NASA is preparing an experiment to test the concept of a warp engine
Connoisseurs of science fiction works (in particular, the Star Trek series) are well aware that the warp engine is the main engine on the ships of the Star Fleet of the Federation of Planets. In science fiction works, the principle of his work is explained in great detail.
The warp field is a bubble of Alcubierre , a kind of curvature of space-time, inside which the ship can reach superluminal speed. Since the warp field compresses the space in front of it and expands it behind the ship, the prohibition of movement above the speed of light in normal spacetime is not violated.
Physicists have long savored the idea of ​​the realization of the Alcubierre bubble. Until now, it was believed that the curvature of space-time would require an unrealistically large expenditure of energy. Some other problems were also found, including the possibility of annihilating star systems at the destination on arrival of the ship.
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However, NASA engineer Harold White (Harold White) is sure that there is a way to significantly reduce energy costs. He persuaded the leadership of NASA to experiment on the creation of Alcubierre bubbles in the laboratory to test the theory, writes New Scientist.
Harold White explains that for ease of perception, a star ship with a warp engine can be thought of as an American football ball with a toroidal ring surrounding it.
Illustration from Harold White's presentation for the “100 Year Starship Symposium” conference in Orlando (2011)
A warp ship might look something like this.
The ball is the ship itself, in which the crew and equipment are located, and the ring contains some “negative vacuum energy”, the existence of which follows from the laws of quantum mechanics. The presence of a toroidal ring with negative energy, according to mathematical and physical calculations, is a necessary condition for creating a warp field.
The idea was first proposed in 1994 , and then the calculation showed that too much energy was needed. For a long time, the practical implementation of the warp engine had to be postponed. But in 2011-2012 Harold White made his own calculations - and found a way to reduce energy requirements by many orders of magnitude, so it is theoretically possible to create a warp field for a ship with a diameter of 10 meters with acceleration to a speed of 10x from the speed of light, he says.
In the near future, an experiment will be set up to verify the correctness of the mathematical and physical concepts that White relies on in her calculations. NASA engineers will attempt to generate microscopic warp bubbles in the laboratory — and measure their properties.
The warp field is a bubble of Alcubierre , a kind of curvature of space-time, inside which the ship can reach superluminal speed. Since the warp field compresses the space in front of it and expands it behind the ship, the prohibition of movement above the speed of light in normal spacetime is not violated.
Physicists have long savored the idea of ​​the realization of the Alcubierre bubble. Until now, it was believed that the curvature of space-time would require an unrealistically large expenditure of energy. Some other problems were also found, including the possibility of annihilating star systems at the destination on arrival of the ship.
')
However, NASA engineer Harold White (Harold White) is sure that there is a way to significantly reduce energy costs. He persuaded the leadership of NASA to experiment on the creation of Alcubierre bubbles in the laboratory to test the theory, writes New Scientist.Harold White explains that for ease of perception, a star ship with a warp engine can be thought of as an American football ball with a toroidal ring surrounding it.
Illustration from Harold White's presentation for the “100 Year Starship Symposium” conference in Orlando (2011)
A warp ship might look something like this.
The ball is the ship itself, in which the crew and equipment are located, and the ring contains some “negative vacuum energy”, the existence of which follows from the laws of quantum mechanics. The presence of a toroidal ring with negative energy, according to mathematical and physical calculations, is a necessary condition for creating a warp field.
The idea was first proposed in 1994 , and then the calculation showed that too much energy was needed. For a long time, the practical implementation of the warp engine had to be postponed. But in 2011-2012 Harold White made his own calculations - and found a way to reduce energy requirements by many orders of magnitude, so it is theoretically possible to create a warp field for a ship with a diameter of 10 meters with acceleration to a speed of 10x from the speed of light, he says.
In the near future, an experiment will be set up to verify the correctness of the mathematical and physical concepts that White relies on in her calculations. NASA engineers will attempt to generate microscopic warp bubbles in the laboratory — and measure their properties.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/191568/
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