Will Long Distance Space Travel Ever Be Possible & If So How? Folding Space?

Question

We're kind of stuck in the rut of travelling by rocket power and then effectively sling shotting off planetary gravity so we can explore our own system - at least by probe - but how could we travel to other stars? Even achieving light speed would mean multiple years to get to a near star and at that speed; you just couldn't navigate and avoid random collisions etc. If you have a piece of paper and want to know what's the quickest way from one edge to the other - the answer would be to fold the paper so that both points meet so I'm thinking the answer to my question is linked to this somehow. Therefore, how could you create a situation where you could effectively manipulate physics to get from a to b instantly - I don't mean teleportation I mean exploiting physics and / or proving and then harnassing something like the multiverse theory? I guess the way to describe it would be like the film Contact with Jodie Foster - the way she travlled was some kind of wormhole that was plotted.

Thelsra, thanks for the web link, also check the following:

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:75xKCUmgjEQJ:space.newscientist.com/article/mg18925331.200+NEw+Scientist%2BHyperdrive&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=2

FASCINATING!

Answer 1

One of the problems we have here is that there are too many unknowns. Take this problem for instance. I'm no expert, but here is my understanding.
According to Einstein, an object's speed is relative to the speed of the observer. A spacecraft approaching another is effectively moving at about 3 ft per second although from an Earth observer's position, they are both moving at about 18,500 mph.
As I understand it, nothing in space can have a speed of 0. There are no reference points. There is no galactic center by which we can measure speeds.

This rule changes for some reason with light and I haven't researched it enough to understand why. Light speed according to Einstein is the only constant.
But is that light speed from the observer on Earth? What happens when you have two objects approaching each other at .75 light speed? Each one would see the other as approaching at FASTER than light speed.

So you are in a spacecraft and approaching a planet. As you approach that star system, the planet you are headed for is moving away from you. You get within a few mph of light speed and as you approach, the planet rounds its orbit and is now moving towards you. Your effective speed of approach is now light speed + as seen from an observer on that planet. Also, an observer from your planet would see you at + light speed it they were moving away from you.

His entire premise was also based on the e=mc^2 equation that pretty much prevents anything from getting to light speed because the energy required to move the mass to that speed requires too much mass to get to light speed.

Of course, he never considered an object being "pushed" by outside forces such as a solar sail.
SO we have to open our minds to the possibility that Einstein was only mostly right. Maybe light speed isn;t a constant. Maybe it is constant only in nature.
As we have shown many times before, nature only shows us the lower boundaries of the possible. We've seen it with transportation, agriculture and comminucation. We'll see more of that in the coming years when computers surpass our brain's abilities. Maybe it is just like the sound barrier where people simply couldn;t imagine the ability to move faster than the sound we made. That demon that existed at Mach 1, but didn't disappear. He just moved to 1c.

Answer 2

You mean the wormhole theory. That is the theory I head when using the example of a folded piece of paper. The theory I read is that black holes could warp space and produce this effect. However the downside is that anything entering a black hole would be squashed smaller than a tin can.

However, by the way it's looking I would say for probes the idea of the ion drive (which is currently in use on a prove in space now), solar sails (in trials). It also looking likely that matter-anti matter collision could power a probe to travel fast enough to reach another solar system etc in a much faster time than our current methods.

Answer 3

It might sound dramatic or impossible, but long distance space travel is just an another level of travel isn't it. Now, if we say without doubt that it is not possible, that's very lame. If we were to magically go back to the age of neandrethal age and ask the primitive man whether he believes that one day man would be able to fly with this thing called aeroplane, the primitive man would laugh and say..."no way".
But the truth is that it did happen.
Stone age human could walk and run. Thats the best speed.
Then we invented Wheel and so we could move faster.
Then came along automobiles....faster.
Then came flight...even faster.
Then came jets....even faster. We could even break sound barrier.
Why should it stop there.
"Speed of light" might be beyond our comprehension now, but who knows in 500 years...or 1000 years how our technology would be.
Science and technology is developing in a unprecedented phase. Coming up with theories is good because its the theories that will lead to more research, which in eventually lead to practical things. So, i would say....yes..i am optimistic that we will achieve long distance space travel. How we do it, is an open question. Some say...light speed, some say warm holes. I dont know for sure the path we take, but we sure gonna do the journey.

