Plans for Warp Drive Travel

[robbie c]

Just found this makes interesting reading but I cant see it happening in my lifetime

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/plans-for--warp-drive--spacecraft-to-be-unveiled-in-texas-110028613.html#KqHmxZK

What are your thoughts on it

[ronin]

First thoughts:=

It is reported on Yahoo,

It is being announced in Texas.

[wxsatuser]

[Davey-T]

Beam me up Scotty

Dave

[Zakalwe]

First thoughts:=

It is reported on Yahoo,

It is being announced in Texas.

I didn't get pass the Yahoo bit to be honest!

[Treeden]

First thoughts:=

It is reported on Yahoo,

It is being announced in Texas.

Beam me up Scotty

Dave

I didn't get pass the Yahoo bit to be honest!

What? Why?

They're just reporting an upcoming congress. It's real and it is taking place. Why take the [removed word]?

[Zakalwe]

What? Why?

They're just reporting an upcoming congress. It's real and it is taking place. Why take the [removed word]?

Because 99 times out of 100 Yahoo's "reporting" is lax, riddled with errors and sensationalist. Through in the comments section that seems to be almost entirely populated by fascists and idiots and you have a "news" site that's not worth prodding with a very long stick...

[Treeden]

Because 99 times out of 100 Yahoo's "reporting" is lax, riddled with errors and sensationalist. Through in the comments section that seems to be almost entirely populated by fascists and idiots and you have a "news" site that's not worth prodding with a very long stick...

This is the important bit. News of an upcoming event. It's a fact. Simple.

Most people have learned that comments sections are frequented by morons, so why is that relevent? Once you know this you don't go there. It doesn't stop you watching You Tube vids does it?

I just find it slightly disappointing that one comment can lead to so many band-waggon jumpers.

[Zakalwe]

I just find it slightly disappointing that one comment can lead to so many band-waggon jumpers.

I mean this kindly, but get over it. If you spend your life being disappointed that others have a different opinion then you're in for a miserable life.

[Digz]

I mean this kindly, but get over it. If you spend your life being disappointed that others have a different opinion then you're in for a miserable life.

I think you might want to heed this advice yourself!

[Zakalwe]

I think you might want to heed this advice yourself!

Thanks for the advice, but I already do

[Digz]

Haha, very funny. I won't take that as a dig at me.......

[RobH]

This is the important bit. News of an upcoming event. It's a fact. Simple.

I just find it slightly disappointing that one comment can lead to so many band-waggon jumpers.

Looks like a perfectly reasonable bit of news to me and certainly not deserving of ridicule....as you say, it;s an upcoming event.

I wouldn't concern yourself overly with the 'band wagon jumpers'.....the wolf cares nought for the thoughts of the sheep

[robbie c]

Some very interesting and funny comments I must admit I find it hard to believe that it could or could not happen as well, But there again 200yrs ago when the only transport was horse and cart if you looked up at the moon and said one day man will go there you would have probably been locked up

[Naemeth]

The whole concept seems a bit daft to be honest. You can't travel faster than the speed of light, can you?

At least, not to my knowledge. Any help?

[Treeden]

I mean this kindly, but get over it. If you spend your life being disappointed that others have a different opinion then you're in for a miserable life.

That's not it at all. This would be a rather dull place if we all agreed with each other on all subjects all the time. You misunderstood me, but that's not important.

@ robbie c: I'm sorry I didn't address your original question, it is an interesting subject and worthy of discussion.

[Bungielad]

I have read and watched several articles on this matter (excuse the pun) and find it hard to understand but have also found it very interesting!

If not so long ago (in the bio terms) we as a race thought that the Earth was flat and that the Earth was centre of everything and also not understanding quantum physics.....who's to say that this is not possible!

The theory of physics may not be as we know it, maybe there is other chemistry, physics, biology and forces that we as a race don't understand yet......I believe so!

I read a great post on here the other day about the....."LAWS" of physics and the "THEORY" of physics, a post that I started about light speed in the "science section" have a read....... it kinda says......anything is possible but we just don't know it yet.

Bungielad.

[robbie c]

That's not it at all. This would be a rather dull place if we all agreed with each other on all subjects all the time. You misunderstood me, but that's not important.

@ robbie c: I'm sorry I didn't address your original question, it is an interesting subject and worthy of discussion.

