Topic: =/\= more trek-style news!!! warp engines under development

[stoneyface]

here's the link to the story on slashdot.org: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/05/1839256&tid=160&tid=14

"Although a staple of Sci-Fi space travel, it is often deemed to be just that: Fiction. However, it seems that one is currently in development. "The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft. Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.""

this is an excerpt from the story posted here: http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006

interesting to note that a trip to mars using these engines would take 3 hours! well worth the read. enjoy your trek moment!

-stoneyface out-

[FA Frey XC]

Hummm, this is very similiar to how Star Trek's Impulse engines are suppose to function -

They create a gravitational "wave" that the ship actually kinda "rides" to generate forward movement.

Very good find, Stoney!!

[Overmind]

Well, they made Ion Propulsion few years after it was seen in Star Trek TOs.
I don't see why we shouldn't have Warp very soon.

"In June 1996, a prototype engine built by NASA/Lewis began a long-duration test in a vacuum chamber at JPL simulating conditions of outer space. The test concluded in September 1997 after the engine successfully logged more than 8,000 hours of operation. Results of the NSTAR tests were used to define the design of flight hardware that was built for Deep Space 1."

[Panzergranate]

According to the books, Impulse Power uses theexhaust thrust from sub atomic cold fusion engines, with the cold fusion being obtained by using a mysterious device refered to as a synchroiser and zero point energy.

The original theory behind impluse power, the sub atomic impulse postulate, was published in 1936 and numerous scientists have been attmpting to make it reality ever since.

In the February 1999 New Scientist NASAs latest Warp Engine project achievement was front cover news....

NASA had managed to move a molecule to light speed and back using a Warp Engine 1 Kilometre long.

No big deal, you think, but under E = MC squared, the mass of the molecule is countless billions of times more massive than a single light Photon, and therefore should maxed out way before the 0.9c mark was met.

It was explained that Albucere's original Warp Drive principle, in 1956, was that space could be made to move in a direction. So Warp Drive is like surfing through space as surfers ride on moving water. One turns space into a moving current and ride it. Think of running on a moving pavement at an airport!!

From the calculations made from the experiment, scientist calculated that to move an object the size of a Tea Chest, a Warp Field the size of Jupiter would be required. And the power required to do this isn't available yet.