NASA's Accidental Warp Field

[jackwynne]

Primary Source (Highly Technical): http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36313.1840
Secondary Source (Readable with Basic Science Knowledge): http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/04/nasa-may-have-accidentally-developed-a-warp-drive/

While Einstein’s theories of space and time place the speed of light as a universal speed limit of matter travelling through space a theory by Miguel Alcubierre  got around this by proposing to instead warp space in front of and behind the space craft. The Alcubierre drive would effectively allow a ship to travel faster than the speed of light. The limitation being that an absurdly large amount of energy would be needed to power the drive.

 

 
The theory was then built upon by Dr Harold White who works as team lead of the Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory (informally known as Eagleworks) at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre. Dr White’s alterations made the drive more energy efficient and therefore feasible.
 
As a separate project at Eagleworks and other labs around the world a new type of propulsion is being researched the EmDrive proposed by British engineer Roger Shawyer.

This propulsion device uses a magnetron to produce microwaves for thrust, has no moving parts and needs no reaction mass for fuel. In 2014, Johnson Space Center claimed to have developed its own low-power EmDrive.

 

 
A post on NASASpaceFlight.com (a forum that is focused on the engineering side of NASA projects) says that when the path-time of light (how fast it is travelling over a distance) was measured through the EmDrive’s resonance chamber there were significant variances in the speed and most importantly some of the beams appeared to travel faster than the speed of light. This could mean that the drive is producing a warp field or bubble. A comment on NASASpaceFlight.com said  That’s the big surprise. This signature (the interference pattern) on the EmDrive looks just like what a warp bubble looks like. And the math behind the warp bubble apparently matches the interference pattern found in the EmDrive.

 

 

 

The next step is to redo the test in a vacuum to be 100% sure that the apparent warping of space is not due to the temperature of the air. Though Dr White’s preliminary assessments lead him to believe that

“It is not likely that the measured change in the path length is due to transient air heating”.

 

 

 

Even if the EmDrive is producing a warp bubble an actual operating warp drive that could be used to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no man has gone before is a long way off.

 

Please note that while I have done a lot of reading on the topics discussed in this post I do not hold a PHD in physics or maths so if there are any errors I am sorry.

[niofalpha]

Maybe by the time console scan play games at 1080p modern people will benefit from it.

[Bsmith]

ohh man, if this is true, IF NASA created a warp field by accident it shows yet again that the greatest discoveries are closley related to accidents or just side effects.

 

 

more serious:

 

with the ability to travel faster then the speed of light, i guess we should be sure of the fact that our bodies and tech are able to handle it because admit it, FTL seems like a very nice and interesting thing to have, but since our bodies already got trouble with 0 gravity or the force's on our bodies what are included with reaching the 0 gravity point(outer/outside athmosphere) and imagine what would happen with all atoms, molecule's and their bonds when basicly fired away FTL i truelly doubt that we are able to make use of FTL travel without negative effects on our bodies.

So FTL travel might be a way to discover the galaxy/universe with robots and drone's alike, but when it comes to going there ourselves there will be a major problem, unless ofcourse there comes a solution to that(cryo sleep?) so until that point i doubt humanity will be able to leave the solarsystem and explore the galaxy.

[jackwynne]

The speed thing is a non issue because inside the warp bubble the 'ship' is essentially not moving the space is moving around it

[kacper]

ohh man, if this is true, IF NASA created a warp field by accident it shows yet again that the greatest discoveries are closley related to accidents or just side effects.

 

 

more serious:

 

with the ability to travel faster then the speed of light, i guess we should be sure of the fact that our bodies and tech are able to handle it because admit it, FTL seems like a very nice and interesting thing to have, but since our bodies already got trouble with 0 gravity or the force's on our bodies what are included with reaching the 0 gravity point(outer/outside athmosphere) and imagine what would happen with all atoms, molecule's and their bonds when basicly fired away FTL i truelly doubt that we are able to make use of FTL travel without negative effects on our bodies.

So FTL travel might be a way to discover the galaxy/universe with robots and drone's alike, but when it comes to going there ourselves there will be a major problem, unless ofcourse there comes a solution to that(cryo sleep?) so until that point i doubt humanity will be able to leave the solarsystem and explore the galaxy.

It's not really FTL . More like a semi "teleportation" - the observator wouldn't experience FTL .

[deviant88]

Soon ill be moving to another planet im sick of earth's people,ill go live with the aliens.

[Humbug]

That's insane, if NASA can conform it.

Mass Effect level technology.

[TechFan@ic]

I remain very skeptical of this. Only a few years back scientists claimed to have measured a neutrino traveling at speed that surpasses that of light. It eventually turned out to be just an error.
Similarly in this instance measurements for the speed of some of the beams could simply be erroneous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_anomaly.

