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Science

‘There Is Hope’ for Star Trek-Like Warp Drive

Sep. 17, 2012 11:55pm Liz Klimas

NASA Scientist Recalculates Warp Drive Theory to Reduce Energy Requirements and Make it More Feasible

A concept image for a device that could reach warp drive. (Image: Harold White via Space.com)

“Maximum warp.” It’s a command given by many a Star Trek commander, but Hollywood seemed to be as close to reality that this fictional, faster-than-light speed would ever get. That is until a NASA scientist recently said it’s not as outlandish as one may think.

Space.com reports that the idea for warp drive to exist in reality was drawn up in 1994 by physicist Miguel Alcubierre, but it required so much energy that it wasn’t quite within the realm of hope. Now, a NASA physicist has said that he thinks he has found a way for it to run on less energy.

Here’s how Space.com describes Alcubierre’s concept working:

An Alcubierre warp drive would involve a football-shape spacecraft attached to a large ring encircling it. This ring, potentially made of exotic matter, would cause space-time to warp around the starship, creating a region of contracted space in front of it and expanded space behind.

[...]

With this concept, the spacecraft would be able to achieve an effective speed of about 10 times the speed of light, all without breaking the cosmic speed limit.

This idea though would require a huge amount of energy, like that equal in mass to the solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter. The fix to require less energy, as described by White, is that the shape of this outer ring would need to be rounded and not flat.

“There is hope,” Harold “Sonny” White of NASA’s Johnson Space Center said at the 100 Year Starship Symposium.

“The findings I presented today change it from impractical to plausible and worth further investigation,” White said to Space.com. “The additional energy reduction realized by oscillating the bubble intensity is an interesting conjecture that we will enjoy looking at in the lab.”

For more details on how this works, check out this video from Space.com:

Get a little glimpse of Star Trek warp speed in this short clip:

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Comments (91)

TROONORTH
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 8:42am
“I am endeavoring to construct a silk purse from a sow’s ear.” When, eventually, science fiction becomes science fact, of what will they write?

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- johnjamison
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 9:43am
  Even though space is a vacuum motion still creates friction and resistance point being a football isn’t the most areo dynamic shape to travel at such speed microparticals would shred the haul in no time. They would need a design that shread and creates a buffer zone between the which the ship could travel
  
  Report this comment
- schroeder123
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 9:44am
  If the silk worm eats the sows ear, there you go….
  
  Report this comment
- muffythetuffy
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 10:48am
  OH GOOD
  
  Now Earth can travel out into space looking for other peoples and planets to spread sin to, exploit and destroy. The USA will find someone to buy our worthless US Treasury Certificates.
  
  Report this comment
- muffythetuffy
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 10:52am
  Is there another tower of Babal coming to Earth. Does God really want mankind spreading to other Worlds like a plague, other Worlds were the first people did not eat of the forbidden fruit. I think not.
  
  Report this comment
- geomann
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:10am
  I think God does want us to go out and spread his word. It says so in the Bible. I have often wondered if God has similar relationships with being on other planets.
  
  Report this comment
- JQuentinEvermann
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:40pm
  Well, the ship isn’t really plowing through space at that speed, but rather space is contracted and expanded through the ring…think running 2 pieces of string very closely together across the room, tied together at one end of the room and attached to the wall. At the other end, put a ring over the two strings and yank the strings apart as quickly as you can. The ring will fly forward. In this case, it would actually be space that is moving, but warped through the man-made contraption.
  
  Personally, I think it’s total crap, but what do I know? I’m just an astrophysicist.
  
  Report this comment
- Secret Squirrel
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:59pm
  .
  The real question is “Do muslims feel better about themselves now?”
  If the answer is no, then NASA must dump the concept.
  
  Report this comment
focalpoint
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:37am
Don’t forget your towel…

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- Walkabout
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 8:16am
  & the Hitch Hikers Guide.
  
  I’ll make my towel into a rat tail & fend off all welfare mooches as I head for greener pastures.
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 9:24am
  So long and thanks for all the fish…………………..classic
  
  Report this comment
- i1776
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 10:08am
  But have you filled out the hyperspace travel permission form?
  
  Report this comment
- johnjamison
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:47am
  You joke but the article actually sounds more like bland science fiction than the HHGTTG…Even funnier is the fact someone in the feild is trying to pass it off as plausable….
  Might as well pass of the Event Horizon engine as plausable as well. As least they gave a more detailed description on that
  
  Report this comment
- AMidnightRider
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:57am
  I’m waiting for Restaurant Math Propulsion.
  
  Report this comment
- nkawtg
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:32pm
  You can wrap it round your head to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you)
  
  Report this comment
bald stick
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:22am
Couldn’t we just work on the “flying car” that has been promised for decades? I don’t think I want a vehicle that has no idea where it is going or when it will stop. I just want to get to work without sitting in traffic.

