On 18/09/2012 05:45, Orval Fairbairn wrote:
In article
,
wrote:

"A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light
travel ‹ a concept popularized in television's
Star Trek ‹ may not be as unrealistic as
once thought, scientists say.

A warp drive would manipulate space-time
itself to move a starship, taking advantage of
a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent
anything from moving faster than light. A
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.

Now physicists say that adjustments can
be made to the proposed warp drive that
would enable it to run on significantly less
energy, potentially brining the idea back
from the realm of science fiction into
science."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/warp-drive-may...tists-16130110
9.html?_esi=1

I would think that some form of manipulation of the time/space continuum
would be necessary to enable interstellar travel. Chemical rockets
simply don't have the right stuff.

If we actually WERE able to approach C, collisions with interstellar
dust and gas would create lethal radiation and impact hazards, while
unmapped rocks and planets would doom a mission.

Of course, we would have to learn new laws of navigation, stability and
control for such an endeavor.


Though the entire idea behind space travel in Sci-Fi novel Dune is
laughable - you have to hand it to author Frank Herbert for devising
a way of traveling without moving by utilizing 'spice'. That avoids
light speed collision problems entirely.


--
T