# I Think We'd Better Head to Alpha Centauri Pronto **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676 "2006-01-06T00:50:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/21 "2006-01-06T17:06:15Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > If this isn’t just a pile of poo (which it smells like, to me), then I’ll bet it’s going to be one of those “Of course it’s possible; all we have to do is build a perfectly rigid superconducting magnetic cylinder half the diameter of the solar system in length, then simply rotate it at half the speed of light, then just hit it with timed laser pulses equivalent in power to the output of all the stars in three average galaxies…” things I think we can squeeze that into our defense budget. \*In re to **Mangetout** , above: > [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Nah, it’s a lot simpler than that. Only you have to build it inside of a Dyson sphere. Okay, that’ll stretch it out to a five year project, but we may have to pass on a couple of B-2 Stealth Bombers. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/22 "2006-01-06T20:26:27Z")
But the hyperdrive, while important, is simply the extreme point of the real technology. Counter-gravity. Not anti, but a way to convert gravity to electromagentism, as I understand it, then bleed it off into another dimension. So, free power, antigrav lifters… some interesting stuff. But I do know a PhD, and I ran it past him, and we looked at the science, and his opinion was that there might be something there, but he’d never heard of it, and it was his field, and his interest. So either it was dismissed for some reason in the past, or it’s really obscure. String Theory may have hung on the borders of science for fifty years, but a man in the field would have _heard_ of it. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/23 "2006-01-07T01:39:22Z")
A PDF of the paper can be found [here](http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raumfahrt/hqtforspacepropphysicsaip2005.pdf). I’m not even going to try to understand the math in it. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/24 "2006-01-07T04:55:00Z")
I read the New Scientist article, and I think the article in the Scotsman was just a little more breathless and excitable than it needed to be. Basically, Heim has been floating this theory for decades. In fact, it made a minor splash in the 50’s, and may have been the inspiration for the ‘hyperdrive’ that we’ve read about in Science Fiction. It’s not quackery - he’s had one article published in a peer review journal about it. My take on the reaction of the scientific community until now is that it was just one theory among many, it seemed relatively interesting, but there was no way to test it and it wasn’t really needed to explain anything that didn’t have competing theories, so the paper was essentially filed under, ‘interesting, but irrelevant’. What’s changed is that it appears the technology might be there to actually test it now, at least according to some. Also, some new experimental results seem to corroborate the theory a little more closely than previous ones have, perhaps because of the better equipment available now narrowing the margin of error. So now this old idea is creating a minor stir. So… I’d call it a longshot, but one that bears watching. I’d put it in the ‘cold fusion’ category - not quite quackery, but definitely not meeting adequate standards of proof at this time. Of course, all this speculation is based on a one-page article, so I could be way off. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/25 "2006-01-09T18:38:42Z")
> [@Link in OP](#): > > It could leave Earth at lunchtime and get to the moon in time for dinner. Considering that the Moon is only about 1 1/2 light seconds away, I’d hope that any hyperdrive system would enable me to leave _after_ lunch, and get there in time for a 1:00 meeting. It’s an awesome thing to think about. If this is really works out I suppose one could test it by sending an unmanned spacecraft to Mars, or some other destination within the solar system, and have it flash back photos to demonstrate that it has really reached the destination in question. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/26 "2006-01-09T18:42:07Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Considering that the Moon is only about 1 1/2 light seconds away, I’d hope that any hyperdrive system would enable me to leave _after_ lunch, and get there in time for a 1:00 meeting. > > It’s an awesome thing to think about. If this is really works out I suppose one could test it by sending an unmanned spacecraft to Mars, or some other destination within the solar system, and have it flash back photos to demonstrate that it has really reached the destination in question. Have it Jump to Pluto, the detonate an H-Bomb. We could see it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/27 "2006-01-10T04:13:42Z")
Heh. How about rigging the FTL probe up with spotlights, flying it out to _Voyager 2_, and seeing which one can get pictures of the other back to Earth first? 😃 (I know, it’s strain _Voyager’s_ power supply…but hell, if it worked, we could just run a replacement RTG out on the next mission. Or return it to Earth for an for a full FTL refit.) ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/28 "2006-01-10T04:40:46Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Not anti, but a way to convert gravity to electromagentism, as I understand it, then bleed it off into another dimension. Oh yeah, let’s piss off another dimension now. ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/29 "2006-01-10T05:24:36Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Might I just say: > “Please let this be true!!!” 🙂 Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man I hope so. At least let the math be true so that we have a viable path to follow. I would love to see a true starship built in my lifetime. Yet even if this does come to fruition and we develop a hyperdrive, we still have a few more gaps to fill before we take off, like, what exactly happens to living tissue inside a hyperdrive field. Still if I was a physicist I would definitely take a hard look into it. I’ll be sure to show it to my physics professor next term. His graduate work is in particle physics. I don’t think he has ever heard of Hiem. I wonder if Paul Allen or Bill Gates has seen the article - they should be able to spare some change for funding. (Though the Blue Screen of Death at Warp 9 with give a bit of a pause. I’ll leave that parody for better hands.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/30 "2006-01-10T09:26:53Z")
Not for nothing, but as Professor Hauser points out, this proposal is based on far from proven science. At the moment, cold fusion and psionics have more experimental proof in their favor than hyperspace does. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/31 "2006-01-10T12:35:07Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > So, free power, antigrav lifters… If they turn tungsten into plutonium, I’m leaving. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/32 "2006-01-10T13:29:36Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > Not for nothing, but as Professor Hauser points out, this proposal is based on far from proven science. At the moment, cold fusion and psionics have more experimental proof in their favor than hyperspace does. I think we all understand that this is very possibly not feasible or something that will happen soon, but it allows us to dream a little. The Physics version of a lottery ticket. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676/33 "2006-01-10T14:21:42Z")
I am all but 100 percent sure this will not pan out (and of course will be absolutely thrilled to be proven wrong) but even if this does not work, it’s a wonderful thing that the possibility has even come up, and could not be immediately shot down. Even if this idea fails, there will be more ideas, and maybe they won’t all fail. This gives a me bit of hope. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-wed-better-head-to-alpha-centauri-pronto/338676.md?page=1)