In science fiction, the “warp drive” helps Captain Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Commander Janeway and Benjamin Sisko potter around space with ease. Without warp speed, TV episodes of Star Trek would stretch into months and seasons would last decades. Alas, even science fiction succumbs to the laws of relativity: Nothing, not even light (or a Klingon) can travel faster than the speed of light. As I researched for a recent Universe Today article, the space between the stars is prohibitively large, even the nearest star is over 4 light years away (Proxima Centauri), so how could it be possible for USS Enterprise to flit from one star system to the next without putting a dent in Einstein’s theory of relativity? The answer comes if we realise that although light speed is a physical limit on how fast things can travel through space-time, there is no limit on how fast space-time can travel if it is warped. Suddenly we have a theoretically possible means of travelling between the stars by altering the fabric of the Universe in a warp “bubble”…
On writing the article “How Long Would it Take to Travel to the Nearest Star?,” I quickly realised that there is pretty much zero chance of mankind reaching the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, which is located a pedestrian 4.22 light years away. Even if we used the fastest theoretically possible nuclear pulse propulsion, we could only reach a tiny fraction of the speed of light (c). In a best case scenario, it might take us around 80 years to get to the nearest star. If we had hopes of becoming a cosmic colonization heavyweight, we’d need to think again.
It’s one of those perfect writer’s moments: you finish one article, only to find another perfect news-worthy subject that slots right in place. In the article I wrote a few hours ago (“Bad Move Buzz, Science Fiction DOES NOT Make Space Boring“), Buzz Aldrin’s misconception about the usefulness of science fiction on motivating younger generations to learn more about space science was discussed. Then, I read the arXiv Blog to see a short review about some research into the sci-fi warp drive. Although it’s late, I think this article is worth burning the midnight oil over.
Back in 1994, Michael Alcubierre, a physicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, put together a formalized paper about the possibility of travelling faster than light by warping space-time. Of course, the idea for warping space to make space travel easier on TV audiences had been around for many years before then, but this was the first attempt at turning science fiction into science fact (or at least theory). Basically, the “Alcubierre Bubble” would be a region of space a spacecraft would generate, where space-time is compressed in front, but stretched out behind. The region in the middle (where the spacecraft is) would remain normal. In this case, the spaceship would effectively be stationary, but the bubble would able to travel anywhere in space at any speed.
Now two physicists at Baylor University in Texas think that recent developments in superstring theory may help the Alcubierre Bubble to have a more solid foundation. Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy believe there may be a way to change the dimensions of the curled microscopic dimensions we cannot usually experience (as predicted by superstrings and brane theory). If some distortion is possible, then compressing and stretching space-time may be a possibility, allowing the formation of an Alcubierre Bubble.
“The basic idea is that by altering the radius of an extra dimension, it would be possible, in principle, to adjust the energy density of spacetime.” – Cleaver and Obousy.
However, an estimate of the energy required to perform space-time distortion on demand is huge. 1045 Joules would be required to generate a space-time bubble large enough for travelling around the cosmos – to put this into context, the spaceship would require the same energy that would be generated from converting the total mass of Jupiter into energy.
Still, at least it’s a start…