A few days ago, we commemorated the anniversary of the landing of man on the moon, a feat achieved by America that will never be forgotten. However, the last historical milestone has just been reached by Germany, or rather, it was reached decades ago, and we did not know it: Einstein, the greatest physicist of all time, had predicted a vehicle capable of traveling faster than light, and this has always been considered science fiction. Against all odds, a team of renowned engineers laid the foundations for this project, and today, we finally know that it is possible.
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What was previously science fiction has come closer to real-world implementation thanks to recent developments in theoretical physics. The warp drive is also based on the law formulated by Albert Einstein, according to which nothing can travel at a speed greater than that of light.
However, in the specific story scenario, in 1994, a Mexican named Miguel Alcubierre describes a theoretical model in which the fabric of space-time can be manipulated and, therefore, a ship with sufficient mass and energy can travel faster than light (remember that this is the theoretical limit).
He shows that the Alcubierre drive allows a spaceship to travel at a speed that seems greater than that of light, because it can literally warp space-time, the space in front of the ship contracting and the space behind it expanding. This model, which revolutionized the means of mass communication, was not without its problems.
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The original Alcubierre engine depended of the use of “exotic material “, that is, of a negative energy density which has not yet been identified in one way or another and which can be considered as a simple theory. The energy required for this type of propulsion was also staggering, on the order of the mass energy of a planet like Jupiter.
Recent research has made it possible to abandon the traditional Alcubierre model in favor of a more realistic approach: the “Constant Velocity Sub-Luminal Warp Drive”. The new idea is a contribution from a team at Applied Physics, an international think tank, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, which proposes a warp drive capable of traveling at sub-light speeds without using such materials.
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The working principle of the warp drive is to form a warp bubble around the spaceship. This bubble shrinks the space in front of the ship and expands it behind it to give the impression that the object is moving through space without exceeding the speed of light within the confines of the bubble.
This means that if the craft itself “flies” beyond the speed of light at a certain distance, this is not a violation of relativity. The recent work also highlights the need to create an application called “Warp Factory”, which helps design and analyze warp engine proposals. This tool allows you to exclude non-physical attributes rough designs, as Einstein predicted.
Warp drives are no longer exclusively confined to the realm of science fiction, or at least are gradually leaving that realm. Recent advances in theoretical models and a solution to power demand indicate that warp drive technology is more than just an idea, scientists are now able to consider the possibility of warp drives as a reality.
What was once considered impossible to achieve is now closer, with the first warp rocket ever “created” or, at least, theorized. Indeed, it was discovered several decades ago by Einstein, but researchers have now managed to “decipher” its very complicated formulas and search the universe for the solution until they have found it. However, experts warn that we still have centuries of development to make this a reality, if not longer, which explains NASA’s skepticism.