Hyperdrive Engineering

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Inte4resting

 

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Does any of this actually work? Has a scale model of this ever defied gravity?

 

Does this theory unify all 4 fundamental forces or just Electromagnetism and Gravity?

 

Proposed methods of interstellar travel
If a spaceship could average 10 percent of light speed, this would be enough to reach Proxima Centauri in forty years. Several propulsion systems are conceivably able to achieve this, but none of them are ready for near-term (few decades) development at realistic cost.


Nuclear pulse propulsion
Since the 1960s it has been technically possible to build spaceships with nuclear pulse propulsion engines, i.e. ships driven by a series of nuclear explosions. This propulsion system contains the prospect of very high specific impulse (space travel's equivalent of fuel economy) and high speed, and therefore of reaching the nearest star in decades rather than centuries; construction and operational costs per unit of payload were expected to be similar to those of ships using chemical rockets.[4]

Proposed interstellar spacecraft using nuclear pulse propulsion include Project Orion and Project Longshot. Using miniature nuclear bombs as fuel, Orion would be able to reach a velocity of 10% of the speed of light. It is one of very few known interstellar spacecraft proposals that could be constructed entirely with today's technology.


Fusion rockets
Fusion rocket starships, using foreseeable fusion reactors, should be able to reach speeds of approximately 10 percent of that of light. These would "burn" such light element fuels as deuterium, tritium, or 3He. One proposal using a fusion rocket is Project Daedalus. Because fusion yields on the order of 1% of the mass of the nuclear fuel as released energy, it is energetically more favorable than fission, which releases only on the order of 0.1% of the fuel's mass-energy. However the most achievable fusion reactions release a large fraction of their energy as high-energy neutrons, which are not simple to use for propulsion.

A problem with all traditional rocket propulsion methods is that the spacecraft would need to carry its fuel with it, thus making it quite heavy. The following three methods attempt to solve this problem.


Interstellar ramjets
In 1960 Robert W. Bussard proposed the Bussard ramjet, a fusion rocket in which a huge scoop would collect the diffuse hydrogen in interstellar space, "burn" it on the fly using a proton-proton fusion reaction, and expel it out of the back. Though later calculations with more accurate estimates suggest that the thrust generated would be less than the drag caused by any conceivable scoop design, the idea is attractive because, as the fuel would be collected en route, the craft could theoretically accelerate to near the speed of light.


Antimatter rockets
An antimatter rocket would have a far higher energy density and specific impulse than any other proposed class of rocket. Assuming that energy resources and efficient production methods are found to make antimatter in the quantities required, theoretically it would be possible to reach speeds near that of light, where time dilation would shorten perceived trip times for the travelers considerably.


Beamed propulsion
A light sail or magnetic sail powered by a massive laser or particle accelerator in the home star system could potentially reach even greater speeds than rocket- or pulse propulsion methods, because it would not need reaction mass and therefore would not need to accelerate that as well as the payload. In theory a lightsail driven by a laser or other beam from Earth can be used to decelerate a spacecraft approaching a distant star or planet, by detaching part of the sail and using it to focus the beam on the forward-facing surface of the rest of the sail.[5] A magnetic sail could also decelerate to its destination without fuel, by interacting with the plasma found in the solar wind of the destination star and the interstellar medium.

Beamed propulsion seems to be the best interstellar travel technique presently available, since it uses known physics and known technology that is being developed for other purposes,[3] and would be considerably cheaper than nuclear pulse propulsion.

The following table lists some example concepts using beamed lased propulsion as proposed by the physicist Robert L. Forward[5][6]

Mission Laser Power Vehicle Mass Acceleration Sail Diameter Maximum Velocity (% of the speed of light)
1. Flyby 65 GW 1 t 0.036 g 3.6 km 0.11 @ 0.17 ly
2. Rendezvous
outbound stage 7,200 GW 785 t 0.3 g 100 km 0.21 @ 2.1 ly
deleceration stage 26,000 GW 71 t 0.2 g 30 km 0.21 @ 4.3 ly
3. Manned
outbound stage 75,000,000 GW 78,500 t 0.3 g 1000 km 0.50 @ 0.4 ly
deleceration stage 17,000,000 GW 7,850 t 0.3 g 320 km 0.50 @ 10.4 ly
return stage 17,000,000 GW 785 t 0.3 g 100 km 0.50 @ 10.4 ly
deceleration stage 430,000 GW 785 t 0.3 g 100 km 0.50 @ 0.4 ly


Further speculative methods

Light speed travel/ FTL faster than light

Interstellar travel via transmission
Main article: Teleportation
If physical entities could be transmitted as information and reconstructed at a destination, travel precisely at the speed of light would be possible. Note that, under General Relativity, information cannot travel faster than light. The speed increase when compared to near-light-speed travel would therefore be minimal for outside observers, but for the travelers the journey would become instantaneous.

