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Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 17th 12, 06:43 PM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

"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...09.html?_esi=1
  #2  
Old September 18th 12, 01:45 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Orval Fairbairn
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Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

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.
  #3  
Old September 18th 12, 04:14 AM posted to sci.space.policy
hg
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Posts: 60
Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

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
  #5  
Old September 21st 12, 06:09 PM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain
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Posts: 2,901
Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

A quote from the article and a comment...

/quote
Warping space-time

An Alcubierre warp drive would involve a football-shape spacecraft
attached to a large ring encircling it. This ring, potentially made of
exotic matter, would cause space-time to warp around the starship,
creating a region of contracted space in front of it and expanded space
behind.

Meanwhile, the starship itself would stay inside a bubble of flat
space-time that wasn't being warped at all.

"Everything within space is restricted by the speed of light,"
explained Richard Obousy, president of Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit
group of scientists and engineers devoted to pursuing interstellar
spaceflight. "But the really cool thing is space-time, the fabric of
space, is not limited by the speed of light."

With this concept, the spacecraft would be able to achieve an effective
speed of about 10 times the speed of light, all without breaking the
cosmic speed limit.

The only problem is, previous studies estimated the warp drive would
require a minimum amount of energy about equal to the mass-energy of the
planet Jupiter.

But recently White calculated what would happen if the shape of the ring
encircling the spacecraft was adjusted into more of a rounded donut, as
opposed to a flat ring. He found in that case, the warp drive could be
powered by a mass about the size of a spacecraft like the Voyager 1
probe NASA launched in 1977.
/end-quote

Are we just re-inventing the flying saucer?




  #6  
Old September 24th 12, 03:14 PM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain
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Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

On 9/22/2012 8:04 AM, Dave U. Random wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/warp-drive-may...09.html?_esi=1


Some news articles claim that Warp 10 would be equal to 10 times the
speed of light. That is obviously wrong and I reckon they didn't pay
much attention when watching Star Trek.


Well at much risk of revealing the kind of Trek knowledge that I
preferred my wife didn't know I know :-) , ummm, obviously they never
read the "Star Fleet Technical Manual"... IIRC (been awhile) Warp Factor
goes up as the CUBE of C. Thus Warp 1 == C, Warp 2 == C**3, Warp 3 ==
C**6... etc....

FWIW (which is not much)

Dave

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Star...dp/0345495861/

  #8  
Old September 24th 12, 03:38 PM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain
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Posts: 2,901
Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

On 9/17/2012 8:45 PM, Orval Fairbairn wrote:

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.


Many a "Warp Drive" scenario envision a folding of space-time in a
non-inertial reference frame (whatever that means), but it usually
implies you are not "thrusting" through space, so much as popping in and
out. To avoid the hazards you mention you'd need a robotic "pre-popper"
that pops ahead of you and if it survives the jump takes a look around
sees that its ok and then pops back to you so that you can make the jump.

The Star Trek scenario envisions a Space-Time "bubble" gets created
around the ship under Warp Drive that allows you to "slip-between"
objects in space time, and for those objects only that are directly in
your path that are either small enough or far enough way, the giant
forward facing "deflector" either moves it aside or moves you slightly
aside to avoid it. All done with inertial "damping" so you don't feel
the effect...until it fails that is... Or so I've been told... ;-)

Dave

  #9  
Old September 24th 12, 08:42 PM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain
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Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

On 9/24/2012 11:51 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:

Not to worry. You got it wrong, so you're safe with your wife. My
head knew the 'Original Series' system, which is based on cubes, as
you said, but it's not C that gets raised to a power. That would make
even Warp 2 preposterously fast.

The original system said that each 'Warp Factor' was the speed of
light TIMES the Warp Factor cubed. Thus Warp 1 = c, Warp 2 = 8c, Warp
3 = 27c, Warp 4 = 64c, etc.


Ah yes, this does ring a bell! Whew safe after all!!!! Thanks Fred....

This was apparently changed after the Original Series (unbeknownst to
me) in order to make 'Warp 10' the ultimate speed. In the old system
it was Warp 20. which turns out to be roughly equivalent to Warp 9.99
in the 'New System'. There doesn't seem to be a 'reasonable'
calculation for the 'New Warp Factor'.


Yep I remember that too. In the episode about the trip to Andromeda, the
aliens modify the Warp Engines to delivery above Warp 10, something like
Warp 12 or Warp 15, fast enough to blast through the 'negative energy
barrier' w/o problems, includng anyone in the crew with an ESP issue,
which would have made for an even MORE interesting episode....

Dave


  #10  
Old September 25th 12, 09:17 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Wayne Throop
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Default Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

: David Spain
: Many a "Warp Drive" scenario envision a folding of space-time in a
: non-inertial reference frame (whatever that means), but it usually
: implies you are not "thrusting" through space, so much as popping in
: and out.

Nah, that's more like the Polysotechnic League's quantum microjump drives.


 




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