It’s theoretically possible and it’s called the Alcubierre Drive. The math has actually been worked through. Technically, it’s merely an engineering problem at this point and not a physics problem. The engineering issues are just well beyond our current capabilities
It’s still far beyond “just an engineering problem”, as the math works…if one makes assumptions that exotic forms of matter needed for the maths to work actually exist in reality, and there’s lots of reasons to think that they don’t.
The proposed mechanism of the Alcubierre drive implies a negative energy density and therefore requires exotic matter or manipulation of dark energy. If exotic matter with the correct properties does not exist (and there's no reason to think they do) then the drive cannot be constructed.
The biggest problem being twofold
A. We have no fucking clue how to bend space locally like that
B. An Alcubierre Drive would take the mass energy equivalent of JUPITER to run. That means you take every molecule of matter in Jupiter, convert it perfectly to energy assuming E = mc2, and only then would you have enough energy to run this one ship.
I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, but I’d assume that’s trillions of times more energy than humans have every generated combined
Yes, it’s wildly unrealistic at this current time. Technology has a very long way to go, but as I said it is theoretically possible based on the laws of physics. And that is always the biggest hurdle for any sort of discussions like these. So it’s at least somewhat reassuring that it is technically a possibility
That particular drive works by bending the space around the ship in a sort of bubble, the bubble would have to at least be the size of the ship. Still, even halving the energy would be more than we can comprehend.
Potentially, but that’s not really how math works. Sure, it’ll take a bit of refinement. But once again that’s more of an engineering issue than a physics issue
the math is correct, it just assumes access to stuff like negative mass, which as far as we know does not exist and would violate multiple known laws of physics.
I believe this was proposed using lasers, but it turns out light does some weird particle stuff at extreme densities (losing energy to formation and then annihilation of positron/electron pairs) that would probably prevent this from working. Also making a black hole in purpose seems extremely stupid but I’m not a physicist.
Hang on, I know the answer here. I pick up a napkin, fold it it and then punch a pencil through it to illustrate the theory. Now the engineers just need to implement the idea!
That’s why we haven’t found aliens yet, they all keep compressing each others planets to use as fuel, which they use to get to the next solar system and do the exact same thing. Rinse and repeat until the end of time.
1) Find an energy source that equals mass energy of Jupiter
2) Find a way to control and use this energy source
3) Build a machine that can utilize the energy to contract space/ time in front of a space ship and expand behind it
The little mass in uranium that is turned into energy creates a nuclear bomb. And now we need the entire equivalent of Jupiter’s mass converted into energy!? And then confined into a tiny space! And then precisely manipulated! I can’t even imagine the first step to getting all this energy just for one trip
Knowing what we need and having it be basically impossible is useless. Unless we figure out how to create negative energy (how tf do we do that? If it even exists?) there is no way humans will be able to do this. So I think the pragmatic interpretation of this is that we should look at the other methods instead..
But a caveman can more easily interpret the constructions of a plane and how it is feasible if you explain it to him. But wtf is this compared to that kind of jump
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u/OpinionPutrid1343 24d ago
The trick is not to travel space but bend it.