FTL Travel

Discussion in 'Off-Topic' started by gihzmo, Oct 3, 2012.

  1. gihzmo

    gihzmo Moderator Berserker

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    http://gizmodo.com/5942634/nasa-starts-development-of-real-life-star-trek-warp-drive

    I have had this discussion with a few people in the Borg, and it looks like people at NASA are actually taking FTL seriously and seem to making some theoretical headway into being able to create a "warp" bubble. Apparently they have been working on this for a while but had the problem that it would take approximately enough dark matter to fill Jupiter to initiate the bubble. Now it seems they have found out they do not need anywhere near that much energy:

    The Eagleworks team has discovered that the energy requirements are much lower than previously thought. If they optimize the warp bubble thickness and "oscillate its intensity to reduce the stiffness of space time," they would be able to reduce the amount of fuel to manageable amount: instead of a Jupiter-sized ball of exotic matter, you will only need 500 kilograms to "send a 10-meter bubble (32.8 feet) at an effective velocity of 10c."

    10C is 10 times the speed of light... Just the thought of this makes me super excited.
     
    gihzmo, Oct 3, 2012
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  2. Trevnor

    Trevnor Tokin' Canadian Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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    YES. I've read this report about a week ago. Got really excited for our future of space travel.
     
    Trevnor, Oct 3, 2012
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  3. 3rdworld

    3rdworld New Guy Thrall

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    My question is why do they need dark matter to power it?

    Either way it is just a mater to time. In centuries past getting to mars would have seemed impossible.
     
    3rdworld, Oct 3, 2012
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  4. gihzmo

    gihzmo Moderator Berserker

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    gihzmo, Oct 3, 2012
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  5. Hakija

    Hakija Chaos Pony Viking

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    Great, now where do we get the money to build it?
     
    Hakija, Oct 3, 2012
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  6. Skoll

    Skoll Swine Fornicator Banned

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    Social security, obviously.
     
    Skoll, Oct 4, 2012
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  7. Tzeentch

    Tzeentch Bigfoot Hirdman

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    Volunteer labor.

    "Hey, who wants to help build an FTL drive for the enterprise vessel NASA's workin on?" (One million star trek fans stand at attention.)
    Seriously, so happy right nao.
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2012
    Tzeentch, Oct 4, 2012
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  8. fluffypinkbunny

    fluffypinkbunny Fluffiest Bunny ever Viking

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    i would love a gun that does that, "send a 10-meter bubble (32.8 feet) at an effective velocity of 10c.
     
    fluffypinkbunny, Oct 4, 2012
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  9. Hakija

    Hakija Chaos Pony Viking

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    that would rip the planet apart. At that speed, you don't want to hit a grain of sand.
     
    Hakija, Oct 4, 2012
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  10. Star Captain Howell

    Star Captain Howell New Guy Thrall

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    I heard about this! I recently gave a talk at my club on that warp drive by Alcubierre. Here are some papers that were recently released that say that it might be possible to create it. Here they are for those who are interested.
    http://arxiv.org/pdf/1208.3706v1.pdf
    This one is a kind of background on Conformal gravity.
    http://arxiv.org/pdf/1101.2186v2.pdf

    P.S. Even if we could use dark matter, this article explains why we can't.
    http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1217/eso1217.pdf
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2012
    Star Captain Howell, Oct 4, 2012
    #10