A Warp Drive Is Within Our Reach, Apparently.

[MeChaNiZ3D]

If I may go against the popular opinion...I think we'd be just fine if we found another civilisation, even an inferior one. Because scientists would be making the discovery, and they tend to be more sensible people. If an inferior race crash landed on our planet, well, that would be a different story.

But no really, I think the best of us are mature enough to not kill them all. Maybe not all of us, but the upper echelon.

Captcha disagrees, using the popular phrase "hulk smash" to counter my argument before it even gets to the thread.

 

[Woodsey]

I don't believe in alien lifeformes . But if they did exist , they would probably be more intelligent than us or are the very least more united and structured .

Why, and why? I mean for the first, pretty sure it's almost mathematically impossible for us to be the only life in the universe.

 

[C F]

Let's bend some laws and find some aliens!

...Well, let's wait until their small-scale lab tests come back with a signed permission slip first. Then we can worry about aliens.

...Well, then we can worry about logistics. Baby steps. What could we do with this technology; how far could we go in how much time, and what device will we be sending with what fuel? THEN we can worry about finding aliens.

...Well, if they even exist. And then there's the issue of finding them. Even if we could achieve the ideal 10:1 lightspeed ratio proposed by this spatial warping theory, it would take four and a half months to get to Barnard's star, one of our closest neighbors. And what do we really expect to find around a red dwarf? Go to the binary Alpha Centauri system and I guess we could find deep-fried space-bacon, or a planet full of Terry Crews screaming "Double Sun Powerrrrr!!! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgRtb8b-HK0]" We need to bump this up to 500:1 or something if we ever want to expediently and systematically explore the galaxy to find any extraterrestrial life.

...Aaand now we're back to supply concerns.

CAPTCHA: speeding bullet.
Well, thanks for the vote of confidence.

 

[Old Father Eternity]

Oh, that sort of warp drive.

Kinda irrelevant now but meh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK1debnXYlA
Where we're going we won't need eyes.

 

[madster11]

This, however, did give me a rather interesting thought...lets assume that all the UFO stories are "fake". That is to say, they're not alien crafts, but rather just super-secret military test-flights of super-secret aircraft.

Considering the SR-71 is 'rumored' (by the pilots) to have hit Mach 3 at less than 1000ft above the ground, and at those speeds it spits out 100ft+ long bright blue/purple flames from the back, i very much doubt the authenticity of any UFO sightings due to the simple fact that the public doesn't find out about nice experimental aircraft until decades after they've been flying and even then there's currently aircraft the public isn't meant to know about, eg the stealth helicopter that totally doesn't exist and the likely successor to said SR-71, the aurora.

Now, that being said, what happens if humans encounter other species because we're the advanced ones?
Well, remember all those alien invasion movies where the aliens want our natural resources? Think that, but with more nukes and with us as the invaders.

Yeah, humanity really shouldn't be the more tech advanced.

I'm betting on trade relations though, an incredibly adversarial race would be too busy fighting with itself to make any scientific progress.

Humanity LOVES fighting. We've gotten so good at it that we could theoretically fight and win a war with a small planet, by destroying said planet completely.

The reason we've gotten so much technology is a direct result of fighting. If it wasn't for the US and Russia getting up in each others face we wouldn't even have been to space.

I wouldn't be so quick to right off an adversarial race as one that wouldn't have technology.

 

[Wayneguard]

That is motherfucking cool. Guys... it's time to start training warp drive operation (hahaha Eve joke...... T_T ).

 

[repeating integers]

warp (faster then light travel) PHYSICALLY impossible itll never happen unless einstein gets proven wrong which he wont. if wormholes get proven to existance then maybe that way but ftl travel is impossible even to put in perspective it would take like 100 thousand years at light speed to get from one of the galaxy to the other let alone other galaxies it would take over a year at light speed to get to the nearest star aswell and about 20 years to the nearest possibly habitable planet

Er... did you even read the article?

The thread title is far-fetched, but the point remains that FTL travel is theoretically possible.

 

[LauriJ]

If a Warp Drive does becomes reality soon, then I might consider owning a planet.

 

[worldruler8]

That's a cool article. I hope we do manage FTL travel - I mean, it obviously wouldn't be for mass usage, but it would still be awesome.

Now, I wonder if we're gonna be able to get past the "artificial gravity" hurdle?

You mean the one we already hurdled? Gravity is merely an acceleration. We can overcome this (since when travelling in space, we aren't accelerating in a way that would create "gravity", since we are moving with the ship) by creating an acceleration either by a rocket burn, or my a centrifuge (most likely the latter).

For the rocket, think what happens when you accelerate a car. You move back into your seat, because of inertia. As for the centrifuge, have you ever filled a bucket with water, then twirled it in a loop with your arm? And you spinned it fast enough that, when it was upside-down, it didn't splash water everywhere? That's essentially how a centrifuge works. It's a donut shaped structure that creates "gravity".

OP: I don't know why, but what the article says just seems wrong. I can't explain it, but when I read scientist articles, I go "oh, that makes sense". This makes absolutely no sense. How does a ring shaped structure make a warp in the space-time fabric? I thought the only way that can happen is a shit-ton of energy happening at a single point, or something MASSIVE is at a single point, like star massive. and what do they mean by "exotic matter"? An element that's very dense? can't be dark matter, that's very light. Could anyone explain why this would work? Because I have no idea how what they said makes any sense.

