Is a warp drive possible?

http://news.discovery.com/space/warp...ss-120917.html

Basically, according to one of Einstein's theories, which I and many others believe to be correct, it is not possible for anything to travel faster than the speed of light. However, a warp drive would create a "bubble" around a spaceship, and then it would shrink space-time in front of the ship and expand it behind, pushing the object to speeds that do not yet have a limit. The cool thing is that, while the ship and it's bubble are traveling at speeds far exceeding the speed of light, the ship inside the bubble is technically not moving at all. This could possibly make it so that you could blast almost instantaneously into faster than light travel, because inertia is significantly limited if you aren't moving.

Do you think it's possible? Why or why not? Before you just read it, snort disbelievingly, and then leave, do you actually have a viable reason for thinking it's impossible, or does it just sound impossible, and you were too close-minded to actually consider why you think it can't be done?

Also, a little fun fact: Voyager 1 is the fastest man-made object ever, and is currently flying through space at a rate of 17 km/sec, or 10 miles/sec. It has been traveling for over 35(thirty five) years since its launch, and it still has not yet traveled the same distance that light can travel in a single Earth day. There's some perspective for you.

I think the remarkable thing about this is there could be an interstellar trade route passing through or near our solar system using warp-drive for example and we would be completely obvious to it, like a worm is about a highway.

So, instead of using common propulsion methods to accelerate the craft to the speed of light, it indirectly moves it by warping space and time (crudely like we raise fluids in straws by "warping" the air around it)? Sounds promising, but there's a lot missing between "Exotic Matter" and "Spacetime Warp". Still something I would like to see developing in the future. :)

I think I've seen this on Star Trek/Star Wars, it's how their spaceships travel to hyperspace. I think it's possible, if not in our galaxy then elsewhere, because I think the laws of physics change from one place to the other. If such system would work, navigation would be hell, since you can't see the outside of the "bubble", so roaming outside known space(where distances can be calculated) would be very dangerous. I probably won't see that in my lifetime, since human space travel has taken the back seat after the Cold War.

Well, remember light speed is 3x10^8 ms-1 (300,000,000 metres per second). One way to look at is get a right angled triangle and apply the Pythagoras theorem to it. Label each side with one of either; E,m or c^2. E = Energy whilst M = Mass and C^2 is The speed of light multiplied by the speed of light. A Straight line will equal light speed, but since right angled triangles have a bigger hypotenuse than their "Legs" You wont acheive a straight line when lowering the measurments of m and c^2. meaning if it has a little bit of mass, it will be near but wont be light speed.

But i think we could possibly achieve similar speeds to light, but to be honest to conqeur space, we need speeds faster that light.

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Originally Posted by Awesome_Guy

Well, remember light speed is 3x10^8 ms-1 (300,000,000 metres per second). One way to look at is get a right angled triangle and apply the Pythagoras theorem to it. Label each side with one of either; E,m or c^2. E = Energy whilst M = Mass and C^2 is The speed of light multiplied by the speed of light. A Straight line will equal light speed, but since right angled triangles have a bigger hypotenuse than their "Legs" You wont acheive a straight line when lowering the measurments of m and c^2. meaning if it has a little bit of mass, it will be near but wont be light speed.

But i think we could possibly achieve similar speeds to light, but to be honest to conqeur space, we need speeds faster that light.

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Thats the thing about a warp drive. It warps space-time around and object, and accelerates that object to speeds far faster than the speed of light. The reason it can do this is because, technically, the object isn't actually moving.

So if this were to be possible, the object in question would have infinite mass?
No, that can't be right. Essentially they would be building some sort of time machine? But not the sort we read about in fiction, as travelling back in time will surely always be impossible.

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Originally Posted by LieutenantFatman

So if this were to be possible, the object in question would have infinite mass?
No, that can't be right. Essentially they would be building some sort of time machine? But not the sort we read about in fiction, as travelling back in time will surely always be impossible.

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You seem to forget, like many other people, that the object inside the bubble isn't moving. It is absolutely stationary. Only the bubble is moving, outside of which space-time is being warped. And since the bubble doesn't have mass anyway, and is also inside the area that is being warped by space-time, it can move as fast as it wants to.

I think I get the gist of it, sounds like a pretty incredible idea. I suppose it could be used to put something or someone into stasis as well? Or would that idea not be compatible with the proposed technology?

Whatever is in the bubble isn't moving, so whatever object is sent through this warp would experience time at a normal rate. If you were to actually move the object at the speed of light, then that object would never experience time, so that's how you could possibly put something into stasis. So light never actually experiences time. There's all sorts of weird stuff that happens as matter approaches light speed.

back in time is technically impossible. To move forwards in time, you would need to move anything faster that 3x10^8 ms-1. But that is a Positive number, if you want to move backward it would have to be a -, and then would it be moving at all?
And would this mean technically you would be travelling in a big photon?
But back to the main point, watch this, I dont now if this will help, Although you have a valid argument, and I dont know what I believe know D:
Just look at it, doesnt go into detail, http://youtu.be/NnMIhxWRGNw

This reminds me of the futurama episode where they discover how the ship works.. It doesn't move, it moves the universe around it..

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Originally Posted by DrunkMiffy

This reminds me of the futurama episode where they discover how the ship works.. It doesn't move, it moves the universe around it..

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Similarly with many things in todays society, Futurama is certainly not the origin of this idea. Big fan of the show though.

We have already invented time travel. It is in practice, but on a scale way too small for anything living.

99.9% the speed of light forces the moving object's life-line to slow down while it's body continues to travel at said speed.

Given a sturdy and constant vessel, the objects inside, being part of it, will not age as quickly as the objects outside it. The problem with this is getting a safe and constant flow.

And it is worth noting this is a one way experience. We know HOW to get to point B in time, while retaining the physical aspects of ourselves from point A in time.

However, we do not know how to travel back to point A.

This is SOMEWHAT theory, but the greater part of the theory is already in application. But again, on a small scale.

All that means is we would have to scale up for ourselves.

But is the risk worth it?

I would also like to point out that you do not need to go the speed of light, just 99.9%. As it stand, unless something has changed, 100% is not yet possible. In terms of human forced method.

An interesting topic, ATM. I'm sitting in my family room now, trying to "warp" my mind around this idea...did you see my play on words there. ;)

We have mathematically correlated the speed of an electron to time. We have also determined that quarks travel faster than electrons, yet they have an associated mass. Although not yet measureable, we can theorize there are particles that travel faster than quarks, and that they also have a relative mass. (stay with me...I'm basically thinking out loud here). :) If you consider how these particles are propelled, a positively charged particle moving towards a negatively charged particle, the speed at which these different particles travel must be relative to the strength of the attraction. In the case of traveling at warp speeds, the atomic structure of a craft, it's relative mass and energy required to propel such a craft must be overcome by an external force exerted on it. Let's assume we are able to steer the craft...if we positively charge the entire craft, it will be propelled by the force of attraction between it and a negatively charged mass. But to achieve this, we are not warping space, however, we should be able to apply the same concept to the area sourrounding the craft...a bubble of sorts. But how do we keep the craft inside this bubble? I have considered the space fabric theory which basically says as areas of space expand, others areas contract in an equal amount, but I can't think of a way to correlate warping space in this manner to achieve travel, other than the bubble would need to expand at it's leading edge while contract at it's trailing edge continuously. I'll stop here...is this making sense to anyone? In summary, I would say yes, it's possible, but not achievable by mankind.