Is This A Good Idea? Warp Drives For Spacecraft?

August 26, 2009

What if we were able to equip spacecraft with faster-than-light warp drive engines, like the Enterprise has in Star Trek? Imagine that instead of being limited to the 25,000 miles per hour that the Apollo spacecraft achieved on the way to the moon and back, astronauts could travel at the speed of the Enterprise and other Constitution-class starships in the 23th Century Federation fleet — roughly 5.4 billion miles per hour?

At that speed, the immense distances of space would suddenly shrink to human scale, making it possible for us to discover, explore and even colonize distant worlds. It would be possible to reach the dwarf planet Pluto, on the edge of our solar system 2.66 billion miles from Earth, in a little more than a half hour, instead of the more than 12 years it would take at Apollo speed. More importantly, it would be possible to travel 62 trillion miles to the solar system of Epsilon Eridani, the home of Spock’s fictional planet Vulcan and the nearest star that may possibly have an Earth-like extrasolar planet in the so-called habitable zone, in about 15 months. Gliese 581c, a possibly habitable world about five times the size of Earth, would be a roughly three-year trip away. Pretty cool, huh?

If you’re a space travel enthusiast like I am, it’s hard to conceive of a downside to warp drive — provided, of course, that it wouldn’t incinerate spaceship passengers and cause the Earth to be sucked into a black hole, as naysayer physicist Stefano Finazzi has theorized. One big problem might be fuel efficiency, since bending space itself, as a warp drive would do, would require an almost unfathomably enormous energy expenditure. As Lawrence Krauss calculates in his book The Physics of Star Trek, reaching the nearest star to our sun, the Alpha Centauri system, would require the equivalent of 100,000 years’ worth of current total U.S. consumption. If a hydrogen fusion reactor powered the warp drive, a starship would consume thousands of times its weight in hydrogen on a long trip. In Star Trek, of course, script writers ingeniously get around this problem by utilizing the fictional crystalline element dilithium to regulate a matter-antimatter reaction that generates the needed power. But as we’ll discuss, scientists actually are trying to develop such an energy source for space travel.

Now, some of you may be wondering: “So why are you now blogging about warp drive for spacecraft? The Star Trek movie came out back in May, and the DVD isn’t being released until November. Can’t you at least write about a gadget from a current blockbuster?” OK, well, I suppose it would have been more newsworthy to write about the speculative technology in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. But G.I. Joe’s gadgetry—as befitting to a movie based on a line of action figures—looks like a cheesy, scaled-up version of the accessories you would find on the shelf at FAO Schwarz. (See Popular Mechanics’ “Five Extremely Dumb Military Designs From G.I. Joe.”). And just as importantly, I haven’t been into G.I. Joe since my parents got me the dorky beret-and-turtleneck-clad French Resistance Fighter version of the action figure for Christmas when I was a kid, instead of the cool Mercury Astronaut version that I coveted.

Besides that, warp drive has an enduring appeal. Like the hand-held flip communicator from the seminal 1960s TV series that presaged today’s cell phones, warp drive is another of those once-outlandish sci-fi innovations that scientists now realize may someday actually be possible.

The oldest reference that I can find to “warp drive” is in a 1953 collection of short stories by science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon, who later wrote for the Star Trek TV series (he’s the one who dreamed up the Vulcan salute). But while sci-fi writers commonly employed warp drives in novels and stories, they usually danced vaguely around the subject of how they would actually work, since the common interpretation of Albert Einstein’s theories of general and special relativity dictated that faster-than-light travel was impossible. Some envisioned instead that travel to distant space might be possible by flying spacecraft through a network of wormholes—essentially, tunnels in space-time, first envisioned by German mathematician Herman Weyl in the 1920s. But that solution had a flaw also, after 1960s physicists demonstrated that such wormholes, if they existed, would be inherently unstable.

