No "technology", just the solution to prove near-lightspeed travel is quite possible and easier than we thought.
In theory anyway.
Antigravity beams. Stardrives. No one at mission control is going to be able to say those with a straight face.
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Welcome to Mars express: only a three hour trip
IAN JOHNSTON SCIENCE CORRESPONDENTAN EXTRAORDINARY "hyperspace" engine that could make interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other dimensions is being investigated by the United States government.
The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.
The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.
Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.
The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy - which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine - say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.
Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.
However, Prof Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned it was based on a highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics.
"It would be amazing. I have been working on propulsion systems for quite a while and it would be the most amazing thing. The benefits would be almost unlimited," he said.
"But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion.
"It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
He said the engine would enable spaceships to travel to different solar systems. "If the theory is correct then this is not science fiction, it is science fact," Prof Hauser said.
"NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [US] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works."
The US authorities' attention was attracted after Prof Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a paper called "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory".
Interesting times.
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Pvednes's unholy Backstreet Boys obsession manifested in:
How I'd love Heim to be right...but just because we want something to be true, it does not make it so.
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." - Arther C Clark
"I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."
-- George Herbert Walker Bush
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Nobody really understood why Mortious wrote:
SweetNo "technology", just the solution to prove near-lightspeed travel is quite possible and easier than we thought.
In theory anyway.
Antigravity beams. Stardrives. No one at mission control is going to be able to say those with a straight face.
It would be cool, but overall not very useful. Sublight speed would not be beneficial for anything aside from exploring our own solar system, which we know is mostly barren.
To begin extra-solar exploration, you'd need to be able to go at least 10x the speed of light for it to be worth anything. And even at that speed, it'd be impossible to explore much of our galaxy (90,000 light years in diameter).
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Reynar probably says this to all the girls:
It would be cool, but overall not very useful. Sublight speed would not be beneficial for anything aside from exploring our own solar system, which we know is mostly barren.To begin extra-solar exploration, you'd need to be able to go at least 10x the speed of light for it to be worth anything. And even at that speed, it'd be impossible to explore much of our galaxy (90,000 light years in diameter).
Yes because we all know that we should have gone strait from steam power to planetary colonization. These are all stepping stones on the path, just like with every other technology in human history.
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Azizza had this to say about Cuba:
Yes because we all know that we should have gone strait from steam power to planetary colonization. These are all stepping stones on the path, just like with every other technology in human history.
Boy, you sure showed me.
Oh wait, I wasn't saying anything like that, nevermind.
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ACES! Another post by Reynar:
Boy, you sure showed me.Oh wait, I wasn't saying anything like that, nevermind.
Uh... yes, you were.
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It would be cool, but overall not very useful. Sublight speed would not be beneficial for anything aside from exploring our own solar system, which we know is mostly barren.To begin extra-solar exploration, you'd need to be able to go at least 10x the speed of light for it to be worth anything. And even at that speed, it'd be impossible to explore much of our galaxy (90,000 light years in diameter).
You just directly stated that this is useless because it doesn't get us anywhere near the edge of our galaxy using this technology, with no regard whatsoever to the fact that this technology would, in fact, be a precursor to any technology that would be necessary to do that.
Early cars could barely go 20 MPH. Shucks, they should have just abandoned the technology right there. And hell, at Kittyhawk the Wright brothers didn't fly for more than a few hundred feet. What use is a couple hundred feet?
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KaLourin impressed everyone with:
one step closer to the Event Horizon! Woot!
But... I am home... *vanishintoshadowsomg!* 
