Do you think we'll have faster-than-light travel a la Star Trek?

Question

Eisntein theorized FTL travel is impossible. Star Trek introduced warp speed and other sci-fi films and shows have other forms of FTL or hyperspace travel. Some scientists are even trying to make FTL practical. Do you think we'll experience FTL in our lifetimes, and how will it happen?

Answer 1

yes and no. we don't need faster than light travel to get distances much faster than light can. at any rate, einstein is entirely correct in that the speed of light is a final, non-negotiable speed limit for the universe. However, using einsteins theories on the ability to bend space, it might be possible to bend space so much that two very distant points touch together... a space ship could then simply side step from one point on the plane to the corresponding (touching) point. then if we unfold space the ship would be (feasably) hundreds of thousands of light years away, though it had never accelerated to relativistic speeds or actually travelled very far at all

Answer 2

Sure, although I doubt it will be in our lifetimes unless medical science progresses faster (and insurance coverage keeps up)

British mathematician, Michael Alcubierre worked out the math for an FTL gravity wave drive a few years ago, although it's not a 'true' faster-than-light drive. It involves creating a zone of positive gravity in the desired direction of travel and a zone of negative gravity behind. Space is compressed ahead and expanded behind, creating a wave or warp The ship 'surfs' the gravity wave -- it doesn't actually move, it's space that 'moves'.

This will, of course, require powerful and precise control of gravity including the ability to produce anti- or negative gravity and no one I've read is exactly sure how you might polarize gravity. Then too, you're limited by the fact that if you create too powerful a positive gravity zone, you create a black hole. Details.

If wormholes exist and can be found, or better yet artificially produced, they will provide the shortcuts prometheus mentions (see nasa link below)

Personally, I'm holding out for a drive based on quantum probability. If you could manipulate that, you could theoretically manipulate the probability that a ship exists at point B rather than at point A, without it having to move through the intervening space. We've already done this on a very small (subatomic) scale with electrons. You might not have to displace the mass of the ship very far, perhaps by its own length or diameter or a fraction thereof, if you could perform the displacement cycles at a very high frequency. A ship with a length or diameter of 300 meters, displacing by its own length during each cycle at a rate of 1GHz would be traveling at 1,000 c. Again, since the drive is reactionless, the ship isn't actually moving, no acceleration, no inertia. I suspect that some sort of conventional drive would also be required or at least desirable in order to increase the probability of motion along a certain vector and also to provide acceleration 'gravity' and maneuvering.

Answer 3

No way, guy. And that is really a shame because there is no way to get to the stars without it. :(

I think that it is just the way the universe is built that we cant and wont ever be able to go faster than light (or even close to light speed). So we are stuck here on Earth -- all dressed up and nowhere to go!

Answer 4

I think that it will not ever happen--not because humans are not smart enough to figure it out, but because it is physically impractical due to the enormous amount of energy I heard it would take.

Answer 5

No ... we are having enough trouble getting the space shuttle to lift-off ! For the foreseeable future ... Einstein rules !

Answer 6

Eisntein also theorized E=MC2, I think