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NASA starts building faster-than-light warp engine
rt.com ^ | 7/24/13 | Rt.com

Posted on 07/24/2013 11:36:33 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda

NASA starts building faster-than-light warp engine Get short URL Published time: July 23, 2013 19:06 Edited time: July 24, 2013 14:39

Researchers at NASA’s Texas-based Johnson Space Center are trying to prove that it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light, and hope to one day build an engine that resembles the fictional Starship Enterprise.

NASA physicist and engineer Dr. Harold G. White, 43, believes it is possible to bend the rules of time and space that Albert Einstein constructed when he postulated that it is impossible to exceed the speed of light.

White's research is based on the theories of Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, who in 1994 theorized that exceeding Einstein’s galactic speed limit was possible if scientists discovered a way to harness the expansion and contraction of space. And Harold and his team are trying to do just that.

(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: nasa; warpdrive
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To: VAFreedom

Or building a computer with stone knives and a bear skin.


41 posted on 07/24/2013 12:05:26 PM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: The Duke
So, what happens when you run into a speck of cosmic dust at that speed? Hmmm.....Good question. Space is not a vacuum. I don't think that running into small rocks at that speed, would work out real well.
42 posted on 07/24/2013 12:05:43 PM PDT by Mark17 (This creepy a$$ cracker is retiring in the Philippines)
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To: Mark17

Darn HTML


43 posted on 07/24/2013 12:06:30 PM PDT by Mark17 (This creepy a$$ cracker is retiring in the Philippines)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Once again the star trek time line history has been tampered with. No mention of Zefram Cochran at all.


44 posted on 07/24/2013 12:07:41 PM PDT by xp38
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To: ElkGroveDan

Agreed, they are attempting proof of concept. That’s a looooong way from building a practical device.


45 posted on 07/24/2013 12:09:44 PM PDT by Jack of all Trades (Hold your face to the light, even though for the moment you do not see.)
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To: left that other site
Ye cannoh change the laws of PHYSICS, Cap’n.

It's all theoretical. BUT.... I have been trying to follow some of the subatomic research that they have been doing. In layman's terms (which is all I can offer on this subject), scientists have been mystified by how certain subatomic particles can be in two places at once. Quantum Mechanics/physics are starting to suggest that there may be another set of laws for physics at the subatomic level, including faster than light speeds (it explains why certain particles can be observed in two places at once).

It's all nerdy stuff. But imagine a universe within the confines of an atom. Whoa! Now scale up that atom to the size of our solar system. Beam me up, Scotty.

We'll be long dead before these fun things come to pass. Either that, or we'll kill ourselves figuring it out. Either way, Weeeeeeeee! lol

46 posted on 07/24/2013 12:12:18 PM PDT by Tenacious 1 (If the government told us to expect rain, I'd schedule an outdoor wedding.)
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To: The Duke

The idea is that you won’t run into anything. By literally bending the fabric of space/time, you make a transfer point where your present location and desired destination are at the same point or close enough for practical travel.

Think of it as creating a “tunnel” between the Earth and Jupiter where we can walk into one end of the tunnel and walk out of the other end of the tunnel and be in the orbit of Jupiter. The length of that tunnel is technically finite.

It’s similar to 4 dimensional travel where you attach two points on a strip of paper and create a mobius.


47 posted on 07/24/2013 12:12:59 PM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Auntie Dem

“I had one of those—clipped its antenna to my metal headboard and picked up a lot of stations. “

Ha! I had one of those. Clipped it to my bed springs. Used to listen to Mad Daddy in Cleveland, until he aired a rather “dirty” rhyme.
‘”Hang Loose, Mother Goose, Your ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,juice.”


48 posted on 07/24/2013 12:13:13 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: The Duke
So, what happens when you run into a speck of cosmic dust at that speed? Hmmm.....

At that speed, it happened in the future, so nobody will ever know about it....

49 posted on 07/24/2013 12:14:02 PM PDT by Tenacious 1 (If the government told us to expect rain, I'd schedule an outdoor wedding.)
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To: left that other site

you assume we KNOW all the laws of physics

There may still be things to learn, like gravity wave propulsion (not prohibitted by Einstein’s equations)


50 posted on 07/24/2013 12:14:25 PM PDT by Mr. K (4 election)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
It must be nice to have a project where not seeing it is proof that it works.

-PJ

51 posted on 07/24/2013 12:15:52 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: ElkGroveDan

They don’t know what they are atalking about- that makes everythign ELSE they write about equally suspect


52 posted on 07/24/2013 12:16:14 PM PDT by Mr. K (4 election)
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To: VAFreedom
imagine going back to the stone ages and trying to build a radio.

I've tried to imagine what it would be like to bring an 19th century inventor to present time. Put him in the passenger seat of my truck and go for a 75 MPH ride down the highway at night with the air conditioner blowing and the radio blasting music.

Now imagine what we might expect if we were moved 200 years into the future. We can't imagine what to expect, but we would at least expect to be surprised.

53 posted on 07/24/2013 12:18:06 PM PDT by Tenacious 1 (If the government told us to expect rain, I'd schedule an outdoor wedding.)
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To: Billthedrill
Don’t worry, it doesn’t work. Faster-than-light speed and the resulting time travel didn’t happen until March 2026. Don’t ask how I know that.

Well played. lol

54 posted on 07/24/2013 12:19:44 PM PDT by Tenacious 1 (If the government told us to expect rain, I'd schedule an outdoor wedding.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
possible to travel faster than the speed of light

I hope it doesn't hit the sun.

55 posted on 07/24/2013 12:21:48 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
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To: Mr. K
“They don’t know what they are atalking about- that makes everythign ELSE they write about equally suspect.

It's RT, folks. What did you expect? Reality?

56 posted on 07/24/2013 12:22:04 PM PDT by riverdawg
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To: The Duke
So, what happens when you run into a speck of cosmic dust at that speed? Hmmm.....
________________________________________________________

Well, actually the idea is to not run into anything, the idea is to move space out of the way and and replace it with more distant space. Several theories say it can be done although only on subatomic scales.

Even Subatomic scales could be useful to communications and energy research, but I wouldn't look for any advances in this field for a few hundred years. The energy likely required would be rather huge.

It would be cool though to step into a machine and a second later be millions of miles away, just don't think it is going to happen for a long time, perhaps in a galaxy far far away.

57 posted on 07/24/2013 12:23:36 PM PDT by JAKraig (Surely my religion is at least as good as yours)
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To: left that other site

Well, smart guys said the speed of sound was a physical barrier, too.


58 posted on 07/24/2013 12:24:28 PM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Obama to NASA: “ you didn’t build that”


59 posted on 07/24/2013 12:26:22 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Mr. K
you assume we KNOW all the laws of physics

Science is dumbfounded by gravity to this day. In other parts of the universe, current theories suggest gravity may behave differently. Of course, a lot of those theories are formed to patch holes in still other theories, usually on the way to figuring out where our universe came from.

60 posted on 07/24/2013 12:26:41 PM PDT by Tenacious 1 (If the government told us to expect rain, I'd schedule an outdoor wedding.)
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