Scientists claim warp drive is technically possible
By
Iain Thomson
30 July 2008 01:46PM
Tags:
scientists | claim | warp | drive | technically | possible
A research paper has suggested that a warp drive capable of moving a craft at faster than light speed could indeed be possible.
The paper, ‘Putting the “Warp" into Warp Drive’ by Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy, two Baylor University physicists, suggests that the speed of light could be broken by manipulating the fabric of space to create a bubble that a craft would ride upon.
Einstein’s laws of relativity would not be violated by such a drive since the craft itself would remain stationary and the bubble of space it moves in would be mobile. This would also shield passengers from the enormous G forces from such acceleration.
However there are significant hurdles to be overcome, most notable creating the engine powerful enough to produce such a distortion.
“There is nothing that theoretically prevents the creation of warp drive,” say the pair.
“Early calculations indicated that superluminal propulsion for a ship of volume 1000m3 could be achieved at an estimated energy cost of 1045J, or roughly the total mass-energy contained within the planet Jupiter after using the famous relation E = mc2.”
This however is a significant step forward, since previous calculations have shown it would take more energy than exists in the entire universe to power such a craft.
“This approach, although highly theoretical at this stage, gives us a glimpse as to how one might address the problems associated with the vast distances involved in interstellar travel, and also opens up exciting new avenues for future research,” they conclude.
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