What if I told you there’s a prototype German engine that could enable travel between galaxies, in futuristic spaceships that break the laws of physics with the phenomenon of “time warping”? It sounds completely unrealistic, straight out of a science fiction movie, right? But what we have to tell is: scientists are getting closer to making this a reality — closer than you might think. Find out everything about this prototype and what we can expect.
Warp drive: fiction or real possibility?
Do you remember movies like Star Trek or Star Wars, where spaceships traveled through the galaxy at a speed faster than light, using a device called “folding” the space around them? In a new study, German scientists have theorized and studied that, while this technique was considered fantasy, may actually be possible within a few years. This study is called constant-velocity warp drive.
This new study was based on the original theory of warp drive, developed by Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. However, what differentiates the two is that the first was based on “negative energy” — which is unknown if it actually exists, but some scientists believe it comes from “dark energy”, the same energy responsible for the formation of the universe — and this new one talks about the use of “positive energy”.
The problem with the first Alcubierre theory, and the need for a new study on the case, is that the idea required a very large amount of negative energy. And, according to scientists, this is something currently impossible to achieve, even with advanced technology, and perhaps never will be. The starting point for the new study is the information that there is another way to distort spacetime.
How does the new warp drive theory work?
In the article, this “positive energy” is basically explained as the energy produced by a hypothetical engine, not a functional one, in which it would be possible to combine stable matter with a displacement vector distribution, thus making it possible to move the “bubble” of space — caused by the compression of material in front of a spacecraft and expanding it behind — with a spacecraft inside, without accelerating the spacecraft itself beyond the speed of light.
Unlike Alcubierre’s theory, the Germain prototype, while still hypothetical, is based on plausible engineering and conventional physics, not on antimatter or some exotic particle, which the human race does not yet know or master. The expectation is that, with this manipulation of space, we may find a cosmic shortcut, with the speed of light still the limit.
“In this paper, we have developed the first constant velocity subluminal physical warp drive solution to date that is fully consistent with the geodesic transport properties of the Alcubierre metric. This exciting new result offers an important first step toward understanding what makes physical warp solutions.” — Jared Fuchs and colleagues write in their published paper.
What does this discovery mean for the world?
Despite the article on this new theory, it’s still hypothetical and only in the early stages of research. Warp drive is definitely not something that will happen anytime soon, largely due to the technical difficulties involved in building such an engine, as well as calculations involving gravitational fields, space engineering, and energy consumption reduction for such a project.
To see warp drive happen, much study, research, and technological development are still required. But most importantly, what was once a distant dream or a science fiction film is beginning to take shape within scientific discussions. The new warp drive model represents a major advance in the future of automotive technology, and perhaps one day, interstellar exploration will become a reality.
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