Posted on 05/14/2015 1:46:07 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
* Nasa is thought to have successfully tested a revolutionary power source
* Claimed it could fly for eons at the equivalent of 450 million miles an hour
* It is powered by a device similar to that found in a microwave oven
* Invented by now retired British scientist Roger Shawyer a decade ago
Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Star Trek or a Star Wars film will know how it works.
The good guys are minding their business in outer space when suddenly the Klingons or the Dark Empire bear down on them out of nowhere.
There is only one way out. At the flick of a switch, our heroes are flashed — in a blur of passing stars — to safety elsewhere in the universe.
Call it warp drive or a hyper drive, it adds up to the same thing: a miraculous power source that allows a spacecraft to fly at unimaginable speeds.
But while it’s so far confined to the realms of sci-fi, the concept could become reality.
U.S. space agency Nasa is thought to have successfully tested a revolutionary new power source that could enable spacecraft to travel to the Moon in just four hours instead of more than three days and to Mars in two or three weeks instead of seven months.
Compact enough to fit into a suitcase, this whizzy new device could — it is claimed — keep flying for eons, at the equivalent of an astonishing 450 million miles an hour....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
LOL!
Of all the scientifically illiterate articles I’ve read this is the illiteratest.
“Nasa is thought to have successfully tested a revolutionary power source”
“Thought to have”? By whom?
Warp speed is considered traveling at the speed of light- 186,000 miles per second.
My point for years - ever since Star Trek.......at that speed, there would be no way to avoid a random asteroid, planet - or even a star.....it would be suicidal.
It is inconceivable that any automated guidance system could be devised to steer around objects at that speed. In fact, a course adjustment required to do so might just kill everyone in the ship due to momental inertia.
But then - it was once inconceivable that man could fly, or go to the moon...........
I can envision an Rick Moranis, Lord Dark Helmet moment here. . . .
Warp speed, isn’t that how fast the pinko party runs to the podium asking for more money every time something happens?
Alice looks impressed, doesn’t she...
In Star Trek they didn’t go around objects in their path, they had a “Navigational Deflector” (force field thingie) that pushed material out of their path.
And that included being able to push stars and planets out of their path??????
Nice try. Do you honestly think that the directional plans of these fictional devices wouldn’t take into account the presence of stars/planets/asteroids and their known orbits?
That’s in the same vein as a CBG deciding to go from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in a straight line from Newport News. They actually PLOT their directional changes and everything, using these amazing things called “charts” that list all the known hazards. Imagine!
“While the cops can’t keep up with you, they’ll get you once you stop........’
Yeah but, I’ll be light years away before I stop!
The big dish on the front of the Enterprises secondary/engineering hull wasn’t a radar dish (as a lot believe) but an incredibly powerful deflector designed to push objects out of the ship’s path.
The theory being that if you have the technology necessary to produce enough power to warp space allowing exponential increases in distances covered beyond the speed of light, you can also produce a deflection field capable of pushing anything up to decent sized objects out if the way.
Umm...the moon is 239,000 miles from Earth. To reach it in four hours you only need to do 60,000 mph. I believe (checking math, lessee, divide by Pi, carry the two, add 30% for income tax) - yes, 60,000 is less than 450,000,000.
Not exactly.
“Warp Speed” is a misnomer. You aren’t really making the ship go faster than light, you’re warping space around the ship to cover distance faster.
If you take a piece of string and stretch it out straight, going from one end to another along it’s length, thats normal sublight travel. If you then bend it into a U, jumping between the two end points rather than traveling the length of the string, is warp travel.
The problem with terrestrial use is that the acceleration is miniscule. Your scooter could probably use it, but it would take all day to get it moving.
The whole idea with space travel is that there is not resistance.
Kind of hinders the whole stopping thing too...
Get one today....I have a coupon!
If the man is Smoking a Pipe and works out of a Garden Shed, it could be true....
Either way, i'll standby with my space based tow-truck to recover the bits for the resulting Public inquiry into " The Excessive use of speed in space"
Thanks for the heads up, i'll get a chair, 'This gonna be good'! :)
"Do you have a license to operate that"?
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