No apology needed

[symesie04]

The whole concept seems a bit daft to be honest. You can't travel faster than the speed of light, can you?

At least, not to my knowledge. Any help?

Thats the whole point of warp travel, you never travel faster than light. Warp travel pretty much does what it says on the tin. It warps space allowing you to take shortcuts through spacetime. In the classic star trek concept space is in front of the vessel is compressed nd then expending behind the vessel, allowing the vessel to travel vast distances in short order without ever breaking the light speed barrier. In fact in theory the ship wouldnt have to move at all (relative to itself) a bit like being on a moving walkway.

[Druid]

Project Icarus was kicked off by the British Interplanetary Society as a follow-up to their Project Daedalus back in the 70's. (I'm the proud owner of a copy of the original Daedalus design study)

Daedalus was an engineering feasibility study for a mission to send a robot probe to a nearby star, using established science and 'achievable within a generation of so if we were willing to spend the money' engineering.

Icarus is mainly an update of Daedalus and like its predecessor, based on some sort of fusion rocket. Nothing much to do with FTL travel in itself.

Their site also hosts some side projects looking at wacky stuff like finding ways around relativity using exotic matter to do some sort of metric engineering, but that stuff is hardly their main focus.

[Druid]

Ooh, the abstracts of the conference papers are up.

http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/congress-schedule/

Looks like they're doing a day on far-out stuff like 'maybe we can do Alcubierre style warp drives if we can find a way to do engineering with neutron-star innards somehow' from people like Uri Geller's mate Hal Putoff and someone from NASA's Breakthrough Physics Programme.

[Shibby]

This reminds me of a recent(ish) story about new calculations showing that less exotic matter is required than previously thought...

http://www.space.com/17628-warp-drive-possible-interstellar-spaceflight.html

Obviously, we're still talking about an insane feat of engineering, but it's interesting to think that this sort of thing is theoretically possible.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

The Yahoo report follows a typical pattern of sloppy science reporting: the attention-grabbing headline is far more misleading than the article itself. "We are talking about the possible existence of wormholes" becomes "Plans for warp drive spacecraft to be unveiled in Texas" in hype-speak. As Druid says, the bulk of the conference seems to be talking about theoretically sound (although not necessarily technologically or economically feasible) proposals such as nuclear-pulse propulsion and light sails.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

This reminds me of a recent(ish) story about new calculations showing that less exotic matter is required than previously thought...

http://www.space.com...paceflight.html

Obviously, we're still talking about an insane feat of engineering, but it's interesting to think that this sort of thing is theoretically possible.

It is interesting to kick these ideas around, but I'm afraid that article is quite misleading.

He found in that case, the warp drive could be powered by a mass about the size of a spacecraft like the Voyager 1 probe NASA launched in 1977.

The comparison to Voyager makes it sound feasible: what is actually required is 700 kg of mass-energy (E=MC²), roughly equivalent to global annual electricity production, or the energy released by 300 Tsar Bombas. In one sense that's encouraging, as it's conceivable we could one day engineer a power source of that magnitude. However, even if your engine was 99.999% efficient it would still dump 150 kilotons of energy in the form of waste heat, equivalent to ten Hiroshima bombs. Your starship better have a good air-conditioning system.

The only problem is, previous studies estimated the warp drive would require a minimum amount of energy about equal to the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter.

Underlining mine. Energy isn't the only theoretical problem with an Alcubierre drive. It requires manipulation of matter with negative mass, which has never been detected. A ship travelling within the hypothetical warp bubble would not be causally connected to the front of it, making it impossible to control; the ship couldn't turn off the bubble. Another objection is that anything within the warp bubble would be destroyed by Hawking radiation. Finally, while wormholes and warp-bubbles appear to be possible within the framework of general relativity, we're by no means sure the theory would hold up under these extreme conditions. General relativity has passed every experimental test but breaks down when describing black holes, and is thought to be an approximation of reality.

There is nothing wrong with with this kind of speculation but it needs to be clearly labelled as such - which popular science reporting often fails to do.

[Druid]

A mate of mine writes for New Scientist and told me a funny story once about a convention of (British) science journalists where someone asked for a show of hands from members who had science degrees.

Not very many at all was the answer, around 3% if I recall correctly.