Full speed ahead: Warp field according to the Alcubierre drive. Image shows the opposing regions of expanding and contracting spacetime that propel the central region.
Credit: Wikimedia
SYDNEY: A futuristic engine that uses dark energy to propel a spaceship faster than light is theoretically possible, and could revolutionise space travel, U.S. scientists say.
The idea, backed up by calculations made by physicist Gerald Cleaver and graduate student Richard Orbousy, both of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, was published online on the arXiv.org physics website.
Not as unlikely as it seems
Like something from the world of Star Trek, their theory says that a spacecraft could travel at 'warp speed' in a bubble of space-time by manipulating dark energy, the mysterious invisible force accelerating the expansion of the universe (see, More evidence for dark energy's repulsive power, Cosmos Online).
The spacecraft would essentially remain in the same place, they said, while space-time ahead of the spaceship shrank, and expanded again behind it.
The warp engine is based on the 'Alcubierre warp drive', a mathematical model of a method of stretching space in a wave that was first proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994.
"Think of it like a surfer riding a wave," said Cleaver. "The ship would be pushed by the spatial bubble and the bubble would be travelling faster than the speed of light."
The concept is based on new predictions emerging from string theory (a branch of theoretical physics which states that reality is based on one-dimensional objects called strings). String theorists believe space has not three or four but 10 dimensions: height, width, length, time and others that are unknown (see, A way to 'see' extra dimensions, Cosmos Online).
M-theory
M-theory, which is as yet untested, unifies the various string theories by adding a further, 11th, dimension. Manipulating this 11th dimension exploits a loophole in Einstein's theory of relativity that says that travelling at faster-than-light speeds would take an infinite amount of energy.
"String theory suggests that dimensions are globally held compact by strings wrapping around them," the researchers write in their paper. "If this is the case, it may be possible to locally increase or decrease the string tension," they theorise, changing the size of the extra dimensions.
Theoretical astrophysicists think that at the beginning of time, dark energy may have driven the universe to grow at faster than light speed for a short time.
Science of physics in highspeed travel
It seems that the universe has some secrets as man ,and high tecnology have opened some doors that unlimit the old limitations.
Dark Energy Engine
I think what we are trying to do is pass Dense non-baryonic matter through a variable magnetic field. This process would impulse the dark matter as thrust. This is simple.
Dark Energy is the media with which energy is calculated or absorbed. I write about this in my blog.
Aaron Guerami
Live long and prosper
Keep channelling the Martians, Earthmen need your guidance -awaiting the next trans-subspace message [out].
faster than light travel
We all have seen the tv show stargate.The space vortex that travels much greater than the speed of light.In another aspect this may work different than most people believe.Lets think of advanced space travel like travlin on a train.It comes in two parts.A energy beam than travels much faster than the speed of light and a space craft that travels along this beam like a space train.A Mathamatical question for everyone to solve.If the closest star is four and ahalf light years away,how fast would you need to travel to compleate this trip in four and ahalf minutes.