How do you power an Alcubierre drive?

How do you power an Alcubierre drive?

The power for an Alcubierre drive would have to come from antimatter or black holes because no other known source of energy would be plentiful enough. With black holes there are basically two ways of producing energy: Evaporating small black holes, or throwing matter into black holes and using the resulting radiation.

How much power would a warp drive need?

Although “the mass-energy of the Voyager 1 space probe” may not sound like much, if you convert the 722 kilogram Voyager mass into raw energy (using Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalence equation: E=mc2), White’s warp drive would require 6.5×1019 Joules (65 exajoules) to create a warp bubble.

How would you power a warp drive?

The warp drive would require either negative mass – a theorized type of matter – or a ring of negative energy density to work. Physicists have never observed negative mass, so that leaves negative energy as the only option.

Is the Alcubierre drive possible?

Although the metric proposed by Alcubierre is consistent with the Einstein field equations, construction of such a drive is not necessarily possible. The proposed mechanism of the Alcubierre drive implies a negative energy density and therefore requires exotic matter or manipulation of dark energy.

Is NASA working on a 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.

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’.

Is NASA building a warp drive?

According to Popular Mechanics, the NASA warp drive will expend a massive amount of energy that will “warp” (contract and twist) space time behind the spacecraft, which will create a space time “bubble.” This bubble, which will be created around the ship and curved behind it, will theoretically reduce the distance that …

Will Lightspeed ever be possible?

So will it ever be possible for us to travel at light speed? Based on our current understanding of physics and the limits of the natural world, the answer, sadly, is no. So, light-speed travel and faster-than-light travel are physical impossibilities, especially for anything with mass, such as spacecraft and humans.

Who invented warp drive?

physicist Zefram Cochrane
As any avid Star Trek fan can tell you, the eccentric physicist Zefram Cochrane invented the warp-drive engine in the year 2063. It wasn’t easy. As any avid Star Trek fan can tell you, the eccentric physicist Zefram Cochrane invented the warp-drive engine in the year 2063.

Are scientists working on a warp drive?

Seriously. Humans are one step closer to traveling at faster-than-light speeds. A new paper proposes a fully physically realized model for warp drive.

Is NASA working on warp drive?

Are wormholes possible?

Wormholes are consistent with the general theory of relativity, but whether wormholes actually exist remains to be seen. Theoretically, a wormhole might connect extremely long distances such as a billion light years, or short distances such as a few meters, or different points in time, or even different universes.

How does the Alcubierre drive work?

The ship can ride the wave to accelerate to high speeds and time travel. The Alcubierre drive, also known as the Alcubierre metric or Warp Drive, is a mathematical model of a spacetime exhibiting features reminiscent of the fictional “warp drive” from Star Trek, which can travel “faster than light” (although not in a local sense – see below).

What is an Alcubierre warp drive?

An Alcubierre Warp Drive stretches spacetime in a wave causing the fabric of space ahead of a spacecraft to contract and the space behind it to expand. The ship can ride the wave to accelerate to high speeds and time travel.

How much energy can an Alcubierre drive pick up?

Because of a funny little quirk of relativity, there is no upper limit to the amount of energy a Alcubierre drive could pick up. A long trip could vaporize entire planets upon your arrival. The researchers are beginning a new round of number crunching to see how bad the problem is.

Does Alcubierre drive work in free fall?

In particular, Alcubierre has shown that a ship using an Alcubierre drive travels on a free-fall geodesic even while the warp bubble is accelerating: its crew would be in free fall while accelerating without experiencing accelerational g-forces.