How does an Alcubierre drive work?

Objects cannot accelerate to the speed of light within normal spacetime; instead, the Alcubierre drive shifts space around an object so that the object would arrive at its destination more quickly than light would in normal space without breaking any physical laws.

How fast can an Alcubierre drive go?

Should not violate space time continuum. Very Theoretically: A warp(Alcubierre) drive can go ~10c without being affected by time dilation. A space vessel can go up to but not as fast as the speed of light.

Is travel faster than light possible?

So-called “warp drives” have been proposed before, but often rely on theoretical systems that break the laws of physics. That’s because according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, it’s physically impossible for anything to travel faster than the speed of light.

Does Alcubierre drive cause time dilation?

This means that even though the coordinate acceleration can be an arbitrary function of time, the proper acceleration along the spaceship’s path will always be zero. So the Drive itself causes no time dilation for the occupants of the ‘warp field bubble’.

What happens if you hit something at warp speed?

Yes, the warp field creates a subspace bubble, but that only distorts time and space so that the ship can travel faster than the speed of light. It doesn’t remove the ship from realspace. If you travel at warp speed into a planet, you will collide with the planet, plain and simple.

What is a tachyon particle?

tachyon, hypothetical subatomic particle whose velocity always exceeds that of light. The existence of the tachyon, though not experimentally established, appears consistent with the theory of relativity, which was originally thought to apply only to particles traveling at or less than the speed of light.

Is NASA working on warp drive?

NASA is obviously still working out the kinks of their warp drive, but perhaps it’s only a matter of time before at least neighboring star systems, like Proxima Centauri, will be in reach for human crews. Until then, we can only look at the furthest stars using our telescopes.

Has warp drive been invented?

On Earth, warp drive was invented in 2063 by noted scientist Zefram Cochrane.

How much energy would a warp drive need?

Creating a warp bubble for a 656-foot-wide spacecraft traveling at the speed of light requires roughly 100 times the energy contained in the mass of Jupiter, said Lentz. That’s about 30 orders of magnitude higher than the power of modern nuclear reactors.

What is actually warped by a warp drive?

Physics has scoffed at the idea of a real warp drive because it suggests travel faster than light. However, as the drive’s name suggests, such an engine did not push the spacecraft faster than the speed of light; instead, it merely warped space-time in a way that allowed for using a shortcut.