Original Science Fiction: FTL 'Drive' Brainstorm
Posted: 2006-08-29 10:01am
I'm brainstorming ideas for an Original Science Fiction story, which incorporates elements from several of my favorite authors and deals with some concepts that are new entirely. This won't be the first time I will have tried my hand at such things, but I have little expierience in the area of theoretical design and astrophysics. If you spot where my ideas have come from, you are probably right-congratulations, but I'm more interested in constructive critque rather than accusations of plagarism. If you think I have no idea what I'm talking about, you are probably right too.
Central to the story (no plot hints yet) is the development of a Faster than Light starships, which operate using devices known as Casimir Drives (named after the 'Casimir Effect'-where space between two conducting plates behaves as if it has negative mass). As soon a ship is far enough away from any gravitational mass, the drive is activated, and the ship is surrounded by a spacetime bubble. Using pulses of dark matter, space is shrunk in front of the ship, while expanded behind it. An 'eye in the storm' effect is preserved in the swirling cloud of dark matter, ensuring a thin link to the normal universe.
The ships are capable of travelling a little faster than the speed of light. This would mean a trip to Proxima Centauri (4.3) LY away would take about 4 years. Because of the wonderful things that happen to time when you exceed the speed of light, you actually arrive about when you left-effectively an 'instantaneous' translation. In the 'bubble' (mini-universe) created by the ship, time passes at a normal rate. Cold-sleep technqiues have been perfected to slow the aging of the crew, so in preparation for a 'jump', crews enter cryo-tubes that preserve their bodies in effective stasis. 'Old Fogies' are spacers who have jumped a multitude of times, and have consequently aged faster than normal due to the non 100% efficiency of the cold-sleep.
Thats the majority of my plan so far, I stand ready to receive suggestions and hate mail alike.
Central to the story (no plot hints yet) is the development of a Faster than Light starships, which operate using devices known as Casimir Drives (named after the 'Casimir Effect'-where space between two conducting plates behaves as if it has negative mass). As soon a ship is far enough away from any gravitational mass, the drive is activated, and the ship is surrounded by a spacetime bubble. Using pulses of dark matter, space is shrunk in front of the ship, while expanded behind it. An 'eye in the storm' effect is preserved in the swirling cloud of dark matter, ensuring a thin link to the normal universe.
The ships are capable of travelling a little faster than the speed of light. This would mean a trip to Proxima Centauri (4.3) LY away would take about 4 years. Because of the wonderful things that happen to time when you exceed the speed of light, you actually arrive about when you left-effectively an 'instantaneous' translation. In the 'bubble' (mini-universe) created by the ship, time passes at a normal rate. Cold-sleep technqiues have been perfected to slow the aging of the crew, so in preparation for a 'jump', crews enter cryo-tubes that preserve their bodies in effective stasis. 'Old Fogies' are spacers who have jumped a multitude of times, and have consequently aged faster than normal due to the non 100% efficiency of the cold-sleep.
Thats the majority of my plan so far, I stand ready to receive suggestions and hate mail alike.