How fast is NASA's prospective warp drive?

[Corvus 501]

I can't find any solid numbers for this.

[Borgholio]

Official specs show that the warp drive would be capable of propelling a ship in excess of 186,000 miles per second.

[Corvus 501]

Thanks, I was trying to find the top speed, to get an idea for what stars would be in range.

[Borgholio]

Top speed does not = range. That would depend on fuel requirements, which depends on energy required, which we know is going to be astronomical.

[Corvus 501]

I'm trying to find a top speed, not just a statement that we are developing a FTL drive. I'm asking here because I couldn't find the answer on Google, and can't get a straight answer, because all I get is Star Trek warp factor tables. Sorry if I seem rude, but I haven't gotten a straight answer anywhere yet.

[Corvus 501]

Also, fuel requirements "only" come out to a few hundred kilograms of exotic matter, not that we know how to produce or harvest it. Yet.

[Iroscato]

Also, fuel requirements "only" come out to a few hundred kilograms of exotic matter, not that we know how to produce or harvest it. Yet.

Therein lies the problem. The entire concept is still so wildly theoretical that the fuel source doesn't even exist yet. There can be no way to predict a solid top speed yet.

[Borgholio]

"Developing" a FTL drive at this point still means "Can the physics even work?". We are decades away from even trying to experiment with this. So I don't think you'll find any hard numbers, since theoretical physics is a tricky beast.

[SCRawl]

I can't find any solid numbers for this.

That's because the technology doesn't exist. It's pretend. Make up any numbers you like and they're just as valid as any numbers I might make up.

[Simon_Jester]

Yes. This is not "under development" in the sense that, say, a new airplane is "under development" when people are busily designing it.

It is "being sketched by imaginative artists" and "being described in broad terms by theoretical physicists who think the math is more interesting than actually having a warp drive."

it is no more "under development" than a fission reactor was "under development" the week after Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity. And no one was remotely in a position to talk about the actual performance of nuclear reactors until they were nearly finished being designed.

[Corvus 501]

The difference is that with computer modelling, much of the behavior of warp bubbles can be predicted. The way I see it, is that it might be possible to predict a top speed, or at least make a good guess about how fast a warp drive can travel, even if that's just based on how fast a warp bubble can move.

[SCRawl]

The difference is that with computer modelling, much of the behavior of warp bubbles can be predicted. The way I see it, is that it might be possible to predict a top speed, or at least make a good guess about how fast a warp drive can travel, even if that's just based on how fast a warp bubble can move.

No, it can't. I know that you want to start dreaming about interstellar travel, but (a) it's almost certainly never going to happen, and (b) if it does happen, you will have been dead for quite some time before it does. So if you want hard numbers, I'm sorry, but they don't exist, and they probably never will.

[Corvus 501]

I know that interstellar travel will never show up within my lifetime, barring some incredible breakthrough, but I'm trying to find out haw fast a warp drive could (theatrically) reach some of the earth like exoplanets. Basically, I'm tired of people saying that interstellar travel is impossible, if a warp drive isn't in the offering, than make a f__king electromagnetic ramscoop!

[SCRawl]

I know that interstellar travel will never show up within my lifetime, barring some incredible breakthrough, but I'm trying to find out haw fast a warp drive could (theatrically) reach some of the earth like exoplanets. Basically, I'm tired of people saying that interstellar travel is impossible, if a warp drive isn't in the offering, than make a f__king electromagnetic ramscoop!

So make up some numbers. The ones you want don't exist, even in the most half-baked theory.

[Iroscato]

I know that interstellar travel will never show up within my lifetime, barring some incredible breakthrough, but I'm trying to find out haw fast a warp drive could (theatrically) reach some of the earth like exoplanets. Basically, I'm tired of people saying that interstellar travel is impossible, if a warp drive isn't in the offering, than make a f__king electromagnetic ramscoop!

You seem to be having trouble grasping how little we know about the physics behind it. I reckon it's akin to 8th century scientists talking about flying machines that can take us to different countries. They have no idea how to make them. No materials currently available could create such a contraption. The concept of aerodynamics is alien to them. They have no clue what the composition of the Earth's atmosphere is. They know nothing of how to use electricity as a reliable working power source. Propellers are a foreign concept. I could go on and on.
Basically, there are layers upon layers upon layers of discoveries, innovations, freak accidents and investments needed before we have the first real, solid idea of how fast these things will be. If we ever get past the theoretical stage in the first place.