It wasn’t until 1994 that theoretical physicist and Star Trek fan Miguel Alcubierre published “The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity,” a paper that offered a way for a faster-than-light warp drive to work without changing the rules of Einsteinian physics or discovering a passageway through space-time. Alcubierre noticed that general relativity didn’t actually say that faster-than-light travel was impossible, but only specified that objects couldn’t move faster locally than light. He envisioned a spacecraft sitting motionless inside a bubble, while it caused time-space to expand behind it and to contract in the direction that it wanted to go. Alcubierre figured that the time-space distortion process would be powered by some sort of “exotic matter,” which sounds a lot like the matter-antimatter engine dreamed up by Star Trek writers.

Alcubierre’s blueprint for faster-than-light travel may sound even more bizarre than wormholes. But other physicists find it intriguing. In 2008, Baylor University physics associate professor Gerald Cleaver and graduate student Richard Obousy published a paper describing a way to create and propel an Alcubierrean bubble, by manipulating one of the additional dimensions envisioned in string theory. http://www.superstringtheory.com/. And theoretical physics researchers at NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, who are searching for a way to make interstellar travel feasible, think the concept has promise as well.

As Space.com recently reported, they’re encouraged by theoretical models that suggest that space-time expanded at a rate faster than light speed [the speed of light?] shortly after the universe’s inception, and by laboratory experiments in which ultra-cold rings cause gyroscopes above them to spin, suggesting that they are detecting the effect of the rings moving space-time.

But we’re still a long way from developing a working warp drive. Finding an energy source remains a huge obstacle. The Baylor researchers, for example, estimate that the amount of energy needed to manipulate that extra dimension to move a 10-meter-long ship would be the equivalent of the entire mass of the planet Jupiter, converted into pure energy.

So what do you think? Is the warp drive an idea worth pursuing? Or would we be better off crawling into a wormhole? Express your opinion below.

Comments

[Astroboy]

first!!!!!!!!

[Futurist]

We need to develop a means of travel like this, if we are to explore space beyond the inner planets of our own solar system.

[Kristianna Thomas]

The age of space travel is in its infancy and we are just beginning to learn to crawl, and we have a long ways to go before we can stand let alone run. We gaze out into open road gazing upon a high performance fuel injected roadster,and we are still on a tricycle dreaming of a future we will not be part of. Some time in the distant future we will achieve the technological ability to travel the stars, hopefully for more reasons than colonialism and the conquering of other peoples lands; the age of colonial empires have long their bleached bones dried in the sands of time. Do we not think that if a planet is suitable for human habitation would it not support life on it already? If the life is not intelligent, would it not be animal, mineral or vegetable? If we landed on this planet would we be a happy meal or a light snack? Where on the food chain would we land up? If there is life on it that is intelligent (is there intelligent life on Earth)would we wage war on the native people in order to colonize the planet for our own? But! We should not get to far ahead our selves for we still have to develop the technology just so we can travel in a timely fashion in side our own back yard. So let us keep it real and stick to things that are do able; if we can travel and build cities within our own back yard, future generations will achieve the things we can only dream of.

[Caffeine Driven Stress Magnet]

I think we should have an international treaty barring astronauts from killing and eating any life forms they find on other worlds. Unless they try to eat us first.

[Andrew Mayne]

Forget trying to move an entire spacecraft through a bubble. Just create one small enough to transmit nanomachines or information in the form of energy through. There's no point in sending all that mass through. Then you're talking energy levels that are realistic.

I still think it won't work though...

[helen]

Andrew: interesting, but how would you transport a crew or the equipment and supplies needed for a colony?

[Calculon]

I think it's only a matter of time before warp drive is developed. We're going to need it if we ever are going to explore space.

[Skeptic]

Do we really need to explore space at all? We have enough problems to solve here on Earth, such as global warming, hunger and disappearing species.

[Natural Man]

I don't think humans were meant to explore outer space. This is our home, the Earth.

[Astroboy]

I can't believe that you're opposed to space travel.

[Colleen]

Actually, I would presume that space travel is the next logical progression (evolution) for humans. We are so successful here that we are using up resources in our current environment at an increasingly alarming rate. We have two choices - space travel, or population control. Given how bad we are as a species at doing anything on a collective/global level (action by committee is difficult when you are trying to get 20 people to agree, let alone billions), space seems more like the inevitable frontier, rather than the final frontier. Since warp drives would, according to the author, bring the far reaches of space into humanity's reach, its not just a good idea to explore the possibilities - its a biological imperative!

