# Scientists at NASA are working on a warp drive as we speak



## matt397 (Jan 9, 2013)

NASA Starts Work on Real Life Star Trek Warp Drive







Pretty cool stuff if anything comes of it.


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## Mprinsje (Jan 9, 2013)

cool, can i do high speed chases through asteroid fields now?


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## GlxyDs (Jan 9, 2013)

Neat stuff, I wouldn't want to be the first person to ride on a ship using this technology.


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## The Reverend (Jan 9, 2013)

Goddamn I love science, especially when they only suck dick and wash dishes.
Cooking, cleaning, grant my wishes... Make me and the Wolf Gang sandwitches. 

Wait, this isn't a Tyler, The Creator thread?


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## technomancer (Jan 9, 2013)

^ OT != P&CE... might want to figure out the difference

That said this is awesome IF the theory pans out, which is a really big if.


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## InfinityCollision (Jan 9, 2013)

Why is awesome science shit in the same sub-forum as politics, if this hadn't been on the front page I would've completely missed it 

EDIT:


> When you turn the field on, everybody doesn't go slamming against the bulkhead, which would be a very short and sad trip.


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## matt397 (Jan 9, 2013)

InfinityCollision said:


> Why is awesome science shit in the same sub-forum as politics, if this hadn't been on the front page I would've completely missed it
> 
> EDIT:



I dunno, it's called Politics and Current Events. This would be Current Events no ?

I would however like to see a subforum for let's say Science and Technology


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## InfinityCollision (Jan 9, 2013)

If this is currently the correct place for such threads then I'd be all for that. I steer clear of politics subforums and threads, they tend to bring out the worst in people.


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## Murdstone (Jan 9, 2013)

matt397 said:


> I dunno, it's called Politics and Current Events. This would be Current Events no ?
> 
> I would however like to see a subforum for let's say Science and Technology



Second. That would be awesome.


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## Xaios (Jan 10, 2013)

I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of a "Science and Technology" discussion forum either. The inherent problem, however, is that the science that gets discussed around here almost always has ramifications with regards to its relationship with religion (evolution vs creationism, darwinism, that kind of thing) and when the discussion heads that way, it becomes more about the philosophy behind the science rather than the science itself. For that reason, I think it makes more sense to keep it all under one umbrella.

And yeah, actual, factual warp drive would be freakin awesome. Now we just need teleportation and photon torpedoes.


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## matt397 (Jan 10, 2013)

Xaios said:


> I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of a "Science and Technology" discussion forum either. The inherent problem, however, is that the science that gets discussed around here almost always has ramifications with regards to its relationship with religion (evolution vs creationism, darwinism, that kind of thing) and when the discussion heads that way, it becomes more about the philosophy behind the science rather than the science itself. For that reason, I think it makes more sense to keep it all under one umbrella.
> 
> And yeah, actual, factual warp drive would be freakin awesome. Now we just need teleportation and photon torpedoes.



As far as threads heading towards religion in a science and technology based sub forum I think unless the thread directly involves the aforementioned topics (Evolution vs Creationism and so on) the same rules apply as in other threads where its encouraged to stay on topic rather then going off into other subject matter.


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## technomancer (Jan 10, 2013)

PM Alex guys but don't hold your breath


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## matt397 (Jan 10, 2013)

technomancer said:


> PM Alex guys but don't hold your breath



Done and done. 

PM'd Alex, crossing my fingers.


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## kmanick (Jan 14, 2013)

this would be cool
an actual working Transporter would be even cooler and more useful IMO.
instead of warp sepped maybe they can figure out how to "Jump" like they
did in Battlestar Galactica LOL!


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## Jinogalpa (Jan 14, 2013)

cool, i need such Warp rings on all my fingers, then i'll be the fastest guitar player in history


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## Randy (Jan 14, 2013)

How do you not crash into shit?


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## technomancer (Jan 14, 2013)

Randy said:


> How do you not crash into shit?



If it works the way I think it does (hard to tell as the article is vague) space is bending around you so there's nothing there to run into. Of course it could make a massive mess of anything you passed near / through.


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## The Reverend (Jan 14, 2013)

^ If you guys wanted to have a mod debate about it in public, feel free to. It'd take me back to the days when my parents were getting divorced. 

I'm not sure how big of a field would actually be warped, so things like planets or asteroid belts, hell, even huge clouds of anti-matter would presumably have to be scanned/scouted out/observed beforehand. What I'm interested in is what would happen if we went outside the limits of where the oldest light has reached at the Universe's edge? That will probably be one of the first things we do of real import if this idea actually works.


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## technomancer (Jan 14, 2013)

The Reverend said:


> ^ If you guys wanted to have a mod debate about it in public, feel free to. It'd take me back to the days when my parents were getting divorced.
> 
> I'm not sure how big of a field would actually be warped, so things like planets or asteroid belts, hell, even huge clouds of anti-matter would presumably have to be scanned/scouted out/observed beforehand. What I'm interested in is what would happen if we went outside the limits of where the oldest light has reached at the Universe's edge? That will probably be one of the first things we do of real import if this idea actually works.





I guess it would depend on how strong the field is... it would probably just cause smaller things to curve around you.

While outrunning the expansion of the universe would be amazing from a scientific perspective, I'd say scouting the planets we're now finding could be pretty important as well since it would answer a lot of questions about the development of life as well as giving us room to grow and more resources


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## redstone (Jan 14, 2013)

GlxyDs said:


> Neat stuff, I wouldn't want to be the first person to ride on a ship using this technology.



I wanna die in that ship.


