Quote:For now warp speed is only the stuff of science fiction, but White and other colleagues are exploring the idea, specifically the possibility of “space warp,” which would exploit a loophole in the theory of general relativity.

Beam me up Scotty

Any FTL propulsion system when turned the other way is a weapon of mass destruction

I always wondered if we could ever achieve warp drive. We would first have to master light speed.

This is some fuucking billshiit. I've been figuring out a way for hyper drive at warp speed on my own. These bastards need to disappear.

If we could just find a way to go 50-75% of light speed, it would open up our solar system to exploration and terraforming.

(06-16-2014 01:56 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  If we could just find a way to go 50-75% of light speed, it would open up our solar system to exploration and terraforming.

That would be an absolutely phenomenal feat. I just don't know how one could steer through asteroid fields or other large rocks that could be in your way... You'd be toast in an instant.

(06-16-2014 01:59 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 01:56 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  If we could just find a way to go 50-75% of light speed, it would open up our solar system to exploration and terraforming.

That would be an absolutely phenomenal feat. I just don't know how one could steer through asteroid fields or other large rocks that could be in your way... You'd be toast in an instant.

I've read that the asteroid belt is not nearly as dense as it is usually imagined. Even if it was, if you can go that fast, you could go perpendicular to the belt and go over it or under it, as most of it lies in a plane along with the planets. I don't see how we'd get that fast, but even 1% of the speed of light would be enough for the inner solar system.

(06-16-2014 01:59 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 01:56 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  If we could just find a way to go 50-75% of light speed, it would open up our solar system to exploration and terraforming.

That would be an absolutely phenomenal feat. I just don't know how one could steer through asteroid fields or other large rocks that could be in your way... You'd be toast in an instant.

Space has three dimensions

If you really could manage 50-75% Light speed you just go up out of the ecliptic plane a little ways over to your destination and back down.

Course out side the ecliptic it's not completely free of debris but your odds of hitting something would be around the odds of hitting the lottery..

(06-16-2014 01:53 PM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  I always wondered if we could ever achieve warp drive. We would first have to master light speed.

Not really. Warp speed isn't exactly a speed.

Quote:..or warp speed to be possible, a vehicle would need to travel faster-than-light by bending space around it, essentially making distances much shorter than they actually are.

(06-16-2014 02:13 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 01:53 PM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  I always wondered if we could ever achieve warp drive. We would first have to master light speed.

Not really. Warp speed isn't exactly a speed.

Quote:..or warp speed to be possible, a vehicle would need to travel faster-than-light by bending space around it, essentially making distances much shorter than they actually are.

What? You said warp speed isn't a speed and then quoted where warp speed is faster than light speed.

How would one be sure that they're going to stop in the right destination? Do you set the solar system as a grid, corresponding to coordinates in a database, like they do on certain video games?

To me, a problem greater than gaining propulsion is learning how to stop.

(06-16-2014 02:19 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  How would one be sure that they're going to stop in the right destination? Do you set the solar system as a grid like they do on certain video games?

Plus, how long would it take you to stop?

(06-16-2014 02:17 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 02:13 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 01:53 PM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  I always wondered if we could ever achieve warp drive. We would first have to master light speed.

Not really. Warp speed isn't exactly a speed.

Quote:..or warp speed to be possible, a vehicle would need to travel faster-than-light by bending space around it, essentially making distances much shorter than they actually are.

What? You said warp speed isn't a speed and then quoted where warp speed is faster than light speed.

Traveling faster than light is not the same thing as moving faster than light..

(06-16-2014 02:17 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 02:13 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 01:53 PM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  I always wondered if we could ever achieve warp drive. We would first have to master light speed.

Not really. Warp speed isn't exactly a speed.

Quote:..or warp speed to be possible, a vehicle would need to travel faster-than-light by bending space around it, essentially making distances much shorter than they actually are.

What? You said warp speed isn't a speed and then quoted where warp speed is faster than light speed.

It will get you somewhere faster than light speed but you aren't actually moving super fast or at all. It brings the destination to you really.

Not to go too nerdy...but I always thought trek put a lot of thought into their technology...a warp bubble maintains normal conditions inside the bubble, the deflector ensures nothing impacts the ship at those speeds, and inertial dampeners allow for rapid acceleration/deceleration.

also, even with all the power put out by the matter/anti-matter reaction...Most of it goes to running life support systems.

(06-16-2014 02:17 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 02:13 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 01:53 PM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  I always wondered if we could ever achieve warp drive. We would first have to master light speed.

Not really. Warp speed isn't exactly a speed.

Quote:..or warp speed to be possible, a vehicle would need to travel faster-than-light by bending space around it, essentially making distances much shorter than they actually are.

What? You said warp speed isn't a speed and then quoted where warp speed is faster than light speed.

It's only a speed in the sense that you get from one place to another place faster. It's by physically manipulating the space that you're moving.

(06-16-2014 02:23 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It will get you somewhere faster than light speed but you aren't actually moving super fast or at all. It brings the destination to you really.

It's how the Planet Express ship Bessie operates.

"For warp speed to be possible, a vehicle would need to travel faster-than-light by bending space around it". If you're bending space around you it wouldn't enable you to go faster than light (nor would you need to), it would shorten the distance.

(06-16-2014 02:33 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  "For warp speed to be possible, a vehicle would need to travel faster-than-light by bending space around it". If you're bending space around you it wouldn't enable you to go faster than light (nor would you need to), it would shorten the distance.

Which is exactly why, when Han Solo says that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs (a unit of distance)....it wasn't a misstatement.

In Star Trek, did you ever wonder why they had to build an expensive space ship when all they had to do to get where they wanted to go was use the transporter?