Warp 6, Mr. Sulu

[billroper]

Ok, probably not, but Instapundit passes along this report about U.S. military research into a hyperdrive.

Hey, I always wanted a good look at Alpha Centauri...

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Activate technobabble generators!

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

When it's ready, no doubt, they'll power it with a hafnium isomer reactor.

[daddy-guido.livejournal.com]

actually, that's one of the topics that Bryan (our guest from NASA) is touching on in his talks at Capricon

Well, not warp-drive, that is...

[vampirdaddy.livejournal.com]

...because there is no drive because of warping. It more is a kind of "gravity thrusters". Which then is bending spacetime (quite) a bit if bigger ones are used. See http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raumfahrt/hqtforspacepropphysicsaip2005.pdf for a more scientific view.

If you're looking for a WARP drive look into Alcubierre metrics, which is a drive based on spacetime warping. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_field for the details.

Did I mention I love the Wikipedia? I did know the Miguel metrics since mid-90ies (now called Alcubierre metrics - Miguel Alcubierre was a student himself at that time). But I did not really expect to see such a good article there. I especially find the spaceship image nice, even if it is wrong, IIRC (the negative engery has to be *behind* the spaceship, not at the sides).

So the (hypothetical) Heim drive accidentally warps spacetime (as side effect), while the Alcubierre warps spacetime to drive.