CAM Posted June 11, 2014 Posted June 11, 2014 Looks like the space boffins are cooking up more cool ideas. This is NASA's new concept spaceship for warp drive interstellar travel Effective velocity of 0 also means no need for inertial dampeners to stop the crew getting turned into paste or a deflector dish to push debris out the way so it doesn't turn the ship into a wreck. Technically, it beats the Star Trek concepts (if it ever gets made).
SYNACK Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Looks cool, they just need to overcome the minor obstacle of finding out if their theory actually works in the real world and build a power source powerful enough to run it. Lucky MIT cooked the funding so fusion research could continue despite budget cuts.
GREED Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Effective velocity of 0 also means no need for inertial dampeners to stop the crew getting turned into paste or a deflector dish to push debris out the way so it doesn't turn the ship into a wreck. Technically, it beats the Star Trek concepts (if it ever gets made). I loved reading this yesterday myself. @CAM the ship will physically move, no power source in the known universe will move THE UNIVERSE around it. Dampeners maybe, but it will need some form of deflection field to knock debris out of the way, even if the ship does not move the debris will towards it. Plus lets not forget phasers to ward off those pesky Klingons I'm still hazy on the propulsion bit myself...
X-13 Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Lucky MIT cooked the funding so fusion research could continue despite budget cuts. Well... would YOU want to be the guy that cut funding to FTL travel? [Actual FTL capabilities subject to change without notice.]
sted Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Well... would YOU want to be the guy that cut funding to FTL travel? [Actual FTL capabilities subject to change without notice.] i dont think most money men care, if it dosent start making money the second the project starts they dont want to know which is why pretty much any long term investment in infrastructure etc is put off until its almsot too late the rewards take too long to appear
localzuk Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 I loved reading this yesterday myself. @CAM the ship will physically move, no power source in the known universe will move THE UNIVERSE around it. Dampeners maybe, but it will need some form of deflection field to knock debris out of the way, even if the ship does not move the debris will towards it. Plus lets not forget phasers to ward off those pesky Klingons I'm still hazy on the propulsion bit myself... No, the ship won't move. It works by "warping" space around it. Moving that speed is impossible.
tmcd35 Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Dear Santa, I've been a very, very good boy this year. Can I please have a fully working personal IXS Enterprise for christmas. Many thanks tmcd35
sted Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 No, the ship won't move. It works by "warping" space around it. Moving that speed is impossible. isnt that how the planet express ship works the universe moves around it?
localzuk Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 isnt that how the planet express ship works the universe moves around it? Yeah, its the same concept I think!
tmcd35 Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 No, the ship won't move. It works by "warping" space around it. Moving that speed is impossible. isnt that how the planet express ship works the universe moves around it? You know, I just read this and something just clicked in the back of my head - I remembered seeing a picture of of Earth's gravity well and how space warps around it... Is that how planets and stars move through space? By warping space around them? Thus we can move around the sun at 67,000mph without turning us in to Pesto?
GREED Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 No, the ship won't move. It works by "warping" space around it. Moving that speed is impossible. Yer I get that according to Mr Albert, that is impossible... I'll wait for the day it is proved wrong but that aside for a moment... So what you are saying is that every atom in the universe would move around the ship while that stays in position? So a collision is just not possible?
Bananas Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 I saw this and nearly wet my pants! Just think we "could" in our lifetimes successfully leave the solar system, it's incredibly exciting. Who knows maybe building a warp capable ship will attract the attention of a passing vessel and make first contact
Andrew_C Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 I'll wait until the Navigators get hold of Spice thank you... 2
GREED Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Just think we "could" in our lifetimes successfully leave the solar system 'Could' is right. It will take 50 years to perfect the system, given it is only a concept so far, then need to build the thing. It is taking us 25 years to build HS2 for blasphemy sake!
X-13 Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Who knows maybe building a warp capable ship will attract the attention of a passing vessel and make first contact "First contact" #ShotsFired We're too violent.