Encoding, sending and then reconstructing an atom by atom description of (say) a human body is a daunting prospect, but it may be sufficient to send software that in all practical purposes duplicates the neural function of a person. Presumably, the receiver/reconstructor for such transmissions would have to be sent to the destination by more conventional means. Tachyons could not be used for communication.


Faster than light travel
Main article: faster-than-light
Scientists and authors have postulated a number of ways by which it might be possible to surpass the speed of light. Even the most serious-minded of these are speculative.


Warped spacetime
According to Einstein's equation of General Relativity, spacetime is curved:



General relativity may permit the travel of an object faster than light in curved spacetime.[7] One could imagine exploiting the curvature to take a "shortcut" from one point to another. This is one form of the Warp Drive concept.

In physics, the Alcubierre drive is based on an argument that the curvature could take the form of a wave in which a spaceship might be carried in a "bubble". Space would be collapsing at one end of the bubble and expanding at the other end. The motion of the wave would carry a spaceship from one space point to another in less time than light would take through unwarped space. Nevertheless, the spaceship would not be moving faster than light within the bubble. This concept would require the spaceship to incorporate a region of exotic matter, or "negative mass."


Wormholes
Wormholes are conjectural distortions in space-time that theorists postulate could connect two arbitrary points in the universe, across an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. It is not known whether or not wormholes are possible in practice. Although there are solutions to the Einstein equation of general relativity which allow for wormholes, all of the currently known solutions involve some assumption, for example the existence of negative mass, which may be unphysical.[8] However, Cramer et al. argue that such wormholes might have been created in the early universe, stabilized by cosmic string.[9] The general theory of wormholes is discussed by Visser in the book Lorentzian Wormholes[10]

Sorry if this is a little vague but i just cut and stuck it from another arcticle.

 

Alcubierre drive is a non-starter.
If anyone's particularly interested I can dig out the papers/ links that outline the insuperable problems with it.

 

Could you post me those links about it being a non-starter, i understand the basics as long as its spoon fed laymans terms that is.

 

First two I had on my hard drive -
http://doc.cern.ch/archive/electronic/other/ext/ext-2004-110.pdf
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/9906/9906050v4.pdf

And I vaguely remember John Cramer's "Alternate View" column discusses some of the problems, this is a link to the index page, you'll have to search from there (and enjoy the other articles while you're at it).

http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/av_index.html

 

As far as I was aware, yes.
Hence my question, if this theory unifies all 4 forces then surely it would be a leading candidate for the theory of everything.
Since that doesn't seem to be the case, I figured there had to be some reason, and guessed that that might be it.

Perhaps Ben, AlphaNumeric or someone else similarly knowledgeable can enlighten us.

 

Hauser Droscher Tajmar Heim Update

It appears that Droscher & Hauser have published another paper on "Gravitational Field Propulsion"; with supporting data from Dr Tajmar's latest experiments, and the Gravity Probe B data.

Of particular note were the paragraphs toward the end of their paper.

"The following assumptions were made for the experiment producing the vertical gravity-like field : N =10, number of turns of the solenoid, current of about 13.6A (needed to calculate Bz), diameter of solenoid 0.15 m, and vTq =50 m/s. The disk should be placed directly above the solenoid to produce a magnetic field in z-direction only. This experiment should give an acceleration field of about ggp = 6 x 10-3gez; which is an appreciable field acting directly above the rotating disk.

From these numbers it seems to be feasible that, if our theoretical predictions are correct the realization of a space propulsion device that can lift itself from the surface of the Earth is within current technological limits.

For a more realistic propulsion device in order to generate a force of 1.98 x 10^6N, a mass of 3.15 x 10^3kg and a rotation speed of 200 m=s, a coil of 1 m diameter with 2,500 turns and a current of 13.6 A was calculated. The
cross section area of the coil was determined to be about 2.5 x 10^-2 m2. These numbers will be recomputed in our forthcoming review article. All trip times given in (Dröscher,W., J. Hauser: Guidelines For a Space Propulsion Device Based on Heim’s Quantum Theory, AIAA 2004-3700,
40th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASE, Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 11-14 July 2004, 31 pp.) remain unchanged, but as can be seen from the specifications above, technical requirements were substantially reduced and should be feasible employing current technology. The reason for this change is boson instead of fermion (vacuum polarization) coupling."

Things are definately looking interesting. This is a size device that could be built by a university physics group, or maybe even an enterprising backyard engineer.

 

Should be in pseudoscience...

 

Prolly, since this is pretty much how the current "UFO" myths explain flying saucer style travel.

 

Concur.

 

why?