Warp drive is closer than you think, NASA scientists say

The warp drive was the very first theory proposed in Star Trek, and allowed it to travel through the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)

Since the television broadcast of the science fiction television series Star Trek, people have had thousands of questions.

Over the past decades, sci-fi series have always intertwined with real science. He inspired people to technologies that people use on a daily basis.

Of the many great developments shown in the series, the warp drive was one of the many futuristic ideas that caught the attention of many people around the world. In fact, it was the very first theory proposed in Star Trek that allowed him to travel through the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds. Thus, opposing Einstein’s Theory of Relativity prevents everything from moving faster than light.

Miguel Alcubierre, a theoretical physicist, developed a theory in 1994 called the Alcubierre engine. He created a bubble in space-time that warped distances, allowing anything to travel long distances within the bubble. Most people thought it made perfect theoretical sense, but it didn’t work in practice.

A ring-shaped warp drive device could transport a soccer ball-shaped starship (center) to effective speeds faster than the speed of light. The concept was first proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre. (CREDIT: Harold White)

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However, to prove them wrong, Joseph Agnew, an undergrad at the University of Alabama, wanted to test the theory. Joseph says, “Mathematically, if you meet all the energy requirements, they can’t prove it doesn’t work.” “Suppose you have a craft that is in a bubble,” he continues, citing a university press release about the report. “What you would do is compress the space-time in front of the ship and expand the space-time behind it.”

Alcubierre warp drive model. The blue area below the plane represents compressed space, while the red and raised areas represent expanded space. (CREDIT: Harold White)

But don’t you think that Einstein’s theory of relativity spoils the whole thing, because there is nothing that can move faster than the speed of light. Thus, when an object moves faster, it becomes heavier. And the heavier they get, the harder it is to accelerate. In short, reaching the speed of light is generally impossible.

But what is a warp drive?

Perhaps the warp drive is considered the holy grail of space exploration. He is said to have the ability to have a propulsion system that can travel faster than the speed of light. With that, do you think humans won’t be able to reach every corner of the galaxy whenever they want?

Given Einstein’s theory of relativity, it seems that it would be extremely impossible to break this concept. But will it?

Most science fiction writers have given us many images of interstellar travel, but traveling by the light of speed is absurd.

We all know that nothing can travel faster than light, as Einstein’s theory explains. The reason is that it takes an infinite amount of energy to accelerate any object to mass at the speed of light. The only reason light is not affected is the fact that photons (i.e. particles of light) have no mass. As a result, any spacecraft moving at the speed of light is highly impossible.

However, there are two loopholes here:

• If we are talking about the chances of traveling towards the light of speed, it simply means that we are talking about the movement of objects.

• None of the prohibitions mention traveling as close to the speed of light as possible.

Is warp drive possible?

Perhaps by circumventing the laws of physics, it would be possible to violate the universal speed limit. It was here that the “Alcubierre warp drive” theory was proposed. Instead of surpassing the speed of light, Alcubierre’s warp drive could move around the speed of light, warping space-time like in Star Trek.

According to the theory, the traveling spaceship is inside a warp bubble surrounded by a ring of negative mass. The ring of negative mass will help compress the space-time in front of the spacecraft and stretch the space-time behind it. This will allow the spacecraft to move ten times faster than the speed of light. However, inside the bubble, the spacecraft will maintain the universal velocity limit while general relativity remains unchanged.

While this may be a minor problem, a large amount of mass-energy would be required to run a warp drive. To propel a spacecraft at this level, you would need a mass equivalent to that of Jupiter.

Consider here the Einstein equation, E=mc2. Don’t you think that you will need a huge amount of energy, even more than the universe will ever be able to provide?

What’s the catch?

Dr. Harold Sonny White, NASA mechanical engineer and physicist, is still trying to find ways to solve the required mass-energy. He believes that by bending paths in physics, it is likely possible to reduce the mass-energy requirements mentioned in Alcubierra’s theory. He also suggested that there might be little room to change the shape of the negative mass ring to provide the required mass of around 700 kg.

The Starship Enterprise, traveling at warp speed. (Credit: Star Trek)

White is currently leading a team of NASA physicists and engineers to build the White-Juday warp field interferometer. It is a beam-splitting interferometer that can easily detect and generate the smallest warp bubbles. It may not take you to the Andromeda Galaxy instantly, but you will eventually get there when you need to.

While important, we are still a long way from interstellar travel and warp travel to become a reality. However, as technology advances, the answers we are looking for may be close enough.

According to Star Trek, the warp drive was invented in 2063.

For more science news, visit our New Innovations section at The bright side of the news.

Note: Content courtesy of The Brighter Side of News. Content can be edited for style and length.

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