JJonas Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 I did read that some scientists think that bringing a ship powered by an Alcubierre drive out of warp would kill all of the life in the star system you were arriving in. So it might be a one way trip.
GREED Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 I did read that some scientists think that bringing a ship powered by an Alcubierre drive out of warp would kill all of the life in the star system you were arriving in. So it might be a one way trip. Pahahaha... forget phasers... just hit the brake peddle!
sted Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 I did read that some scientists think that bringing a ship powered by an Alcubierre drive out of warp would kill all of the life in the star system you were arriving in. So it might be a one way trip. oh look klingons. Whoops theyre all dead
sonofsanta Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 What I want to know is how this works with the Causality Principle. No, the ship doesn't move FTL, it warps space around it... but theoretically you could travel to a star 50 light years away, see what's going on, FTL back and beat the light from the star, thus violating causality. Would love to know if that therefore invalidates the causality principle or how it all works together. Might punt it over to StarTalk Radio and hope NdGT answers it.
CAM Posted June 12, 2014 Author Posted June 12, 2014 Yer I get that according to Mr Albert, that is impossible... I'll wait for the day it is proved wrong but that aside for a moment... So what you are saying is that every atom in the universe would move around the ship while that stays in position? So a collision is just not possible? The problem with FTL travel is one of Mr Einstein's fundamental laws of physics, you cannot travel faster then light. It is the speed limit of the universe and nothing can travel any faster (at the moment, science is there to be challenged!). This poses a major problem for a field of science called Faster Than Light travel! The warp drive works by cheating the laws of physics without actually breaking them and travelling faster then light. It treats space like a ship sitting on a tablecloth, space in front of the ship is compressed dragging it forwards whilst space behind the ship is expanded, pushing it along. As you do this tug and push motion, the ship inches along from one point of the cloth to another. The ship itself exists in a "warp bubble" of unaffected space that doesn't move to prevent A) The crew being slammed against the bulkheads and turned into a bloodied paste along the walls at the sudden excessive G-Forces of conventional FTL speeds and B) Debris is warped around the bubble preventing even a small speck of dust from impacting the ship's hull releasing vast amounts of energy and causing a catastrophic impact. Also, because the space around the ship is moving but the ship itself isn't, it is therefore not breaking the fundamental speed limit of the universe because it isn't actually moving and thus complies with the laws of physics. Of course no-one has actually built a warp drive yet and there are still problems like radiation shielding, power supply (that could make the latter problem worse) impulse drives for low speed manoeuvres and finding ways to make sure the crew don't kill each other once they realise how isolated they are to overcome. Along with would it actually work in the first place.
sted Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 What I want to know is how this works with the Causality Principle. No, the ship doesn't move FTL, it warps space around it... but theoretically you could travel to a star 50 light years away, see what's going on, FTL back and beat the light from the star, thus violating causality. Would love to know if that therefore invalidates the causality principle or how it all works together. Might punt it over to StarTalk Radio and hope NdGT answers it. how does that affect causality? you do something 50 light years away you see it 50 years later just because you got there and back before the light did dosent mean it cant happen it just means if your viewer was good enough you could see yourself there
GREED Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 We talk about these laws like they are government laws, and how to evade (or avoid) them. According to Albert, it just cannot be done rather than we need to cheat them. I'm not saying all of this isn't possible still!
sonofsanta Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 (edited) how does that affect causality? you do something 50 light years away you see it 50 years later just because you got there and back before the light did dosent mean it cant happen it just means if your viewer was good enough you could see yourself there Because you would carry back the information about what is going to happen before the information could physically arrive at Earth. You would know the effect before you saw the cause. What you could do with that information, I don't know, but it would violate the principle AFAIK. EDIT: similar to discussions of instantaneous communications: http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/07/q-how-does-instantaneous-communication-violate-causality/ Edited June 12, 2014 by sonofsanta
Gatt Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 "First contact" #ShotsFired We're too violent. Reminds me of the opening scene from the ONLY decent ENTERPRISE episode:
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