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- ediblegenius
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:50am
  thats exactly what I want, its bad enough I gotta worry about drunk/bad drivers on the road, now I gotta worry about them crashing into my bedroom?!
  
  Report this comment
- WireWizard
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 8:27am
  There are several flying cars. This one is available for about $90k
  
  http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/27/missionary-builds-flying-car-faa-certifies-it/
  
  Report this comment
- Gonzo
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 8:46am
  Heck, I think there is hope for the Jedi Mind Trick…Obama seems to be using the force on half the weak minded fools in the country.
  
  Report this comment
- mongastanman
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:51pm
  GONZO Wouldn’t that make him a Sith lord, and who’s the other one???
  
  Report this comment
- Loki
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 8:03pm
  @bald stick
  there are several flying cars out there.. just too many out there willing to fly them into building at this time….
  
  science fiction soon turns to science fact…
  remember kirks communicator, now our cellphones, remember lt rands table, now our tablet pc, remember spock and uhuras ear piece, now our bluetooth….
  
  Report this comment
shephound
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:19am
Now find an earth-like planet within reach and us Pilgrims can once again flee from King George and establish a new colony elsewhere.

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- starman70
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:46am
  Is it possible we could “Volunteer” Obama for the first test flight?
  
  Report this comment
- 502_eagle
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:52am
  Sounds great-when do we leave?
  
  Report this comment
- Rickfromillinois
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 8:08am
  I would be willing to give it a shot.
  
  Report this comment
HJS
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 6:54am
Great! Another way for Obuma to transfer wealth from the tax payer to his buddies in the new Warp Drive industry. I look forward to the headlines about how warp drive technology will create millions of jobs. Then comes the billion dollar research grants to his cronies. Anybody know the stock symbol for Dilithium Industries?

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Mr.Fitnah
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 6:32am
How does this help appease muslims?

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- 502_eagle
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:54am
  Infidals will leave Earth
  
  Report this comment
BOMUSTGO
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 5:41am
If we could only find those ever so elusive dilithium crystals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilithium_(Star_Trek)

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oldasdirt
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 5:41am
Ok,as long as I don’t have to wear them pointy ears. And by then we will have mastered the Vulcan mind meld,and we will be able to see liberals never had a brain.

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- RepubliCorp
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 7:02am
  Just what we need, more illegals
  
  Report this comment
Diane TX
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 4:59am
Warp Drive is WAY over my head. I think I’m one of those people who will say – “don’t explain it to me, I’m just happy it works.”

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- 4xeverything
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 6:51am
  I don’t care how fast I get there as long as Jean Luc Piccard is driving. ;0)
  
  Report this comment
The_Obama-Romney_Ticket
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 4:37am
STAR TREK is so forward thinking (sorry Barack, or is it Barry?) that they even have a message from the 24th century for Islam!

“Star Trek – A 24th Century Message To Islam”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpyC0IaT7oY

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- The_Obama-Romney_Ticket
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 5:06am
  BTW, I don’t know if the “exploding starships” clip is a good demonstration of warp drive. Here’s a better clip (from the same movie, sort of):
  
  “Star Trek: How It Should Have Ended”
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbJ-y6BWfUc
  
  Report this comment
scunnurt
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 3:26am
As a very wise man once said, “There’s one born every minute.”

Lot of “them” on this board

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- watersRpeople
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 4:46am
  This generation will never see warp drive, until the cycle is complete, and it will just likely be given to man before they have to reckon it’s design.
  
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grayling646
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:57am
I didn’t undertand any of what that guy was talking about until I went back and looked at the first graphic. Ahhhh….

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Kenszen
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:49am
Make it so!

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BryanB
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:32am
Something like this will never come from a place like NASA or some Government.

It will come from someone working in their garage or backyard. And all they will have going for them, is a dream, and the vision that it can be done…….

Pray for Jett……….

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- BOMUSTGO
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 5:59am
  We could use warp drive to go back in time and prevent Mohammed from being born.That would solve a lot of the world’s problems.I am sure the “NASA Muslim outreach agreement” has a clause preventing them from doing such.(For the liberal/socialist Kool-aid drinkers out there, this is sarcasm!)
  
  Report this comment
- Calm Voice of Reason
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:11am
  Oh, it probably will come from government projects or NSF funding. These endeavors cost a LOT of money and take a long time in order to make even a little progress-not something private industry has a propensity for.
  
  Report this comment
Grand design
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:45am
Will it still be possible to place Liberals in the ships transporter and send them on their way?

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- TIME_THE_AVENGER
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:58am
  Dispersion of their atoms in deep space. We dirtied up the Earth, so we may as well get a leg up in space too.
  
