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Authored by: ailuromancy on Sunday, March 31 2013 @ 01:50 PM EDT |
I think the NASA experiment you are referring to is the
White Juday
warp-field interferometer.
If you use some future technology to warp space
inside the interferometer, the interferometer will
measure how warped the
space is. As the interferometer
is really sensitive, you will probably see some
results
shows space got warped - but not into the shape required
for useful
faster than light travel.
The machine that makes a warp field the right
shape
has some challenging components:
- Some matter with negative
mass is required
(so far none has been detected).
- Components that move
faster than light
(there might be a way to dodge this
requirement).
- Components 10^-32m thick. Atoms are 10^-10m
across. The
wave length of particles at LHC are about
10^-20m. Increase the energy per
particle at LHC
by a factor of a million and you match the more
energetic
cosmic rays. Increase that by a factor of
a million again to get to wave
lengths small enough
for warp drive components.
- Warp drive is not
something you install on
a star ship. It is more like building a railway line
between two stars. That railway line has to be constructed
with
slower-that-light space ships.
Fusion reactors were fifty
years away for decades.
Sensible predictions for the date of a profitable
fusion
reactor are now under fifty years. Younger readers
might live long
enough for biologists to invent
proper eternal youth. If they are careful, they
might
live long enough to use some pocket fusion reactors.
Fitting ITER
into your pocket is much easier that
useable FTL.
I love the theories and that people are working on them,
but I
would like people to have some idea just how high
in the sky this particular
pie is.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 02 2013 @ 04:07 AM EDT |
Relativity says we can't travel at the speed of light. It says
nothing about being unable to travel faster than light, just as soon as
we manage to avoid passing through a state of "travelling at the speed of light"
on the way there. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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