NASA Starts WARP Drive Experiments

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:10 pm

lil titbit i picked up. far out, but hey, worth a punt...

http://gizmodo.com/5942634/nasa-starts- ... warp-drive

http://www.space.com/17628-warp-drive-p ... light.html

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:34 pm

It also made the mainstream news.

See how it goes...

zDarby · Post by **zDarby** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 5:42 am

Posted this on a different forum and a fellow who says he works in a theoretical physics department specializing in cosmology and GR --and I have no reason to doubt him-- speculates the author is a crackpot.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I read the "Warp Field Mechanics 101" PDF and it seems like bogus to me

The stuff about the Alcubierre drive are legit, but highly speculative.

BTW, this guy has zero publications in theoretical physics, so this makes it even more probable that he's a crackpot. The fact that he has put the PDF in a NASA server doesn't really mean much.

PS I'm working at a theoretical physics department focusing in cosmology and general relativity.

....Take it for what it's worth.

GIThruster · Post by **GIThruster** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:01 am

I suggest you note to him that the idea is not nearly as far fetched as it sounds and distinguish between Woodward's and White's very different models for him. And recommend the book due out in just 2 months now.

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Starships- ... ++Woodward

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:53 pm

zDarby wrote:...-- speculates the author is a crackpot....

yes. i 'might' speculate the same. but then again i dont know him/them, so i best not.

according to wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/c_drive), just one of the many objections to Alcubierre's conjecture is that you need am Alcubierre Drive in order to build an Alcubierre Drive. since none exists, it is impossible. (not to mention the exotic anti-matter requirement).

darn kool job title though. crackpot or not.

ps. i think this has something to do with NASA's project Icarus (blue-skies, interstellar travel, etc). i understood it had been awarded funding. but i may be wrong.

paulmarch · Post by **paulmarch** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:15 am

ladajo wrote:It also made the mainstream news.

See how it goes...

The White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer experiment is rather straight-forward and the first phase of it using DC excitation of the warp core will be completed by this coming Xmas. From there we check out White's ac warp-core approach operating at ~200 MHz or so. See:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi. ... 016932.pdf

The objective in both of these experiments is to see if we can create a measureable contraction of spacetime over a small ~1.0 cc volume using the laser interferometer just as a sensor of the spacetime distortion effect created by a toroidal potential energy concentration.

Best,

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:40 pm

thanks for that link Paul. fascinating.

hope it works.

sent it to my bro. who is professor/physicist at NPL, UK. his response:

"OMG -anything with warp core in any title of any scientific experiment gets my vote and 100% attention!".

good to know there are still a few other sane minds about willing to entertain crazy dreams.

keep up the good work.

AcesHigh · Post by **AcesHigh** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:51 pm

Paul... for a warp drive, we would need contraction in one "side" and expansion at the other side right?

the expansion is the part that would need negative mass correct? Which so far, the only way to theoretically achieve it would be through Woodward´s theories?

paulmarch · Post by **paulmarch** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 4:54 am

AcesHigh wrote:Paul... for a warp drive, we would need contraction in one "side" and expansion at the other side right?

the expansion is the part that would need negative mass correct? Which so far, the only way to theoretically achieve it would be through Woodward´s theories?

AcesHigh:

Re-read White's Warp-Field Mechanics 101 paper and its references. Viewed through White's canonical transformation of Alcubierrie's warp metric all you need to make a warp drive is to develop a negative field pressure like that found in a Casimir cavity, configured in a toroidal ring, combined with an accelerated frame of reference for the negative pressure ring to act on to make a warp drive. No need for hard to come by negative exotic (inertial) matter...

Best,

GeeGee · Post by **GeeGee** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:16 am

Paul,

I'm a bit confused by this. How does this experiment differ from standard laser interferometry experiments that look for the gravitational effect of light?

paulmarch · Post by **paulmarch** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:15 pm

GeeGee wrote:Paul,

I'm a bit confused by this. How does this experiment differ from standard laser interferometry experiments that look for the gravitational effect of light?

Simple, the LIGO experiment doesn't try to induce a spactime distortion in one of the legs of the interferometer. This test series does.

Best,

kurt9 · Post by **kurt9** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:53 am

I've heard that if this warp effect can be made, that it's supposed to be easier to make wormholes than to make a warp field around a space craft. At least this is what earlier papers from Eric Davis claimed.

djolds1 · Post by **djolds1** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:24 am

paulmarch wrote:AcesHigh:

Re-read White's Warp-Field Mechanics 101 paper and its references. Viewed through White's canonical transformation of Alcubierrie's warp metric all you need to make a warp drive is to develop a negative field pressure like that found in a Casimir cavity, configured in a toroidal ring, combined with an accelerated frame of reference for the negative pressure ring to act on to make a warp drive. No need for hard to come by negative exotic (inertial) matter...

Kewl...

Does the same apply to his QVT?

kurt9 wrote:I've heard that if this warp effect can be made, that it's supposed to be easier to make wormholes than to make a warp field around a space craft. At least this is what earlier papers from Eric Davis claimed.

I suspect that's with the standard Alcubierre metric, not the White modification.

kurt9 · Post by **kurt9** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:14 pm

Would it not be correspondingly easier to make wormholes as well with the White modification?

djolds1 · Post by **djolds1** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:38 am

kurt9 wrote:Would it not be correspondingly easier to make wormholes as well with the White modification?

Jim Woodward's standard claim is that wormholes require a Jovian mass of negative mass, and IIRC the "standard" Alcubierre warp requires a solar mass of negative mass (maybe more). Per Paul, the White boost requires zilch negative mass - just casimir effects. You tell me.