![]() ![]() But effectively it will seem like it does). Ten c! That’s 10 times the speed of light, people (remember, the ship itself would not go faster than the speed of light. If they optimise the warp bubble thickness and “oscillate its intensity to reduce the stiffness of space time”, they would be able to reduce the amount of fuel to manageable amount: instead of a Jupiter-sized ball of exotic matter, you will only need 500kg to “send a 10m bubble (32.8 feet) at an effective velocity of 10c.” The Eagleworks team has discovered that the energy requirements are much lower than previously thought. White has found a solution that changes the game completely. There was only one problem with all this: where does the energy come from? While we knew that warp drives were theoretically possible, physicists have always argued that they would require a ball of exotic matter the size of Jupiter to power it. When you turn the field on, everybody doesn’t go slamming against the bulkhead, which would be a very short and sad trip.” The Energy Problem Solved The time will be the same in the spaceship and on Earth, he claims, and there will not be “tidal forces inside the bubble, no undue issues, and the proper acceleration is zero. He says that, if everything is confirmed in these practical experiments, we would be able to create an engine that will get us to Alpha Centauri “in two weeks as measured by clocks here on Earth”. According to Dr White, “by harnessing the physics of cosmic inflation, future spaceships crafted to satisfy the laws of these mathematical equations may actually be able to get somewhere unthinkably fast - and without adverse effects.” Existence proof for the practical application of a scientific idea can be a tipping point for technology development.īy creating one of these warp bubbles, the spaceship’s engine will compress the space ahead and expand the space behind, moving it to another place without actually moving, and carrying none of the adverse effects of other travel methods. This existence proof was followed by the activation of a ~ four megawatt reactor in November of 1943. Recall that December of 1942 saw the first demonstration of a controlled nuclear reaction that generated a whopping half watt. In his own words:Īlthough this is just a tiny instance of the phenomena, it will be existence proof for the idea of perturbing space time-a “Chicago pile” moment, as it were. ![]() ![]() It may sound like a small thing now, but the implications of the research huge. They have “initiated an interferometer test bed that will try to generate and detect a microscopic instance of a little warp bubble” using an instrument called the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer. Working at NASA Eagleworks - a skunkworks operation deep at NASA’s Johnson Space Center - Dr White’s team is trying to find proof of those loopholes. Dr White and other physicists have found loopholes in some mathematical equations - loopholes that indicate that warping the space-time fabric is indeed possible. The answer lies precisely in those laws of physics. Or as Dr White puts it: “we want to go, really fast, while observing the 11th commandment: Thou shall not exceed the speed of light.“ Searching for Warp Bubbles One that would allow us to travel extremely fast without breaking the laws of physics. Only the ones going forward in search for a new star system would enjoy the result of the colossal effort. The trip will be meaningless for those left behind. And worse: it will require decades - centuries, even - to get there. Even with experimental technology, like ion thrusters or a spaceship’s aft pooping freaking nuclear explosions, it would require staggering amounts of fuel and mass to get to any nearby star. With our current propulsion technologies, interstellar flight is impossible. It’s cool, but we are far from being the space civilisation we’ll need to become to survive for millennia. ![]() We also have those automatic doors that swoosh wide open when you get near them, but that’s about it. We got to the moon and sent some badass robot to Mars. When it comes to space exploration, we are still cavemen. Dr White and his colleagues don’t just believe a real-life warp drive is theoretically possible they’ve already started the work to create one. “Perhaps a Star Trek experience within our lifetime is not such a remote possibility.” These are the words of Dr Harold “Sonny” White, the Advanced Propulsion Theme Lead for the NASA Engineering Directorate. ![]()
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