  Report this comment
Mr.buff1959
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:02am
The ability to spell does not make one sentient.

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:47am
It’s not going to be this difficult in the end. Never is. Some civilization has already overcome the barriers and they weren’t going to this much trouble just to go 10X the speed of light so they could travel 1000s of light years.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:44am
Hey, then the Vulcans will make contact with a warp drive civilization. Live long and proper.

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- Ghandi was a Republican
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:49am
  Charmin already beat them too it. Been there circling Uranus searching for clingons for decades.,.
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:49am
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaPpa-eoxi4
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:55am
  GHANDI WAS A REPUBLICAN, LOL, haven’t heard that one since I was in Jr High. I’ll be 60 next Spring.
  
  Report this comment
- JACKTHETOAD
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:13am
  Lol ! Ghandi . I never heard that one before. I come from a different quadrant..
  
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oicu814me2
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:30am
Right after they get an electric car to go over 50 miles with out catching fire. This should be easy.

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- SUNTZU
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:13am
  This will replace the Chevy Volt.but will be produced by the
  Wilson-Nike corp.
  
  Report this comment
- BlueStrat
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 4:02am
  Nah.
  
  It’ll either be produced by Spacely Sprockets or Cogswell Cogs.
  
  Rut-roh Rorge!
  
  :)
  
  Report this comment
oohisis
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:28am
My only question is what if you are moving that fast and a meteor is in your path. Could not the smallest debris destroy the craft?

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- Exrepublisheep
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:49am
  Would the “warped space” using so much energy push stuff out of the way?
  
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- BlueStrat
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 4:20am
  The way I’d do it would involve using a Bussard ramjet:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet
  
  To provide fusion power for the warp drive and the huge and incredibly-strong magnetic field used for the hydrogen scoop also used as a “deflector field” to shove random bits of matter out of the way, just like the “deflector dish” at the front of the lower engineering section of the starship Enterprise is intended to do in the Star Trek universe.
  
  Let’s just hope that Obummer isn’t the President when the Vulcans make first contact, otherwise our planet is doomed.
  
  Report this comment
- Calm Voice of Reason
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 11:47am
  In this scenario, the ship isn’t actually “moving” that fast necessarily. You could be cruising along at about 35 mph in your own relative space and still be effecting a speed of x times light to an outside observer.
  
  Report this comment
Eastinfection
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:27am
“Wait…. Doc?…. ur sayin this sucker’s Nuclear?”

“No, Marty… this sucker’s electrical”……..

Ug… let me know when i can go back in time and invest in “Apple” ;p

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- Wool-Free Vision
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:49am
  “Roads? Where we’re going, you didn’t build those.”
  
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- DMENTED
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 2:00am
  they put creatures in our bodies
  
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RLTW
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:08am
At this point I’d rather see work on the liberal transporter perfected.

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Wool-Free Vision
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:04am
Cool, a blue football.

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- ManThong
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:15am
  The energy problem would be solved if the environmental whacko liberals weren’t blocking mining of dilithium crystals on Konnoria V.
  
  Report this comment
- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:23am
  But the **** beatles of SanFran69 are endangered, their breeding ground would be exposed.
  
  Report this comment
- Wool-Free Vision
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:29am
  If only “Drill, baby, drill!” were the motto of Konnoria V, and not of SanFran69.
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:51am
  Okay guys, just glad that I wasn’t drinking anything when I read those. Really cracked me up.
  
  Report this comment
- bates8963
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 5:06am
  Maybe it because it is early morning and there are nobody but us nut’s on deck but you guys crack me up!!! “The energy problem would be solved if the environmental whacko liberals weren’t blocking mining of dilithium crystals on Konnoria V.”…. hahahahaha…………
  
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- oldasdirt
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 6:57am
  @Wool-Free Vision It does look like a 25th century field goal.
  
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Dougral Supports Israel
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:03am
The problem is going to be be in obtaining the “exotic matter” which no one has seen so much as a particle of.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:54am
  Must still be using the engineering schematics from the first season of Star Trek.
  
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- SUNTZU
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:16am
  Exotic.matter=used K Y jelly
  
  Report this comment
Psychosis
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:00am
aomething tells me this scientist has way to much time on his hands, and not enough dates

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- Belchfire V-8
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 12:13am
  And in 1903, they said the Wright’s were wrong. By the way, it’s TOO much time, not to much time. Flunked spelling, huh?
  
  Report this comment
- SUNTZU
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:28am
  Thats two much
  who the he!! is aomething,and y ar you listing too him ennway
  
  Report this comment
- KyleD
  Posted on September 18, 2012 at 4:43am
  Really? Are we in high school 1980s style?
  
  Report this comment

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