which is warping space around you. The kinetic energy of the ship itself is zero.

OMG, the Professor was right! That crazy old bastard!

The dark matter engines do not move the ship, but instead move the universe, allowing the ship to go faster than the speed of light.

[Netherspark]

We'd still need to master fusion in order to power this.... but fortunately some very smart people are making great strides on that front too. A fusion chamber will be competed in France within 2 years which should create a stable and self sustaining fusion reaction.

[Verain]

I know right? The reference was perfect too.

It doesn't matter who you parrot it from, it's still just more hysteria-inciting stuff.

[zeropeorth]

The problem is: the entire mainstream science is like a religion; dark matter is the best example of it.
Maybe in the future, once the current science "priests" die; people will understand that we don't live in a gravity-ruled universe, but an electric universe.

and the interesting possibility with that is ... instead of trying to 'push' our way through space ... we could use that knowledge to let the universe pull us through space; since electricity and magnetism are closely related.

there are quite a few interesting theories out there, that step outside the current 'accepted' boundaries. It always takes people to do this, if we didn't have people like that in the past ... the moon would be cheese, the earth is flat, and everything goes around us, just like it appears from our limited perspective on the ground.

[Reeve]

It doesn't matter who you parrot it from, it's still just more hysteria-inciting stuff.

A joke isn't hysteria inciting. At least it isn't if you have any kind of sense of humor. It seemed pretty clear from the comment, and then from the follow ups to the comment that it was simply a joke, and not an effort to incite hysteria.

[sophos1]

So, I wonder what happens when they run into rocks? Will the rock pass through the ship at 10c and drill a straw-hole through it or will the rock enter the bubble with relative speed to the ship as if the ship was standing still? Or perhaps the rock will pass through the ship so fast that the atoms won't have enough time to interact and it will be like nothing happened?

[Kathandira]

So, I wonder what happens when they run into rocks? Will the rock pass through the ship at 10c and drill a straw-hole through it or will the rock enter the bubble with relative speed to the ship as if the ship was standing still? Or perhaps the rock will pass through the ship so fast that the atoms won't have enough time to interact and it will be like nothing happened?

this is something i have always wondered too. For instance, Voyager 1 & 2 have not hit anything and they are almost out side of our solar system. Is there some sort of sensor that adjusts is trajectory when there is something soon to be in it's path? Or is there really absolutely nothing but planets and satellites within our solar system? I figured there would have to be some asteroids or meteorites around somewhere? Have the voyagers just been that lucky?

[bekilrwale]

I'd go on a test flight even if it mean't a 50/50 chance of dying - Science needs Guinea pigs.. Plus it would be a huge achievement in my so far mundane pointless life

I would gladly do the same. Think about it, you have the chance to test something that would change the history of the human race forever! sign me up even if there is a 99% chance of dying.

[Ryme]

fraking velocities of up to 10c!

Which, sadly, is still slow as fuck in the cosmic scale of things, would take about half a year just to get to the next nearest star to Earth at that speed.

[cubby]

We'd still need to master fusion in order to power this.... but fortunately some very smart people are making great strides on that front too. A fusion chamber will be competed in France within 2 years which should create a stable and self sustaining fusion reaction.

Is self-sustaining fusion what I think it means? Once it starts up, it continues without further additional energy.

---------- Post added 2012-09-19 at 08:40 PM ----------

Which, sadly, is still slow as fuck in the cosmic scale of things, would take about half a year just to get to the next nearest star to Earth at that speed.

Better than 50,000 years though, right?

[Ryme]

Better than 50,000 years though, right?

Haha, indeed it is.

[Torq]

Is self-sustaining fusion what I think it means? Once it starts up, it continues without further additional energy.

I just read a Q&A session with some of the world's top fusion researchers, and they indicated that (at least in the case of tokamoks) that once you get the fusion reaction started, as long as you keep it fed, it's self-sustaining. "Feeding" it merely involves adding small amounts of fuel on a regular basis. Apparently, so long as it has fuel, it will continue to sustain the fusion reaction without additional energy being added.

Of course, you're still spending a boatload of energy to contain said ball of plasma, but that's really where the issue lies: figuring out how to harvest sufficient quantities of the energy released to sustain the containment. Once that point is reached, any additional energy harvested is power output from a functioning fusion reactor...

[cubby]

I just read a Q&A session with some of the world's top fusion researchers, and they indicated that (at least in the case of tokamoks) that once you get the fusion reaction started, as long as you keep it fed, it's self-sustaining. "Feeding" it merely involves adding small amounts of fuel on a regular basis. Apparently, so long as it has fuel, it will continue to sustain the fusion reaction without additional energy being added.

Of course, you're still spending a boatload of energy to contain said ball of plasma, but that's really where the issue lies: figuring out how to harvest sufficient quantities of the energy released to sustain the containment. Once that point is reached, any additional energy harvested is power output from a functioning fusion reactor...

So they have the master plan, and the theoretical know-how - now it's really just an engineering function? Awesome.

Could you link the Q&A session?

[Torq]

So they have the master plan, and the theoretical know-how - now it's really just an engineering function? Awesome.

Could you link the Q&A session?

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...your-questions

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Where we are going.. we won't need eyes to see!

-Event Horizon

[igame]

So, I wonder what happens when they run into rocks? Will the rock pass through the ship at 10c and drill a straw-hole through it or will the rock enter the bubble with relative speed to the ship as if the ship was standing still? Or perhaps the rock will pass through the ship so fast that the atoms won't have enough time to interact and it will be like nothing happened?

If Captain Picard has taught me anything, you plot the course first, then engage warp

But seriously, I think the course would still have to be pre-determined. I am however unsure if matter can even penetrate a bubble that's warping space and time around it.
One thing to remember is that there is "a lot" of seemingly empty space in the universe. All matter we know and understand is just 4% of the universe. If one knew what they were doing, odds of running into random objects are very slim I would think.

---------- Post added 2012-09-19 at 11:00 PM ----------

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...your-questions

Thanks, that's a nice Q&A

[Urti]

The energy required to accelerate something to the speed of light is infinity. I'm not sure how you propose to find infinite energy, but even if the entire (observable) universe is converted into energy it's still going to be finite. However, it doesn't hold anyone back to say that. Rather, the whole rationale for the Alcubierre drive is to bypass the insurmountable energy requirements of light speed travel.

It's nice to have an imagination, but this indignation at inconvenient realities really doesn't help.

This suggestion isn't a strict propulsion though. You're right, if you propel an object its mass becomes greater the faster it goes, thus requiring more energy and so on . But what they suggest isn't propulsion in that sense. The object technically remains stationary, it's space that moves. And the lightspeed/energy restriction doesn't apply to simply warping of spacetime, as evidenced by wormholes and the expansion of the early universe. The warp drive they propose is a variation of one that was originally proposed back some years ago. It was found to be technically sound, but the energy required was completely impractical. Something like the equivalent mass energy of a large gas planet. What they said here is that theoretically they may be able to lower that energy cost to something much more practical. This doesn't address the difficulty in obtaining the exotic matter needed for the warp ring however, so until that is figured out this is still conjecture. But cool, exciting, awesome, sciencey conjecture. The best kind.

I I am however unsure if matter can even penetrate a bubble that's warping space and time around it.

It would. That's basically the idea behind gravity. The moon orbits the earth due to the warping of spacetime by the earth. Same thing applies here, the ship=earth and the rock/debris=moon. The time frames and amount of warping would be different obviously, but the idea is the same.

[Reeve]

We just need to get all the timey-wimey wibbledy-wobbly things to fit together right.