Hyperdrive soon?

[ToroidalBoat]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/06/hyperdrive/
Yes, I'm well aware it's from 2006. By "soon", I mean maybe within this century.

At least it doesn't seem to have the drawback of the Alcubierrie warp drive (Hawking radiation frying the passengers of any spacecraft that dares to warp through space faster than light).

What do you think would happen if faster than light travel were discovered now or soon? I'm guessing that, at least at first, you'd still have people saying "SPACEFLIGHT IS EXPENSIVE" and continuing to cut back on it.

 

[exball]

Gay unless they make an actual Millennium Falcon.

 

[Saney]

Gay unless they make an actual Millennium Falcon.

I would settle for an X-Wing.

 

[exball]

I would settle for an X-Wing.

That's like someone offering you a BMW and you ask for a smart car.

 

[Saney]

That's like someone offering you a BMW and you ask for a smart car.

Honestly, I'd just be happy to have an R2 unit.

 

[Duke Nukem]

Gay unless they make an actual Millennium Falcon.

Han Solo's ship is heavily modified in comparison to a normal YT-1300 Corellian transport. To be honest, it would be really kickass to have even a water-borne ship of my own. A spacecraft like the Falcon though, that would be incredible.

But the easiest question about hyperspace is about the materials that would stand up to such speeds, and even that may be difficult. I also question whether it's safe to transport humans or animals.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

My spaceship will be a cardboard box with an umbrella coming out of the top. Because honestly, if I can go faster than light, I don't give a fuck about looking cool.

 

[Arkangel]

My spaceship will be a cardboard box with an umbrella coming out of the top. Because honestly, if I can go faster than light, I don't give a fuck about looking cool.

 

[Arkangel]

Also, this is relevant:

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Looks like it may not be possible after all:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/heim-theory.html

 

[A-Stump]

You can go anywhere you want with the wonder of books. Reading is magic!

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

My thought is that Einstein is right and we are hard capped at no more then a shitty 25%c.

However I do think that the way forward is wormholes. Use energy to punch a hole right through space-time to your destination and poof! No actually travel time.

Still a few bugs to be worked out though...

 

[Holdek]

They're working on it!

"Faster Than the Speed of Light?"

 

[c-no]

I would settle for an X-Wing.

You go for an X-Wing, I go for a Tie Fighter.

You can go anywhere you want with the wonder of books. Reading is magic!

So with books, does that mean I can go into the world of Sonichu?

 

[exball]

You go for an X-Wing, I go for a Tie Fighter.

Good luck surviving in your tinfoil ship.

 

[c-no]

Jokes on you, I'd be using Vader's Tie Fighter.

 

[CatParty]

 

[ToroidalBoat]

My thought is that Einstein is right and we are hard capped at no more then a shitty 25%c.

It's kind of odd to explain, but if you could accelerate (with "normal motion") continually (assuming you had the fuel to do so), you can seemingly get to ridiculous speeds like 1,000,000,000 c or faster relative to the planet you left behind, but light is always 1c faster than you.

Meanwhile, to the people on the planet you left behind, you're only getting ever closer to 1c, but never reaching it (.9c, .99c, .999c, etc). Also, stuff on the ship, to the people on the planet, would happen slower and slower, while from the perspective of the ship, time seems normal and time on the planet is speeding up.

And then there's bizarre stuff like Lorentz contraction and other optical effects involved, and other general weirdness.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

It's kind of odd to explain, but if you could accelerate (with "normal motion") continually (assuming you had the fuel to do so), you can seemingly get to ridiculous speeds like 1,000,000,000 c or faster relative to the planet you left behind

The thing is, as you approach 1c, you would basically need all the energy in the universe.

but light is always 1c faster than you.

Now this is the thing I have never been able to understand. If you leave Earth traveling at 1c, you can shoot a beam of light backwards at Earth, and it travels away from you at 1c. But Earth will receive it... traveling at 1c?

A related concept that I know even less about is that time dilation is supposed to be relative, i.e., your own personal time is faster than everything around you as you accelerate, but this becomes true for every point of reference. So if a ship travels at 0.99c away from Earth, the idea would say that both locations perceive time faster than the other? Hell, I don't know if I'm even describing that one correctly.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

But Earth will receive it... traveling at 1c?

I think so, and it would be red-shifted (like how distant galaxies are), if you're traveling at near 1c.

The thing is, as you approach 1c, you would basically need all the energy in the universe.

You may think you're going at 1 billion c or something, but to people on a planet, you're not even at light speed. I believe if you had infinite energy and could somehow accelerate to infinitely fast, people in a relatively stationary frame of reference would see you just moving at light speed.

Yeah, I'm more or less as confused as you are.