http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0200001C43U0/
<i>The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.
The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.
Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.
The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy -- which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine -- say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.
Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.
However, Prof. Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned that any prototype would be based on a highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics.
"It would be amazing. I have been working on propulsion systems for quite a while and it would be the most amazing thing. The benefits would be almost unlimited," he said.
"But this thing is not around the corner. We first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion. It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
He said the engine would enable spaceships to travel to different solar systems. "If the theory is correct then this is not science fiction, it is science fact," Prof. Hauser said.
<b>"NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [U.S.] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works." </b>
The U.S. authorities' attention was attracted after Prof. Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a paper called "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory."</i>
I think I want one if this proves possible. The only bad thing will be the name -- considering the recent naming of new hominids as "hobbits", this thing will be called a warp drive.
PTO Requests Working Model of Warp Drive
"The Worsley-Twist warp drive does not depend upon traditional emissions of matter to create thrust. Rather, the drive creates a change in the curvature of the space-time continuum — thus allowing travel by warping space-time."
http://patentlaw.typepad.com/patent/2006/02/pto_requests_mo.html
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/19/150218
Man how did I know it was going to be called a warp drive?
I don't care who gets the patent. I just want to ride that bad boy.
$50 on the first spaceship being called "Enterprise" Just because we named a homonid species "Hobbit" doesn't mean we're stealing names out of movies ...
$50
Thanks. How many grams of dilithium can I buy with $50?
I'll get back to you like flees
What would happen if they moved into a dimension where the speed of light moves slower? How can they determine dimensional shift? It sounds like it's going to have to be trial and error. I wouldn't want to be a test pilot, severe chance of going splat when toying with gravatational forces and alternate dimensions. But if it gets sorted sign me up for a ticket.
>What would happen if they moved into a dimension where the speed of light moves slower?
Then they would cover -less- distance than if they stayed in normal space at the same speed.
>How can they determine dimensional shift?
Besides instrument readings, the surroundings would most likely be different from normal space. Though, as the purpose is faster-than-light speed, a dimension from a higher plane would be desired. This would mean an increased frequency, and thus a higher flow of information flowing in and into the brain. The first, untrained pilots are probably gonna pass out and stay unconscious until the ship re-enters normal space. Hopefully, the ship would be automated. :)
Your question is roughly equivalent to responding to someone suggesting they'll get rich by attracting fairies that will give them money by saying "But how can you be sure you won't attract fairies that take your money instead?"
What is this nonsense about dimensional shift?
>>4
And now the hobbit's turned out to just have been a freak among his people. A dwarf, if you will.
>>13, and the original hobbits weren't freaks?
>>13
BBC says otherwise. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6311619.stm (Jan 29, 07)