[LukaP]

To clear it up, a warp drive doesnt actually push the craft to more than c. What it does is it compresses space in front of it, and elongates the space behind it, effectively shortening the trip at close to the speed of light. Which in turn, to an outside observer makes the craft seem to be going faster than the speed of light.

 

The problem so far was, that compressing space in front of you was relatively easy, you just needed lots of energy. What is hard is stretching the space behind you (to get the energy back to zero point and not experience any weird problems with time dillution and such, like with black holes). I guess here JPPL has accidentally been able to aleviate that through microwave energy. Fun stuff

[LukaP]

I remain very skeptical of this. Only a few years back scientists claimed to have measured a neutrino traveling at speed that surpasses that of light. It eventually turned out to be just an error.

Similarly in this instance measurements for the speed of some of the beams could simply be erroneous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_anomaly.

That is true, thats why we wait for the vacuum test as well as peer reviewed results for this, but the PRELIMINARY findings are promising, as the error seems to big to be an error (taking in the account the delta E of the gauss curve) 

[Nup]

Wow, this is fairly mind blowing... 

 

Lest hope the good news keeps rolling on in, 

 

Thanks for sharing. 

[swifty7]

Soon ill be moving to another planet im sick of earth's people,ill go live with the aliens.

don't forget to write!

[sof006]

Well penicillin was discovered by accident and look how amazing it is and how its used today. So yeah this could very well be one of these things.

[HippY]

now we need NASA to discover light saber by accident

[Trik'Stari]

Please, let this be real. I would very much like to go to a new planet, this one has been ruined by morons of all kinds, politicians, businessmen, people who listen to justin beiber, religions, etc.

[ManWithBeard1990]

Never thought I'd see the day. We'll have to wait and see though if this is really true because it could still be (and probably is) a measurement error.

[ObscureMammal]

ohh man, if this is true, IF NASA created a warp field by accident it shows yet again that the greatest discoveries are closley related to accidents or just side effects.

 

Well penicillin was discovered by accident and look how amazing it is and how its used today. So yeah this could very well be one of these things.

 

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny..."  - Isaac Asimov

[RagnarokDel]

ohh man, if this is true, IF NASA created a warp field by accident it shows yet again that the greatest discoveries are closley related to accidents or just side effects.

 

 

more serious:

 

with the ability to travel faster then the speed of light, i guess we should be sure of the fact that our bodies and tech are able to handle it because admit it, FTL seems like a very nice and interesting thing to have, but since our bodies already got trouble with 0 gravity or the force's on our bodies what are included with reaching the 0 gravity point(outer/outside athmosphere) and imagine what would happen with all atoms, molecule's and their bonds when basicly fired away FTL i truelly doubt that we are able to make use of FTL travel without negative effects on our bodies.

So FTL travel might be a way to discover the galaxy/universe with robots and drone's alike, but when it comes to going there ourselves there will be a major problem, unless ofcourse there comes a solution to that(cryo sleep?) so until that point i doubt humanity will be able to leave the solarsystem and explore the galaxy.

With a warp drive, our bodies dont have to be able to handle it as it's standing still, space is what's moving around. At least that's my understanding

[Guest Strangerbob]

Soon ill be moving to another planet im sick of earth's people,ill go live with the aliens.

 

I guarantee you that when you tell them why you want to live with them they will dump you into the nearest star.... as you deserve.

[SurvivorNVL]

Fusion reactors, warp fields, telomeric manipulation, fiber internet--man.  This is a good time to live in.  Let's get the Mass Effect relays operational and start colonizing the universe.  China can keep Earth.  They earned it.

[LukaP]

With a warp drive, our bodies dont have to be able to handle it as it's standing still, space is what's moving around. At least that's my understanding

well you could be a smartass and say that you always stand still and the space moves around you, since that is the whole point of inertial systems. What this does is not move the space, it physically compresses it. which is basically shortening the route one needs to take.

 

Also technically our bodies are perfectly well suited to surviving speeds above c. The only thing we arent suited for is big accelerations.

[Swndlr]

finally, the future

[ObeseWalrus]

Soon ill be moving to another planet im sick of earth's people,ill go live with the aliens.

Going with you, gonna be all like:

 

[Guest Strangerbob]

Looking at some of these comments makes me want to call Earth - the planet of the entitled children.

 

Really shows that its far too early to move away from religion. Most people still deserve it.

[linusforsell]

Oh boy, this research has brought on some incredibly intriguing discoveries. Always found the continued research of the EmDrive important, and just look at this;Even if it turns out being moot results, it's still a very interesting development.