![]() ![]() One of the most iconic abilities of the Enterprise is its ability to zip from one end of the galaxy to the next in mere moments, using its fictitious warp drive. It would take a ship travelling at that warp factor over 100 years to cross the Galaxy.Travelling faster than the speed of light So, as NASA is now on the case, a warp drive may one day become a reality.īefore you think that a warp drive will allow a spacecraft to dash about the Galaxy in hours, consider this:Īccording to the Star Trek encyclopedia, warp factor 9.99, in the original series, is 997 times the speed of light. The aim is to create negative vacuum energy. Lasers are being used to affect these anomalies, producing a microscopic Alcubierre drive.Īnother test involves a ring of ceramic capacitors that are charged to tens of thousands of volts. An instrument called an interferometer is being used to measure minute anomalies in spacetime. He is leading a NASA team to create a warp drive!Įxperimentation is very much in its infancy. He realised that, if the flat ring round the spacecraft was altered in shape, to more resemble a donut, then the energy required would be greatly reduced - to something that was within the realms of possibility. In 2012, NASA physicist Harold White returned to Alcubierre's equations and calculations and had a "eureka" moment. When you consider how much energy (explosive power) is released by a nuclear weapon with a plutonium core with a diameter of a matter of inches, you'll realise what sort of energy amounts we're looking at. Alcubierre was a little more conservative, suggesting that the mass-energy equivalent of something like the planet Jupiter would be required. One estimate of the energy required to enable a vessel to go gallivanting across the Galaxy is the mass-energy equivalent of the whole of the observable Universe. The goal of the Alcubierre drive is to produce negative energy, however, and physicists are currently conducting experiments to create this type of energy.īut then, we have the second problem. "Exotic matter" consists of particles that deviate from known properties of standard particles and are, in many cases, theoretical. ![]() It doesn't flout Einstein's theory, because, within the bubble, the ship is isolated it is not travelling faster than light because it is space itself that is moving (and space can travel faster than light). Alcubierre proposed that, if space can be compressed in front of the bubble and expanded behind it, then the bubble would be carried along by the resultant "wave", reaching its destination in less time than a beam of light would. It is known that space can be affected by gravity and that it can be stretched (as the Universe expands, so does space). So Alcubierre had the idea that, like in Star Trek, the spaceship would be contained within a bubble, around which space itself would be manipulated. This states that matter cannot be accelerated up to, and beyond, the speed of light. ![]() In 1994, Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre (who was also an avid Star Trek fan) decided to look into the possibility of building a real "warp drive" - that didn't violate Einstein's general theory of relativity. So, is an honest-to-goodness warp drive possible in reality? Three, there is no such thing as "subspace". Two, there is no such element as "dilithium", whether crystal or not (although two atoms of lithium bonded together are known as a dilithium molecule.) One, it is true that the mutual annihilation of matter and antimatter would result in tremendous amounts of energy, but the problem is, antimatter would be very difficult to produce in the large quantities required. All well and good, but lets hold this up against real science. ![]() Within subspace, the constraints of normal space didn't apply, enabling the Enterprise to exceed light speed by many factors (the different warp speeds). This energy then generated an area of "subspace", containing the ship in a bubble of normal space. Apparently, the huge amounts of energy required for the warp drive was generated by bringing together amounts of deuterium and anti-deuterium in a reaction controlled by dilithium crystals. Well, first of all, let's examine the science behind the USS Enterprise's "hyperdrive", as it was called in the pilot episode. But, could such a thing ever be built in reality? The "Warp Drive" is quite a well-known concept, chiefly because of the sci-fi series "Star Trek", with Captain Kirk frequently calling out things like, 'Warp factor eight, Mr Chekov'. ![]()
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