# Engage Engines, Warp Factor 9!



## Perpetual Man (Sep 18, 2012)

Apparently very much a thing of Science Fiction there may be a possibility that as has happened in the past Science might be catching up with the Fiction side of things:

Warp Drive


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## Fishbowl Helmet (Sep 18, 2012)

*Warp-drive is hard SF...*

Hey, so I came across a rather interesting article this morning, basically outlining that the warp-drive is theoretically possible. It's a good day for SF writers and space opera fans.

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


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## Steve Jordan (Sep 18, 2012)

*Re: Warp-drive is hard SF...*

Well, it's a good day for theory, anyway.


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## Ursa major (Sep 18, 2012)

Amazing.

That's one hell of a reduction in the suggested power requirements of the alcubierre drive.


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## Grunkins (Sep 18, 2012)

*Re: Warp-drive is hard SF...*

I saw that yesterday. Fun article. Iain M Banks makes a point to use the word "torus" as often as possible in his writing, perhaps he was hinting to us.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Sep 18, 2012)

In case there is any confusion ... I've just made two threads on the exact same subject into one.


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## Huttman (Sep 19, 2012)

I cannot think of one thing man has thought of that has not become a reality...so far. And for all the things we have not made into reality yet, we sure can create the illusion we have quite effectively.


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## Perpetual Man (Sep 19, 2012)

Huttman - what a wonderful statement. Enlightening and profound (Well it seems that way after a night without sleep!)


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## Gordian Knot (Sep 19, 2012)

Very cool that for the first time the concept has been shown to be plausible. Still although 10 times the speed of light is pretty dang fast, in the cosmic scale of the universe it won't be getting us very far. Considering there are only about 10 stars close enough that it would take a year or less to reach.


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## Dante DiBenedetto (Sep 20, 2012)

*FTL space travel?*

Well this is exciting.

The last half of this article talks about the actual technology, whereas the first half is a build-up. If you're familiar with FTL theory/sci-fi, you can drop near the bottom.


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## Foxbat (Sep 20, 2012)

*Re: FTL space travel?*

Whilst the concept of travelling without moving is nothing new, I did find the attempt to apply it in real-life very interesting. One thing I'm not sure about is how this can be done in a lab situation. Anyway,  I hope they succeed.


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## Dave (Sep 20, 2012)

Teresa Edgerton said:


> In case there is any confusion ... I've just made two threads on the exact same subject into one.


And I've merged a third thread on the same subject.

I liked the description of the experiment as "table top"!


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## chrispenycate (Sep 20, 2012)

Ursa major said:


> Amazing.
> 
> That's one hell of a reduction in the suggested power requirements of the alcubierre drive.



Yes, but I suspect it's still more energy than the human race has gone through since it arrived on the scene – that ceesquared factor makes for an awfully big markup from mass to energy. Still, it's a *conceivable* amount of energy, which I don't think the conversion of Jupiter (not, note the fusion of all the hydrogen in Jupiter, already a quantity to make most stars jealous, but lots of orders of magnitude more) I don't think is. It would dwarf the energy emitted by the most violent event we know of, a supernova.


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## Ursa major (Sep 20, 2012)

I agree it's still a colossal amount of energy, but the reduction, even if to something still beyond our ability to generate and apply to a spacecraft, is considerable.

And it allows those whose fictional starships have their own FTL drives to merely suggest a clever arrangement of the ring -- perhaps in those tiny, curled-up dimensions proposed by M-theory -- that would bring the power requirements down to something achievable.


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## matle (Oct 5, 2012)

Gordian Knot said:


> Very cool that for the first time the concept has been shown to be plausible. Still although 10 times the speed of light is pretty dang fast, in the cosmic scale of the universe it won't be getting us very far. Considering there are only about 10 stars close enough that it would take a year or less to reach.



Still though - 'only' 10 stars is pretty awesome!!


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