Mr Crusher, Warp 7... Engage!

[HuskyCaucasian]

Star Trek warp drive is a possibility, say scientists

 

Two physicists have boldly gone where no reputable scientists should go and devised a new scheme to travel faster than the speed of light.

 

The advance could mean that Star Trek fantasies of interstellar civilisations and voyages powered by warp drive are now no longer the exclusive domain of science fiction writers.

 

In the long running television series created by Gene Roddenberry, the warp drive was invented by Zefram Cochrane, who began his epic project in 2053 in Bozeman, Montana.

 

Now Dr Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and Richard Obousy have come up with a new twist on an existing idea to produce a warp drive that they believe can travel faster than the speed of light, without breaking the laws of physics.

 

In their scheme, in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, a starship could "warp" space so that it shrinks ahead of the vessel and expands behind it.

 

By pushing the departure point many light years backwards while simultaneously bringing distant stars and other destinations closer, the warp drive effectively transports the starship from place to place at faster-than-light speeds.

 

All this extraordinary feat requires, says the new study, is for scientists to harness a mysterious and poorly understood cosmic antigravity force, called dark energy.

 

Dark energy is thought responsible for speeding up the expansion rate of our universe as time moves on, just like it did after the Big Bang, when the universe expanded much faster than the speed of light for a very brief time.

 

This may come as a surprise since, according to relativity theory, matter cannot move through space faster than the speed of light, which is almost 300,000,000 metres per second. But that theory applies only to unwarped 'flat' space.

 

The new warp drive work also draws on "string theory", which suggests the universe is made up of multiple dimensions. We are used to four dimensions - height, width, length and time but string theorists believe that there are a total of 10 dimensions and it is by changing the size of this 10th spatial dimension in front of the space ship that the Baylor researchers believe could alter the strength of the dark energy in such a manner to propel the ship faster than the speed of light.

 

:headbang

Edited August 16, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000

[CubKilla]

Star Trek warp drive is a possibility, say scientists

 

 

 

:headbang

 

I'm hard

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

On A Side Note:

Trekkies Will Lose a Starbase

 

For fans there is a new "Star Trek" movie scheduled to come out in 2009, but Vegas is not a town with patience, and so by 2009, to the consternation of a lot of the convention attendees, this annual "Star Trek" convention will have to take place without what has come to be known informally as the Star Trek Experience ride at the Las Vegas Hilton. Perhaps even more important, the convention (which concluded last Sunday) is losing its informal headquarters: Quark's bar. The "Star Trek"-themed bar and restaurant are next door to the ride and are an unofficial hangout central for convention attendees. Both the bar and ride are closing at the end of the month.

 

On Sept. 1, one of the most successful tourist rides here will be "decommissioned" after more than a decade, twice as long as the USS Enterprise's five-year mission on the original television series. The convention grew from a modest affair at places like the Plaza downtown to a convention that attracted thousands with the arrival of the Experience.

 

I am saddened. I always wanted to go there, but never had the chance to get out to Las Vegas.

[shipps]

This is so f***ing cool.I just cant see a human body being able to withstand that kind of force though.

[HuskyCaucasian]

This is so f***ing cool.I just cant see a human body being able to withstand that kind of force though.

see, that's the thing. If I understand correctly, you aren't actually moving. Space is moving around YOU. I'm not sure there would be any force on you,

[FlaSoxxJim]

On A Side Note:

Trekkies Will Lose a Starbase

 

I am saddened. I always wanted to go there, but never had the chance to get out to Las Vegas.

 

I did the ride and had a couple drinks in the bar when I was there a few years ago. I thought it was pretty cool.

[NorthSideSox72]

This is so f***ing cool.I just cant see a human body being able to withstand that kind of force though.

The idea behind this is, as I understand it from my physicist cousin, that you don't meet force with force. You don't propel matter through space in current state to those speeds. You instead open an envelope or slot, using multidimensionality or bent/curved space, which is externally so thin that it has near-zero resistance. Internally, you travel interdimensionally, so you don't have g-forces like you'd think of.

 

When trying to project matter to the speed of light in previous attempts, at some speed like half light (or less), using a Gauss field or similar, the matter degenerates into something like what Trekkies would call plasma.

 

(this is where one of the scientists on Soxtalk can inform me that I am misunderstanding the whole thing)

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

The idea behind this is, as I understand it from my physicist cousin, that you don't meet force with force. You don't propel matter through space in current state to those speeds. You instead open an envelope or slot, using multidimensionality or bent/curved space, which is externally so thin that it has near-zero resistance. Internally, you travel interdimensionally, so you don't have g-forces like you'd think of.

 

When trying to project matter to the speed of light in previous attempts, at some speed like half light (or less), using a Gauss field or similar, the matter degenerates into something like what Trekkies would call plasma.

 

(this is where one of the scientists on Soxtalk can inform me that I am misunderstanding the whole thing)

That is about right.

[NorthSideSox72]

That is about right.

You're a scientist?

 

[knightni]

You're a scientist?

No, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!

[HuskyCaucasian]

You're a scientist?

I'm actually a bit of a quantum theory geek. I find it fascinating! I couldn't start spouting detailed information, but I've read at least 3 books on quantum theory. I'm not great at giving nearly as detailed an explanation as you did, but I can look at ti and say that's pretty much what I've read and studied in the past.

Edited August 18, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000