Warp Drive Possible???

[x acidreign x]

Dr Van Den Broeck was reanalysing ground-breaking calculations made five years ago by Mexican mathematician Miguel Alcubierre. Alcubierre said that it was possible to imagine how a warp drive would work by distorting the fabric of space. Starships would ride along waves in so-called spacetime, like surfers do along waves in the sea.
The starship would have to be microscopically small on the outside but large enough on the inside to carry passengers, just like the Tardis in the British sci-fi series, Dr Who.

Article found here...

I thought this was fascinating... what do you think?




I got that here:
http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw81.html

[tyger_claw]

It would be cool to do, but to what cost?

The way they weight they ideas, I think we'd run out of resources before we could go.

[Striek]

There's actually a lot of stuff out there on this... here's a couple of links.

NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics

Warp Drive When?

Remember to aim for the stars. If you miss, you'll still end up in the heavens.

[x acidreign x]

It would be cool to do, but to what cost?

The way they weight they ideas, I think we'd run out of resources before we could go.

all the more reason to leave this planet, i get a little miffed when people get all militant about saving the environment at the cost of social advancement.. this environment will be fine, WE are the ones who are screwed if we dont leave this planet, if for no other reason than to learn to live elsewhere.. we need to go to mars, we need to develop warp speed, it is imperitive, because we won't be around for much longer, regardless of how we treat the environment, our sun will fry us long before we do, because it is getting hotter. not the ozone (that's just our problem, and the difference is negligible.) but because thats what stars do, they get hotter, they burn out, get heavy, collapse, implode, become black holes... granted this will take 50billion years to happen but the solar system will be unsurvivable long before then. as far as resources go, we got nine planets in this solar system alone chock full of resources. besides, the more we learn about matter and energy, the more stuff we can use for feul... imagine a warp drive that runs on garbage and releases daisies, farfetched, but on a subatomic level far from impossible. hehe

[4MidgetHitmen]

Warp drive would be cool to have... Imagine all of the places one could go... I recall reading a while back that in theroy it is very possible to get a ship into warp once they figure out how to build it... the problem comes from the acceleration of what is inside the ship... nothing like being mashed into jelly against the rear bulkhaed of the ship as it zips to warp THere is a book called the Physics of Star Trek in whinch a bunch people a hell of a lot smarter then me talk about all of the technology in Star Trek and if /when it might work... Inertial Dampeners would be needed to keep people from being smooshed when the ship hit warp... But they say it will work one day... I'd like to see it myself if not be able to take a ride

[xmaddness]

Talk about a rush.. Zero to light speed instintaneously. I have actually been contemplating warp speeds my whole life and have gotten pretty far. Again in my theory you would need all the mass in the universe, which is pretty far from possible, but you never know what the fules of the future will hold. The basic idea behind this, that I have read in the past, is that you create a big gravity bubble in front of the ship, and the gravity will pull the ship towards it. Kind of like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. Sounds like its possible to me.

[jedgren]

Here is the JPL Labs Link

http://sec353.jpl.nasa.gov/3533/

Regards

[Mahakaal]

So far what I've read up on it since this post came up, seems to suggest that, the person(s) inside the ship wouldn't feel any movement themselves but would feel/see space rushing towards them. But obviously from an observer's point of view the ship would be moving. So I dont know if you would feel the rush...hell I WOULDN"T WANT TO at that speed

[Zonewalker]

for my money (not that its worth a lot) anything similar to warp drive is a non starter.... in terms of practical considerations (e.g. the famous inertial dampners problem for a start off) there are many things that could put a total stop to travelling anywhere near light speed (although to be honest to get anywhere in the universe other than the 'local' star systems in a decent time we would have to develop hyper luminal speeds i.e. travelling much faster than light speed). I think we'd be better off pushing research into extra dimensional physics and learning how to 'step' outside of time.... then it won't matter how 'long' it takes to get to anyone else cos time won't exist as such whilst the traveller is outside of time.... having said that though... extra dimensional travel could present some of its own problems... mainly to do with a persons psychological cohesiveness i.e. their sanity

anyway just my .02 pennies

[Striek]

From what I understand the ship would actually have to create a 'warp bubble'. The space inside this bubble would not move, however the surrounding space in front of it would be compressed, and the space behind it would be expanded. This is all done in several layers, constantly expanding and contracting. So the ship is not actually moving through space, and to my knowledge, no acceleration would be felt.

However we are far from developing the types of matter and the energy production required to attain this. It IS theoretically possible, though.