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Wednesday, June 11, 2014

The lack of Material X is not a reason to deny funding to NASA, guys.

In exciting "theoretical" news, NASA is asking for funding for the research into a spaceship that can travel faster than light, and the only real hitch is the existence of "exotic matter," which hasn't been found anywhere, in any form. This should be exciting, right? I mean if you've got the entire design completed and all you need IS material X, then this at least gives you a direction in which to look. And unlike earlier designs, instead of needing enough of this matter to equal the mass of the planet Jupiter, we now only need a few hundred kilograms. That has to be somewhat manageable, even if it means that CERN (or an even larger collider yet to be built) is the only thing capable of producing it.

So assuming we had "material x" then how would this thing work?
It works on the simple principle of space expansion and contraction. Basically, it's not going faster than light but bending space-time (which we now know is flexible because gravity affects it). The effect though is faster than light travel, i.e., the ability to visit other star systems. Yay!

The warp bubble when it is created will be an odd thing because the interior is going to be an isolated pocket of space-time while the exterior is an altered ripple in space-time. This means that the ship is going to essentially be traveling in its own universe with its boundaries being the bubble. In other words, radiation (and other things) won't have anywhere to go. But theoretically, it could fly through a planet because it will be in its own universe and won't experience anything outside the bubble.
Concept design for the NASA FTL ship. Pretty cool, right? 
There will need to be other materials that protect the ship from exotic particles associated with "material X" too because we don't even know what "material X" does to humans. And there's the whole tricky thing about momentum being conserved in the bubble and how when you exit, you may have the orbital velocity you had at Earth, which would be inappropriate for a planet with dissimilar gravity. Oh and according to "Researchers from the University of Sydney" who've done some advanced crunching of numbers regarding FTL space travel, a concentration of space particles "swept up" into the warp bubble would get focused behind the ship so that when it decelerates from superluminal speed, these particles get released in one energetic outburst essentially destroying anyone at the destination point directly in front of the ship. That's kind of a problem.

But let's not focus on the negative and just look at how cool it will be when we actually have a Star Fleet Academy and earthlings can finally get past all the petty squabbling that have defined our species for thousands of years.

13 comments:

  1. I'm sure Stephen Tremp is excited about the news, that's right up his alley.

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  2. It's almost literally putting the cart before the horse, as in the ship is the cart and the Material X is the horse. Good job, nerds!

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  3. It is so very exciting. I guess it's only a matter of time until they figure it out.

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  4. My 2nd son and I actually watched a show about this on H2. I'm kind of a history channel freak. It's a fascinating idea; a little scary if the technology is accomplished and falls in the wrong hands, but fascinating still.

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  5. I read about this yesterday. I couldn't help but think as I read the theory, "that's exactly how they're portraying interstellar travel in that ... well, Interstellar movie!" I tell you, that movie can't come out soon enough. We need something to believe in and get the public excited about, now that the government doesn't think NASA is all that important anymore ... :)

    How about a test run to mars? That should only take a couple seconds travel and MUCH less Material X!

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  6. This sounds like a big problem to me:
    "a concentration of space particles "swept up" into the warp bubble would get focused behind the ship so that when it decelerates from superluminal speed, these particles get released in one energetic outburst essentially destroying anyone at the destination point directly in front of the ship. That's kind of a problem."

    Yeah. Good point. That's a big negative.

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  7. I have no idea what you just said there, my only understanding of warp speed travel comes from Star Trek, but it has very cool potential. :)

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  8. This is all pretty exciting but didn't I just hear on Cosmos that nothing in our universe can travel faster than the speed of light? Maybe that's why we need this special matter to defy the laws of our universe. Of course there could be terrible consequences should we ever achieve this, but it's fun to think about.

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  9. @Stephen: It's not actually traveling faster than light. You see, it's "bending space" which shortens the length that it has to cross in front of the ship and lengthens it in back of the ship. So in traveling .25 the speed of light, it compresses space just enough that the distance covered is greater than light could travel at the same time. Does that make sense? That's why it's called "warping" space.

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  10. I wish I could live long enough to see this become reality.

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  11. That has got to be the coolest spaceship I've ever seen. It must be really bad ass to be working for NASA and talking about "material X". It just sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. It's pretty cool being alive today. :)

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  12. Sigh. The only thing I completely understood was the part about having a real Star Fleet Academy in the future. That would be supercool, and since I believe in reincarnation I fully intend to attend the Academy and then get assigned to the USS Enterprise.

    I kind of understood the science of what you were saying, but when it comes to physics a part of my brain just doesn't seem to work, and I have trouble grasping basic concepts. So in my eyes, Mike, you are brilliant for not only understanding all this but being write about it. Kudos.

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  13. So, still a few minor kinks to work out, then...

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