Topic: Is Warp Drive Possible Yes or No

[Windfox]

Here's the article I was referring to in my previous post:

http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw43.html  

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

You may remember the posting by Sirgod on the satellite to detect frame dragging by the Earth.  

A link about "Gravity Probe B"

[Stormbringer]

Yep. And that is actually the third or fourth discussion on it and similar subjects I've seen and participated in here. Still it's cool to see it discussed again.

[Stormbringer]

Nice! it even mentions several of the terms I used. thanks for the article.

[E_Look]

Ah, I think I know what you're talking about now!  You're referring to the gravitational field about any massive object.  Yes, gravitation does have a role in relativity, but I really can't see how this can bring about any kind of cool space travel.  Mind you, I want some harder proof than little shifts in images taken of objects too many trillions of miles away for us to be totally sure we know what we're talking about that black holes and extrasolar planets really do exist surely as planets in our own solar system.

[Stormbringer]

Sort of.but its that combined with the rotary motion or through relativity an orbital that makes it effective. And As I said the effect can be synthesized in the lab. It already has been using very little power and no appreciable mass. So the potential is there.

[Stormbringer]

So if you could do this at the front of a ship or along its length and then manipulate it in such a way as to get a relatavisitc analog of the lorentz contraction then you would have an area in front of the ship where the path is shorter than one parallel but outside the effect. The ship would still travel at normal speeds in its reference frame but observers outside the frame would observe it travelling faster than the speed of light. its path to Alpha centauri might be half a light year; but to observers it went 4.1 light years distance in the time it takes light to go .5.as an example. that way violations of the light /inertial barrier do not really occur at all.

[Cleaven]

I think the question should wait until we have a Grand Unified Theory or at least a better theory of gravitation.

Otherwise the answer right now is No.  

[Warden]

Quote:

At the request of Age, link to STCD Unity-DW-NDF forum on  topic http://www.stcd.sgnonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2082

My opinion on this is simple, it will take a complete rethink of current physics, discrediting of most of Einstein?s and others theories and then the $$$$$$ to make it work.  

Time frame for this, I say minimum of at least 50 years before a design on paper, then another 50-60 years to get it to work.

BTW is anyone watching the births register in America for a "Zefram Cochrane" by any chance? Maybe a "Lily Sloane"    

[Age]

   You will have to register in order to view that thread in that forum.Then you will want to go to general chat Debates and Discussions.I am sorry that you have to this but it is the only way to view that thread and it is interesting btw.

 Sig is by Pestalence  

[Stormbringer]

Not really. We already get warping in the form of frame dragging in the laboratory. This despite not having a GUT theory or even knowing what gravitation is. Making a warp doesnot require it. Understanding warp does (maybe) but not making one.

[manitoba]

i said in a way its like the ion drives. a constant increase in power. might take awhile to get there but if u constantly keep add speed like the ion drive even though it would take way to long. but yes it would only work in space. and as far as blowing out a humugus force at once thats not how the ion drive works. they used a type of satilite to view a comet not that long ago, with an ion drive. very slow to get to sped but its the fastest thing we have at the moment.   its a shame i cant remember the name of it.  

[Age]

 

Is Warp Drive Possible Yes or No?




 

 Yes


 No

    See Results
           

[E_Look]

Age,  how can you ask??

Albert already told us!

[jimmi7769]

Quote:
Age,  how can you ask??

Albert already told us!  

Yes but how many other set in stone facts have changed over the years.

[Age]

   I was not aware of that.Where is it was before I registered I won't mind reading it.

 Sig is by Pestalence  

[Johanobesus]

I think he means Albert Einstein.  What he is getting at is that, under our current understanding of physics, the answer is no.  It just might be possible to warp or bend or tunnel through space in such a way as to allow one to sort of skip over some of the space between two points, so that you could go from A to Z without passing through all the points in between, but there is no such thing as subspace, and it doesn't seem that it is possible to create some sort of bubble that would allow matter to travel through space faster than light, and so if FTL ever does exist, it won't likely resemble Star Trek much at all.  

And your poll seems to be messed up.  
 

[manitoba]

i beg to differ i do believe that it would be possible, but just not like trek agreed.  just chk out the ion drives now.  theretically.

[Stormbringer]

Hey, the poll does not work. I voted yes. 0 and 0 results.

[Windfox]

Hmm.. FTL loopholes...


Well, there is one possible way to go FTL that fits perfectly with modern physics from what I've read, if we knew how to do it.

When a photon of light travels, it virtually splits into a electron and positiron, or some other simaler particle pair, which then annihlate each other reforming the original photon.This is the reason light travels at the speed it does, because of the virtual particles slowign it down.  Now one effect that has been observed(it was covered in an Alternate View by Dr John G Cramer in Analog.. don't remember the issue offhand but it was late 80s or early 90s I belive) is termed teh casmir effect. The idea is to put two plates close enough together, it impedes the formation of the virtual particles, as their path would cause them to hit the plates.  Since the photon spends less time as virtual particles, any light travelling through there actually speeds up a minute amount!  Thus in this small area, the speed of light is raised by a minute amount.  If the plates were uniformally smooth(as in perhaps cosmic string or cosmic walls) and placed close enough together, you might could get significant increases in speed.  Now comes the sci-fi  part: create a field that surpresses virtual particle formation in the same manner.  Now place a ship within it, and set the field to move wiht the ship.  Voila!  FTL drive!  The ship can accellerate to large velocities within the bubble, and while to the universe outside the bubble it'd be FTL, the ship technically never breaks the lightspeed barrier!

Then of course, there's also the idea that a loop around a cosmic string totals less than 360 degrees... I'm sure there's somethign someone can do with that. (And didn't Vonda McIntyre write a series of books about that idea actually? o.O)