Answer 4

Einstien said that if we travel quicker than the speed of light (the speed of light is not fast enough for us to get anywhere in our own lifetimes) then we would then be at all points of the universe at once and cease to exist. Now some people are proving some of einstiens theories wrong and I expect only time will tell but i think he knew a bit about this subject and i would knock him. They say maybe wormholes but this also has complications. Never the less, I asked my dad this question during tea a while ago and in his amazing simplicity he said 'you dont know what is possible in the future'. Still, we are talking about 3 billion years in the future in my guess - so i expect there is no oppurtunity for a planet move when this one is buggered.

Answer 5

this question is pondered by many theoriticians these days. there are many answers to it, but all of them are in the realm of theory so far. here are some options:
1. metabolic suspension. using methods like reducing body heat and machine feeding, it may be possible to hibernate crews for long durations, so that even flights that will take several years in much higher speeds than what is possible today won't make the crew to loose too much of their life span.
2. folding space. the idea you described, which was also described in the movie Event Horizon, is theoretically possible, if we knew how to create massive gravitational fields without the mass required to create them. the problem is we know so little about the nature of gravity (i.e. we don't really know why there is gravity at all), it's difficult at this time to think of such a system. in the meantime, see this areticle at the New Scientists about a new hyper drive in development: http://space.newscientist.com/channel/space-tech/mg18925331.200

Answer 6

Well that's exactly what the Spacing Guild did in 'DUNE', they ate shedloads of spice developed vastly expanded consciousness' that could encompass spacetime, and shifted it around their heads! what a concept!!!

I suspect it could be possible one day(in theory at least) by manipulating physics but not the physics as we know it now.We are going to need another major paradigm shift as mathematics and physics are reaching the limits of what they can define at this time in the same way that newtonian physics is insufficiant to describe the quantum world but holds perfectly good within its parameters.

As scientists strive to unfold the universe ever further back in time and delve ever deeper into the realms of the infinately small the questions raised will bring about new mathematical and physical models in the continued attempt to describe and define the universe.
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As they say necessity is the mother of invention
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I personally like the idea that we won't so much be devising ways of moving through this spacetime but rather that it will involve interdimentional jumps, can't remember how many dimentions are being put about at the moment? but anyway, in the words of professor Haldene "The universe may not be queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose".

Answer 7

I have just read a article in flight International which states that NASA are seriously concerned about bone wasting in space, due to no gravity. ((1.5% per month)

There needs to be a complete re-think on how this is tackled to avoid permanent damage to wasted limbs and the possible damage to kidneys through stones built up by calcium erosion. So until there is a solution to this the current safe maximum stay in space is 6 months

Answer 8

to answer your question i would say that as long as there is people in this planet that can come up with this sort of questions, then one day someone will come up with the right answer for this problem. if you can think of it then one day this might become a physical reality, but that will only happen if human beeings dont destroy themselves before science and technology has advanced enough to successfuly tackle the many hurdles that intergalactic travel presents. what your question seems to be referring to its instantaneous travel over long distances of space-time, just like what you see in stargate sg-1, or star-trek deep space nine in wich a worm hole is used to transport ships and people instantaneously from regions of space far apart by thousands of light years, am i right? as a number of famous scientists have point out, in theory one could use a worm hole to transport a person from one star to another instantaneously, so in fact a journey which would take a ten thousand light years, assuming we could already travel at the speed of light, would only take a second or so if one could travel through a worm hole. as far as i know at our present stage of development to do such a journey its not possible (yet) as even if we could somehow create a wormhole that would be impractical for human beeigs to go through as it seems that once a object enters the worm hole they tend to collapse thus crushing to oblivion anything within it, but according to theoretical physicist there is at least one way to produce a stable wormhole, and that can only happen if one can harness the power of negative energy, as this is what is required to produce the negative curvature of space-time required to produce a wormhole which is stable enough for an object to go through without the wormhole collapsing. so as long as there is intelligent life in this planet there is hope, what is impossible today will be possible in the future unless everybody gives up hope and dreaming or we destroy ourselves.

Answer 9

The major flaw with the long distance space travel and folding space and physics on a whole is that it is mostly based on a theory... with no actual proof with our current technological level available.

its hard to say if we'll ever acheive it... We're only 5 minutes from doomsday according to 14 Nobel Prize winners....

Answer 10

No we'll kill ourselves off through global warming before we develop the technology to reach another solar system. Why do you think they are so far apart. Its so we can't pollute the whole universe like we have the Earth.