[Prime-Directive]

Don’t know about warp speed. Don’t think Roddenberry’s point was “to boldly go anywhere and take over”, but rather “to boldly go and get along or let them be”. We are absolutely a great species (creation) capable of great things and some not so great. And I must agree in part with Astroboy, “sounds more like we will have to”. The human race will accomplish greater things than Warp Speed, we just won’t be around to see them. I believe in the good of humanity and its ability to overcome all adversity. However, in agreement with Calculon, “first things first”. I see only about six responses here so far. We may not be living a sci fi era. Not much interest or not many motivated authors with substance for the screen. Writers seem to be looking back at the work of others for “genuine” material. As a species we find it unfathomable the possibility of “no where else to go”. To the point that we feel it to be just punishment, “incarceration”. Only that the mind can not only travel to distant lands on its own but also create “possibilities” and “adventures”. We even go as far as to imagine we may be “visited”. The Futurist is correct stating we are still “crawling”. And in this era of consumption and instant gratification, I see it all so far away; but still do-able. Humanity can do it. Live long and Prosper

[Brad Peterson]

We would still have limitations on our ability to explore the universe. Unless warp drives make it possible to travel hundreds of times the speed of light, intergalactic exploration would be beyond our reach.

[Realist]

All you do these days is write about crazy inventions from science fiction books and movies. Why don't you go back to writing about things that might actually happen?

[jeffrey]

Of course its possible, how else could we have been visited by
aliens. YUK YUK

[JDLonestar]

I say we stay "grounded" to this planet, until we learn to get along. How can we possibly be expected to get along with possible other races, when we can get along with our own.

[C-Brix]

I did some research on traveling as fast or faster then the speed of light threw the universe, Einstein explains as such.. if an object is launched from earth and reaches the speed of light and makes a lap around say Pluto and back 10 years may have passed to the object or the people inside, but here on earth 150+ years would pass.. so in all, the only benefit for a warp drive or anything that could exceed the speed of light outside of our planet would only be good for traveling farther in time. not to literally travel. Like in star trek or star wars. there is always a federation or counsel of some sort on a planet, if traveling at the speed of light from point A to point B results in literally traveling forward in time the counsel or federation would not be able to really keep track of ships that they send out... or at least that's my understanding of the "Space-Time Continuum" explained by Einstein ;) lol

This theory may benefit in future cures of cancer and such, I know if I had an incurable disease or cancer and was given 10 years to live I would defiantly be a genie pig for such experiments, since if 10 years to me in "light speed" would actually be 150 years on earth. who know what kind of technologies (if any at all lol) would exist!

[Adam]

I think it would be out of this world if everyone traveled faster then the speed of light. At least nobody would be late to anything.

[viagra online]

Interesting subject and comments, but what if everything is a black hole on different scale, as Nassim Haramein explain it. With our own inner power, we can travel were we can, as energy beens.

[Shysouth85]

I think all the people who believe we should "stay grounded" and are not supposed to travel beyond the realm of Earth should do exactly what they want to do. Stay on Earth and handle the "problems" we have. As long as you don't attempt to stop other people from achieving things in space like colonization and exploration. We are humans. From the beginning of our existence we have ALWAYS had problems and ALWAYS will. Hunger in the world? Google: Malthus/ Populations outgrow resources. Violence? Disagreements will always exist because people have unique perspectives on everything. Some of those people do not know how to express their ideals in a nonviolent manner. Because of this when you attempt diplomacy, they try to destroy you. Colonization of other planetary bodies via FTL travel will lead to 1) better social conditions as people who dont like the way the world is being run seek to carve their own niche on a new planet 2)Better environmental conditions, because there are exponentially more resources in space than on our planet and when industry is able to tap into it, the strain on our Earth's resources will lessen. And finally 3), Advances in space travel will lead to advances in technology on Earth, which will only be a good thing for society. A whole lot of good things can come from FTL/Warp. But to those who think differently, I respect your opinion and only ask that you don't hinder the progress of those who want to take the next logical step for man, commercialized space travel and colonization of other planetary bodies.

[Mandar]

Warp drive is too slow. We need something infinitely faster.