Could warp drive one day enable long distance space travel ? One group of physicists certainly seems to think so.
Anyone who has ever watched Star Trek will no doubt be familiar with the concept of warp drive – a futuristic propulsion system that can enable travel through space at faster-than-light speeds.
While scientists have dabbled with the idea of building a real-life warp drive over the years, no practical solution has ever been forthcoming… though that may be about to change.
Known as the “Constant-Velocity Subluminal Warp Drive”, this latest incarnation of the warp drive concept has been developed by physicists from the University of Alabama, Huntsville and from the Advanced Propulsion Laboratory at the Applied Physics think tank in New York.
The exact mechanics of their proposed warp drive are complex to say the least.
Part of the concept is similar to an idea proposed by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994 whose “Alcubierre drive” worked by contracting space in front of a spacecraft and then expanding space behind it – thus propelling it along without relying on conventional propulsion.
The new Constant-Velocity Subluminal Warp Drive would work by combining this concept with a stable shell of ordinary matter to create a “warp bubble” in which the ship would travel.
The team also believes it can be done without requiring exotic or negative forms of matter.
Of course, the proof is in the pudding, so unless someone actually manages to build this thing and demonstrate that it works, it will likely remain little more than a theoretical concept.
It would certainly be great if it actually did work, though.
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