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## Hollowway (Jan 15, 2013)

Soooo cool! I hope they get some progress on this in our lifetime. I'd love to see us devote some decent brain resources to this sort of thing (as opposed to, say, credit default swaps or Facebook). And I hope a lot of that article isn't just Gizmodo hyperbole.


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## InfinityCollision (Jan 15, 2013)

Randy said:


> How do you not crash into shit?



I'm going to take Gizmodo journalism with a grain of salt and my memory of the concepts involved is a bit shaky, but from what I remember you aren't really moving in a conventional sense. If I'm thinking of the right idea here, it's more like a tunnel through the fabric of spacetime than anything else. Instead of traveling the entire distance, it's as if you've pinched the two points together and can hop from the one to the other. You're not actually warping the intermediary space though, just taking a weird shortcut. I doubt anything you'd move "through" would be affected in the least regardless, though the arrival might be tricky.


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## flexkill (Jan 15, 2013)

Randy said:


> How do you not crash into shit?


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## glassmoon0fo (Jan 15, 2013)

technomancer said:


> If it works the way I think it does (hard to tell as the article is vague) space is bending around you so there's nothing there to run into. Of course it could make a massive mess of anything you passed near / through.


 
As far as i can understand it, the engine wouldn't bend space around you, it just takes, say, 10,000 miles in front of you and compresses it into the space of a single mile for you to travel (just makeing up those numbers for illustration purposes). The good thing is that space is pretty full of just...space...so even though we may not be able to take a straight shot to our destination, a few turns or stop-and-starts arent that big a deal when you're outrunning light 

Intergalactic travel is where shit gets hairy in my head. That's a LOT of space to traverse. Pretty cool just thinking on it though.

EDIT: When my car engine breaks down, I pull to the side of the road, curse a lot, and call tripleA. What happens when this engine breaks down?! 0_o


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## Nyx Erebos (Jan 17, 2013)

glassmoon0fo said:


> EDIT: When my car engine breaks down, I pull to the side of the road, curse a lot, and call tripleA. What happens when this engine breaks down?! 0_o



You pull out your monolith and your plasma cutter.


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## r3tr0sp3ct1v3 (Jan 19, 2013)

Mprinsje said:


> cool, can i do high speed chases through asteroid fields now?



Only if you take a big hairy dogman who can't speak english 



ARRRRRRAAARAAARAAA


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## Blind Theory (Jan 21, 2013)

The only problem I see with this is that whole funding thing. The big wigs at the White House seem to like to fund other ventures far more than anything else. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has some good talks about that, that you can find on the ol' Youtube. It is a super cool topic to think about though. It sort of stirs up the dreamer aspect of my mind. If they can do this or at least think of ways to do this then what else can be done?


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## Mordacain (Jan 21, 2013)

Xaios said:


> The inherent problem, however, is that the science that gets discussed around here almost always has ramifications with regards to its relationship with religion (evolution vs creationism, darwinism, that kind of thing) and when the discussion heads that way, it becomes more about the *philosophy behind the science* rather than the science itself.



 Sadly, the problem is that everyone needs to realize that there should never be a "philosophy behind the science." Science is a tool used to discover the truth about the natural world. Nothing more, nothing less. All other sociopolitical ramifications have nothing to do with the process of scientific discovery or the discoveries derived using the scientific method.

If everyone realized that, there would likely be a whole lot less butting of heads between fundamentalist religious types and progressive types (literal meanings implied, not progressive as a quasi-political movement).

All that out of the way, Bravo Nasa! I've been reading about different warp drive theories for quite awhile now, but it's good to see the current trends of thought.


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## SirMyghin (Jan 21, 2013)

This has me laughing



> The answer lies precisely in those laws of physics. Dr. White and other physicists have found loopholes in some mathematical equations&#8212;loopholes that indicate that warping the space-time fabric is indeed possible.


Sorry but, I can't take this seriously if they are chasing loop holes in equations we founded based on our understanding. Then started an initiative to try and find it. I have a very hard time thinking this could be fruitful. Overly optimistic article is overly optimistic.


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## ilyti (Jan 21, 2013)

InfinityCollision said:


> I'm going to take Gizmodo journalism with a grain of salt and my memory of the concepts involved is a bit shaky, but from what I remember you aren't really moving in a conventional sense. If I'm thinking of the right idea here, it's more like a tunnel through the fabric of spacetime than anything else. Instead of traveling the entire distance, it's as if you've pinched the two points together and can hop from the one to the other. You're not actually warping the intermediary space though, just taking a weird shortcut. I doubt anything you'd move "through" would be affected in the least regardless, though the arrival might be tricky.









So, sorta like one of these


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## Blind Theory (Jan 22, 2013)

SirMyghin said:


> Sorry but, I can't take this seriously if they are chasing loop holes in equations we founded based on our understanding. Then started an initiative to try and find it. I have a very hard time thinking this could be fruitful. Overly optimistic article is overly optimistic.



I agree. While it is incredibly thought provoking and gives the masses something to think about it certainly does seem a bit too far out there. I absolutely love theoretical physics and people like Michio Kaku or Brian Greene fascinate me because they explain these incredibly complex and imaginative ideas in such easy to grasp ways but at the same time they aren't making it seem like a lot of these things are two years down the road. 

Either way, things like this are good to get out to the public, no matter how far fetched they may seem. Some ten year old kid may stumble across this article while doing research for a science project and be captivated by it eventually becoming the next Einstein or Sagan. Far fetched ideas from someone's imagination can be the fuel to drive someone else to greatness.


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