Technology Marches On - The Alcubierre Drive

[alex_greene]

First of all, this comes from this article here.

A few months ago, physicist Harold White stunned the aeronautics world when he announced that he and his team at NASA had begun work on the development of a faster-than-light warp drive. His proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks — and all without violating Einstein's law of relativity. We contacted White at NASA and asked him to explain how this real life warp drive could actually work.

...

But for now, pursuit of this idea is very much in science mode. "I'm not ready to discuss much beyond the math and very controlled modest approaches in the lab," he said.

Which makes complete sense to us, as well. But thanks to these preliminary efforts, White has already done much to instill a renewed sense of hope and excitement over the possibilities. Faster-than-light travel may await us yet.

 

[Wil Mireu]

You could just link to the article and summarise, rather than copy the whole thing here (which technically may not be allowed). People aren't THAT lazy.

 

[darue]

here's a video of a presentation he's been doing a few places...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLc-sKvFqJw

 

[dragoner]

Amazing if it works out. +1

 

[locarno24]

[Homer]Mmm.... Warp Doughnuts....[/Homer]

 

[Condottiere]

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon - that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

 

[alex_greene]

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon - that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Neo: And how am I supposed to eat this pudding? With my bare hands?

Spoon boy: Use chopsticks. You can call Morpheus to download the knowledge to your head.

 

[enderra]

First of all, this comes from this article here.

I don't mean to burst your warp bubble, but it's an io9 article. Also known as the garbage heap of the internet; if you read it on io9 it's almost certainly wrong or misrepresented.

 

[Bardicheart]

You can read Dr White's paper here

Dr White is a member of NASA's In Space Propulsion Systems team.

Some additional info on FTL concepts at NASA can be found here

 

[Prime_Evil]

The concept of the Alcubierre Drive has been kicking around the physics community since 1994 and has generated a lot of interest. It's certainly the best mathematical model for FTL travel that we currently possess. However, Miguel Alcubierre himself has expressed doubts about feasibility of the research being conducted by Dr White. Furthermore, the outcome of the initial experiments have been inconclusive. Perhaps the most valuable contribution made by Dr White to date has been the development of equipment to detect a warp bubble. It looks like construction of a functioning Alcubierre Drive is still a long way off - and even if we could build one, operating it would face formidable obstacles....

 

[simonh]

Great, so now all we need to do to get this working is figure out how to convert a ton of matter directly into negative energy, how to stop hawking radiation generated as a result of super-luminal velocities on the front envelope of the bubble incinerating everything inside, contrive a method of controlling and steering it bearing in mind the enclosed volume of space is causally disconnected from the outside universe, how to create the estimated 10 billion observable universe masses of exotic matter with negative energy density required to construct the ring torroid, oh and how to get the occupants out again bearing in mind (again) that they're no longer causally connected to the universe outside.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive#Difficulties

But apart from that, they're making encouraging progress. Of course the fact that such a ship, if it came back to earth, could easily arrive before it left would lead to some interesting effects. Maybe they could come back with the information we need to be able to make the ship in the first place. Problem solved!

Simon Hibbs

 

[Prime_Evil]

Considering that only twenty years ago people thought that superluminal travel was absolutely impossible, we are making progress. Now it's only mostly impossible....

From a physics perspective, the biggest issue with any form of FTL propulsion is that it would allow you to travel in a Closed Timelike Curve. This means that you can use it to travel back in time and violate causality. Physicists are nervous about anything that allows causality violation as it causes the rest of science to unravel very quickly. Some think that Closed Timelike Curves must be forbidden in any stable universe, but others aren't so sure.

Incidentally, one interesting feature of an Alcubierre Warp Bubble is that it is causally disconnected from the rest of the universe while it is in motion at superluminal velocities. Anything inside it can't interact with normal space and things in normal space can't interact with it. How you steer your starship or stop it when you reach your destination is a fascinating problem.

 

[simonh]

Considering that only twenty years ago people thought that superluminal travel was absolutely impossible, we are making progress. Now it's only mostly impossible....

Indeed. We have progressed from believing that it's impossible in a general sense, to now having identified very clear, specific, quantifiable ways in which it's impossible.

All we have to do now is refine down those quantifiable impossibilities to get highly accurate and precise measurements of the exact degree of impossibility, and then... er... then, all we have to do is... :?

Sigh. Where's Douglas Adams when you need him!

Simon Hibbs

 

[darue]

one possible problem with Dr. White's method of detecting a tiny change in spacetime using the interferometer... when the light on the one leg passes into the bubble, it would be altered, but when it then passes out again, wouldn't the alteration be "backed out" of the photon so no net change would be observable? eh, they know what they're looking for I guess.