[Simon_Jester]

The difference is that with computer modelling, much of the behavior of warp bubbles can be predicted. The way I see it, is that it might be possible to predict a top speed, or at least make a good guess about how fast a warp drive can travel, even if that's just based on how fast a warp bubble can move.

We have no idea what kind of warp bubbles can or cannot be generated, or how, so we have no parameters to feed into a simulation.

I know that interstellar travel will never show up within my lifetime, barring some incredible breakthrough, but I'm trying to find out haw fast a warp drive could (theatrically) reach some of the earth like exoplanets.

Yes, we get that. The problem is that we do not know the answer to the question.Maybe the hypothesized Alcubierre and Alcubierre-like warp drives would go at three times light-speed. Or a hundred times. Or who knows how fast. We can't say because there is not enough information.

Basically, I'm tired of people saying that interstellar travel is impossible, if a warp drive isn't in the offering, than make a f__king electromagnetic ramscoop!

At least with those we CAN model the engine performance, if we make assumptions about the available power sources and materials. There is literature on the subject of ramscoop performance and I encourage you to go read it.

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/r ... rlight.php

[By the way, Bussard ramjets of the kind you reference apparently have a top speed of 0.12c, which is not that bad but we could in principle do better with an antimatter rocket. On the other hand, an antimatter rocket requires you to gas up on a healthy pile of antimatter, so it has drawbacks too...

There may be ways to improve on the ramjet concept.]

[Captain Seafort]

I know that you want to start dreaming about interstellar travel, but (a) it's almost certainly never going to happen

Technically, humanity has had interstellar travel for several years. It's just a bit slow, and isn't manned.

[Sidewinder]

I know that you want to start dreaming about interstellar travel, but (a) it's almost certainly never going to happen

Technically, humanity has had interstellar travel for several years. It's just a bit slow, and isn't manned.

The Earth is certainly manned- we're on the planet, after all- but we have no way to influence the speed and direction of its travel.

[Iroscato]

I know that you want to start dreaming about interstellar travel, but (a) it's almost certainly never going to happen

Technically, humanity has had interstellar travel for several years. It's just a bit slow, and isn't manned.

The Earth is certainly manned- we're on the planet, after all- but we have no way to influence the speed and direction of its travel.

I think he was talking about Voyager 1 leaving the solar system. Should get to a nearby solar system in 40,000 years or so.

[Captain Seafort]

I think he was talking about Voyager 1 leaving the solar system. Should get to a nearby solar system in 40,000 years or so.

Indeed.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Things to look up; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive, and there is a forest of links and citations off that; although some of the calculations seem to have been done on the basis of a mere 10 c.

Heim- Droscher theory which is definitely fringe physics but good enough for science fiction suggests fifty- five times lightspeed, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heim_theory

applied Mach- Lorentz effects may be able to create the exotic matter needed for a warp bubble- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward_e ... _wormholes- as with the above, take the main article with a small jovian mass of salt, but then enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole of the links and citations.

Other important numbers, Nimtz got his electrons to tunnel at 4.7c, and I remember coming across a suggestion that the effective phase velocity of entanglement could be 10,800c. Those may be useful end caps.


No, woe is not the physics. We (the human race, that is, not me personally) know quite a lot of the physics about how such a thing could and should be made to work.

Now look at the engineering, logistics, politics and economics of it and there you will see why it will never happen.

[Elheru Aran]

Practicality of the Alcubierre drive aside, the general thrust of this thing is that there are some theoretical technologies which simply will not be possible until our science and engineering catch up to a point where they can start even testing hypotheses. Producing more than ultra-minute quantities of exotic matter would be a nice start.

[jwl]

Technically, humanity has had interstellar travel for several years. It's just a bit slow, and isn't manned.

The Earth is certainly manned- we're on the planet, after all- but we have no way to influence the speed and direction of its travel.

I think he was talking about Voyager 1 leaving the solar system. Should get to a nearby solar system in 40,000 years or so.

Won't it have run out of power by then? If it's just a broken lump of metal I'm not sure if I would call that "interstellar travel".

[Borgholio]

If it's just a broken lump of metal I'm not sure if I would call that "interstellar travel".

Sure it is. It's a message drone. Don't need power to deliver a gold plaque / record.

[jwl]

If it's just a broken lump of metal I'm not sure if I would call that "interstellar travel".

Sure it is. It's a message drone. Don't need power to deliver a gold plaque / record.

To me it seems analogous to attaching a letter to a rock and dropping it in the ocean above the mariana trench: not really the same thing as sending a probe down.