 

[SnowBurst]

warp (faster then light travel) PHYSICALLY impossible itll never happen unless einstein gets proven wrong which he wont. if wormholes get proven to existance then maybe that way but ftl travel is impossible even to put in perspective it would take like 100 thousand years at light speed to get from one of the galaxy to the other let alone other galaxies it would take over a year at light speed to get to the nearest star aswell and about 20 years to the nearest possibly habitable planet

Er... did you even read the article?

The thread title is far-fetched, but the point remains that FTL travel is theoretically possible.

light travel is impossible atm and in reality wont be possible for another 100 or so years because no one will see the point and not fund it... and tbh no i didnt read the article cuz the title said it all and i could just see all the idiots saying its possible if quantum fucking physics whilst not knowing shit about science

 

[Zen Bard]

The cool thing about "Star Trek" (yes, I used "cool" and "Trek" in the same sentence!) is that ALL the technologies are feasible or theoretically possible because Gene Roddenberry always had an actual consulting physicist or two in tow.

And since the concept behind warp is that it creates a gravitational field the "warps" space-time and enables the ship to "surf" on it, it doesn't violate Einstein's constant, nor is it affected by time- or mass-dialation.

But unfortunately, reality has to rear it's ugly, Nikki-Manoj-shaped head and we have to consider the economics of such a thing. How much would it cost to build? How do we power the warp field generator? How much would the power source cost? How much does it cost for one flight?

Maybe once we've solved all those pesky little problems, we ARE the smartest kids in the Universe. By the time we encounter an alien species, we might just be above all that typical human pettiness.

Then again, the fist commercially viable warp ship will probably come from Richard Branson and will be used only by the super rich to joy ride to Antares and back.

 

[SnowBurst]

I think I read somewhere that if the age of the universe was measured on a clock, we would currently be 2 minutes past midnight on the first day.

What that means, is that the universe is still very young, and that humanity may very well be the first advanced species.

You see all this sci-fi stuff, well it turns out that humanity may be the Vulcans, the Asari. We are the ancient race that discovers younger civilisations

concidering humanity only really became properly intelligent 100 or so years ago with developing science and only became civilised say 2k years ago and the entirre universe has been about for something like 13billion years heavily doubt what you said tbh more likely 90% of alien life wont be intelligent and the remaining 10% will be just like us ie fuck up the planet and kill each other

 

[Thaluikhain]

For the rocket, think what happens when you accelerate a car. You move back into your seat, because of inertia. As for the centrifuge, have you ever filled a bucket with water, then twirled it in a loop with your arm? And you spinned it fast enough that, when it was upside-down, it didn't splash water everywhere? That's essentially how a centrifuge works. It's a donut shaped structure that creates "gravity".

A rocket burn isn't going to work...well, it is, but you have to keep continually accelerating as long as you want your simulated gravity. That's going to use up a lot of fuel and reaction mass.

 

[Mid Boss]

No I don't think we would attack, burn, and enslave. We've moved past that as a society. Those countries still inclined to do so don't have the technology and money to pull it off.

Now, what WILL happen is much more insidious.

Corporations.

An ignorant populace, vast unspoiled world full of resources, regulatory government and people light years away, it's not hard to imagine how this is going to end. Every inhuman, nightmarish act of greed and stupidity you've ever heard of a corporation trying to pull off will be inflicted upon these people. Think China. In space.

As for the space drive itself. What is this exotic matter they said it needs? Seems to be the only tripping point right now between us and making it.... Well... That and we would need a massive nuclear device to generate even the vastly reduced amount of energy. And the last time I checked, our current political climate would be.... prohibitive... of anyone building a massive nuclear device right above out heads.

Also they said you could get to ten times the speed of light. That's fine for travel around our own solar system but is still prohibitively slow when trying to move between stars.

 

[worldruler8]

For the rocket, think what happens when you accelerate a car. You move back into your seat, because of inertia. As for the centrifuge, have you ever filled a bucket with water, then twirled it in a loop with your arm? And you spinned it fast enough that, when it was upside-down, it didn't splash water everywhere? That's essentially how a centrifuge works. It's a donut shaped structure that creates "gravity".

A rocket burn isn't going to work...well, it is, but you have to keep continually accelerating as long as you want your simulated gravity. That's going to use up a lot of fuel and reaction mass.

Right, which is why centrifuges are preferred. Just saying it technically does work.

 

[ZexionSephiroth]

Wait... Plausible Warp drive? Our Reach?

...

Well, I obviously Can't afford it. And Unless somebody has need for an Artist on Alpha Centuri, I doubt anyone will be offering to fit the bill.

Actually, you know what? I'll just Hitch-hike my way to the stars. Who wants to stay in one place when you can just stick out your thumb and there you are?

Apart from that, I'll just act as a sort of Space Samurai, Delivering Justice where it is due, and opposing Tyrants where-ever I find them...

...But mostly Sightseeing.

I mean, Really, who wants to conquer the galaxy when you can spend the same amount of time SEEING it, and feel much more fulfilled?