Warp Speed, Scotty? Star Trek's FTL Drive May Actually Work

[Newsbot]

NASA scientists are working on an actual field test of the theoretical principle behind warp drives.

More...

 

[aerostadt]

This is a nice update on White's work. Evidently, the amount of negative energy that he has to distort space is so small that fluctuations in the building structures due to vibrations are masking any certain measurements. This is assuming that negative energy exists somewhere in his experiment. Even considering that this condition has been handled correctly, there are still theoretical problems. The forward end of the bubble is faster than light (FTL), (Einstein's Theory of Relativity allows boundaries, which are not mass entities, to travel FTL.), however, by Causality there is no way to tell the forward bubble end to slow down when the destination has been reached. The forward bubble end just keeps going forever.

 

[dixontj93060]

J.J. Abrams, et. al., should give a share of profits from the series to support this research (WILL NEVER HAPPEN :eyeroll.

 

[shrox]

This is a nice update on White's work. Evidently, the amount of negative energy that he has to distort space is so small that fluctuations in the building structures due to vibrations are masking any certain measurements. This is assuming that negative energy exists somewhere in his experiment. Even considering that this condition has been handled correctly, there are still theoretical problems. The forward end of the bubble is faster than light (FTL), (Einstein's Theory of Relativity allows boundaries, which are not mass entities, to travel FTL.), however, by Causality there is no way to tell the forward bubble end to slow down when the destination has been reached. The forward bubble end just keeps going forever.

Yes, I was wondering about controlling the "bubble", especially from inside. How is the bubble emanated? Some type of antenna structure? Would the tips of the emitters be in the same "time" as the base?

 

[aerostadt]

Well, the bubble controller or emitter is determined by the negative energy. It is my understanding that negative energy and dark energy are the same thing. You hear about dark energy frequently with regard to General Relativity and cosmology these days. It is the gravity component that allows the space in the universe to "inflate". Sometimes you will hear the term inflationary universe. (Sure, we have inflation in the economy, so why not in space-time, also.) Einstein first introduced the concept with his cosmological constant when the current thinking was that the universe was always steady-state. Later, when Hubble showed that the universe had a Big Bang or beginning, Einstein called the cosmological constant his biggest mistake. Now, theoretical physicists are bringing the concept back and saying that we have the opportunity for an inflationary universe. In fact the current thinking is that the space of the inflationary universe at the time of the Big Bang expanded many times FTL.

 

[shrox]

Well, the bubble controller or emitter is determined by the negative energy. It is my understanding that negative energy and dark energy are the same thing. You hear about dark energy frequently with regard to General Relativity and cosmology these days. It is the gravity component that allows the space in the universe to "inflate". Sometimes you will hear the term inflationary universe. (Sure, we have inflation in the economy, so why not in space-time, also.) Einstein first introduced the concept with his cosmological constant when the current thinking was that the universe was always steady-state. Later, when Hubble showed that the universe had a Big Bang or beginning, Einstein called the cosmological constant his biggest mistake. Now, theoretical physicists are bringing the concept back and saying that we have the opportunity for an inflationary universe. In fact the current thinking is that the space of the inflationary universe at the time of the Big Bang expanded many times FTL.

In artist's terms, what does the technology look like? Some of the fictional ships like the Enterprise have a series of coils or cylinders in a linear arrangement in a pod. Others depict it more like an encompassing structure, something of a spider web sphere, or a rotating ring.

 

[aerostadt]

Since such a device does not exist, I would think that an artist could have considerable license. As I recall the amount of matter converted to energy for such a device has gone down over the years. Alcubierre had a feature article in Scientific American about 15 or 20 years ago. I cannot find it now. I'm sure the layman's article was based on more technical papers. Originally, Alcubierre postulated the amount of matter converted to energy would be equivalent to the whole universe. Lately articles have said that the matter needed to be converted has dropped to the size of planet Jupiter and more recently down to the size of a very large space probe. So, you probably need a large matter/anti-matter power generator on the space craft somewhere, whatever that looks like. As I recall in the Scientific American article Alcubierre said the negative energy could be generated by shining two lights at each other such that the beams would cancel each other out. Such a cancellation would be a region of absence of energy, i.e., negative energy is not like negative potential energy, rather it is a region where it is very improbable to find energy ( I suppose no vacuum energy fluctuations, etc.). I would think that this would be akin to a diffraction pattern, but it must not be that simple. So, maybe you have the matter/anti-matter power generator on the spacecraft somewhere internally and maybe a small negative energy generator on the aft end and a larger negative energy generator on the front end.

 

[shrox]

Since such a device does not exist, I would think that an artist could have considerable license. As I recall the amount of matter converted to energy for such a device has gone down over the years. Alcubierre had a feature article in Scientific American about 15 or 20 years ago. I cannot find it now. I'm sure the layman's article was based on more technical papers. Originally, Alcubierre postulated the amount of matter converted to energy would be equivalent to the whole universe. Lately articles have said that the matter needed to be converted has dropped to the size of planet Jupiter and more recently down to the size of a very large space probe. So, you probably need a large matter/anti-matter power generator on the space craft somewhere, whatever that looks like. As I recall in the Scientific American article Alcubierre said the negative energy could be generated by shining two lights at each other such that the beams would cancel each other out. Such a cancellation would be a region of absence of energy, i.e., negative energy is not like negative potential energy, rather it is a region where it is very improbable to find energy ( I suppose no vacuum energy fluctuations, etc.). I would think that this would be akin to a diffraction pattern, but it must not be that simple. So, maybe you have the matter/anti-matter power generator on the spacecraft somewhere internally and maybe a small negative energy generator on the aft end and a larger negative energy generator on the front end.

I know it doesn't exist...