Download Goal: To get to know the ins and outs of relativity (relatively speaking)

Goal: To learn about the science
behind warp drive
Objectives:
1) To learn what is warp drive
2) To learn what we need to be
able to do to get warp drive
3) To learn about the problems
with warp drive
4) Energy, how do we produce it?
Some quotes
• Spock: Ahh, Mr. Scott, I understand you’re
having difficulty with the warp drive. How much
time do you require for repair?
Scotty: There’s nothing wrong with the bloody
thing!
Spock: Mr. Scott, if we return to space dock, the
assassins will surely find a way to dispose of
their incriminating footwear, and we will never
see the captain, or Dr. McCoy, alive again.
Scotty: Could take weeks, sir!
– -Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
What is warp drive
• It turns out there are actually two possible
answers for this.
• For the first we need to quickly examine
M-theory
11 dimensional universe
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•
•
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What are they?
Imaginary time?
Imaginary spatial?
Spatial dimensions extremely large or
extremely small
• Others we cannot imagine
Bend “space”
• What happens if we bend one of the 7
dimensions we don’t know about.
• Then we travel in that dimension as a
short cut.
• This would be sub-space
Advantages
• Eliminates that pesky energy requirement
for traveling – you can go slow
• No time distortion because you are not
warping a normal space dimension and
therefore don’t warp normal time
• Maybe warp imaginary time, but who
cares about that.
Disadvantages
• Might not be possible, we don’t know yet.
• You basically have to create a wormhole.
To be usable
• We would have to be able to move in other
dimensions without creating a wormhole.
• Or, instead of subspace we travel through
sub-time
• That would allow through space without
traveling through time as well
• Need gamma to be less than 1 (imaginary
velocities?)
Second method
• This one is more likely the one they are
attempting on Star Trek.
• We have seen that we can warp space.
• This is fact, called Alcubierre warp drive
• Alcubierre, M., (Dept. of Physics and
Astronomy, Univ. of Wales, College of
Cardiff CF1 3YB, UK), "The warp drive:
hyper-fast travel within general relativity",
In Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol 11,
p. L73-L77, (1994).
So, we need
• To warp space without warping time.
• So, we need to have a net effect such that
the net warping is zero.
• Therefore what we do is compact space in
front of us and expand it behind us.
Furthermore
• The more you warp it the faster you get to
your destination (thus the warp factor).
• No cleanup, no mess, no wormhole
To be usable
• Use of a ring of negative mass energy
material.
• Inside ring has to be equal positive energy
mass.
But what is the catch?
• Lots of energy
• Even more than relativity needed
• Could be dangerous close to any object
Energy
• The biggest issue we face in space
exploration is energy.
• How do we generate the power required to
do what we want?
• Two ways to do this.
Fusion
• Fusion is a very difficult process.
• Only possible in the sun due to quantum
tunneling
• We humans have to overcome by
overdoing the energy.
Method 2: antimatter
• The most efficient way to produce energy
in the universe – pound for pound – is to
collide antimatter with normal matter.
• E = mc2
• A small amount of material can generate
lots of power.
If we switched to antimatter:
• USA uses 1020 J of energy a year.
• 1500 kg a year of antimatter.
Why don’t we?
• Insanely expensive (money and energy
wise) to produce.
• $62.5 trillion per gram currently
Conclusion
• Warp drive is possible.
• Might not be feasible, realistic, or even the
best choice, but possible.
• However, once again the problem is
energy.