A Warp Drive

Warp Drive – Hypothetical FTL

Warp Drive is a hypothetical faster than light FTL, an impulsion system which helps one to travel several times faster than light on manipulating the fabric of time as well as space It is something which enabled the Starship Enterprise to courageously go where no man has ever gone before.

A spacecraft equipped with warp drive could travel at apparent speeds which can be greater than that of light by several orders of magnitude. When compared to other hypothetical FTL technologies like jump drive or hyper drive, warp drive does not seem toallow instant travel between two points but comprises of a measurable passage of time.

Spacecraft at warp velocity tend to interact with objects in normal space. A NASA research team, in 2012 had revealed that they are operating on a Star Trek style warp drive. They in fact have several ideas already as to how they would eventually be capable of making warp drives to function.

The most projecting possibility presently depends on a 1994 theory by Miguel Alcubierre wherein the idea is based on `expanding’ the fabric of space beyond the ship and retracting the space ahead that would make the ship move forward as if it were riding a huge conveyor belt.

Several Images of Interstellar Travel

Since sound barrier had been broken, many have turned their focus on how to break the light speed barrier. However, Warp Drive or any other term with regards to faster-than-light travel seems to stay at a level of assumption. Majority of scientific knowledge determines that it is impossible while considering Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and there are some reliable concepts in scientific literature though it is too early to know if they are practical.

Several writers of science fiction have given many images of interstellar travel; though travelling at the speed of light is presently only imaginary. Meanwhile, science has been making headway and while NASA is not trailing interstellar flight, scientists have continued to advance ion propulsion for missions to deep space and beyond it, utilising solar electric power. This method of propulsion seems to be the fastest and the most efficient as of date.

System Depends on Electromagnetic Drive/EMDrive

NASA is said to have been silently testing an innovative new method of space travel which would someday enable humans to travel at speeds much faster than light. Researchers are of the belief that the new drive would be carrying passengers together with their equipment to the moon in as little as four hours.

A trip to Alpha Centauri which would take tens of thousands of years would now be reached in just 100 years. The system depends on electromagnetic drive or EMDrive that converts electrical energy into thrust without the use of any rocket fuel.

Over the years of scientific theory, several strange theories which have become reality have come up. To know more on the theories of interstellar flight, one could visit the Tau Zero Foundation. A former NASA Glenn physicist, Marc Millis, had founded the organization to consider revolutionary advancements in propulsion. Warp drive which enables humans to go around other galaxies may now no longer be purely in the dominion of science fiction.