Is Interstellar Space Travel Possible? Possibly...

[Quasimodal]

What do you all think of this article?

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006

Apparently the U.S. Military is taking this seriously. I have no understanding how this invention would work. Do the more scientifically minded dopers have any thoughts on the matter? Should google maps begin mapping mars for excited tourists? Or is this just some crazy technobabble?

[msmith537]

I think it’s bullshit.

[Raguleader]

Searched news.google.com for articles about this, and there seem to be several (read: less than 40) returns about this, but none from any news services I have heard of.

Which just proves that Big Brother (the secret name for the super-secret ubercorporation that runs the entire world, run by the Triad of Bill Gates, Dick Cheney, and Eric Schmidt) doesn’t want us to KNOW it’s possible to leave our Solar System! :eek: (I jest, of course )

[Sam_Stone]

There are already two threads going on this. Basically, the Scotsman article is an overly-breathless account. In reality, what we have here is a fairly obscure theory that until recently has not been testable. Now some people want to test it. It’s not quackery, but it’s far from accepted science.

Here’s the original article from New Scientist Magazine. From the article:

So is this all fanciful nonsense, or a revolution in the making? The majority of physicists have never heard of Heim theory, and most of those contacted by New Scientist said they couldn’t make sense of Dröscher and Häuser’s description of the theory behind their proposed experiment. Following Heim theory is hard work even without Dröscher’s extension, says Markus Pössel, a theoretical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. Several years ago, while an undergraduate at the University of Hamburg, he took a careful look at Heim theory. He says he finds it “largely incomprehensible”, and difficult to tie in with today’s physics. “What is needed is a step-by-step introduction, beginning at modern physical concepts,” he says.

The general consensus seems to be that Dröscher and Häuser’s theory is incomplete at best, and certainly extremely difficult to follow. And it has not passed any normal form of peer review, a fact that surprised the AIAA prize reviewers when they made their decision. “It seemed to be quite developed and ready for such publication,” Mikellides told New Scientist.

At the moment, the main reason for taking the proposal seriously must be Heim theory’s uncannily successful prediction of particle masses. Maybe, just maybe, Heim theory really does have something to contribute to modern physics. “As far as I understand it, Heim theory is ingenious,” says Hans Theodor Auerbach, a theoretical physicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich who worked with Heim. “I think that physics will take this direction in the future.”

It may be a long while before we find out if he’s right. In its present design, Dröscher and Häuser’s experiment requires a magnetic coil several metres in diameter capable of sustaining an enormous current density. Most engineers say that this is not feasible with existing materials and technology, but Roger Lenard, a space propulsion researcher at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico thinks it might just be possible. Sandia runs an X-ray generator known as the Z machine which “could probably generate the necessary field intensities and gradients”.

For now, though, Lenard considers the theory too shaky to justify the use of the Z machine. “I would be very interested in getting Sandia interested if we could get a more perspicacious introduction to the mathematics behind the proposed experiment,” he says. “Even if the results are negative, that, in my mind, is a successful experiment.”

This reminds me a lot of cold fusion - a theory with startling, perhaps world changing implications, which is not exactly quackery, but should certainly be treated with a high amount of skepticism until we get any sort of experimental validation that it might be right.

Also, when people say, “The military has expressed interest in it” as some sort of validation of a concept, be wary. This is a common technique used by people to make their theory sound more legitimate than it is. Basically, the military is interested in many, many things. It’s their job to stay two steps ahead of current thinking and engineering, so they look at lots of very speculative things, if only to validate that there’s nothing to it and they don’t have to worry about enemies using it against them. It means very little.

[Quasimodal]

Argh…my bad.

Feel free to close this as there are other threads going.

[Raguleader]

@Sam Stone

Also, when people say, “The military has expressed interest in it” as some sort of validation of a concept, be wary. This is a common technique used by people to make their theory sound more legitimate than it is. Basically, the military is interested in many, many things. It’s their job to stay two steps ahead of current thinking and engineering, so they look at lots of very speculative things, if only to validate that there’s nothing to it and they don’t have to worry about enemies using it against them. It means very little.

Heh, yeah, people should remember that in the past the military has been interested in such ideas as dropping bats (as in the kind that live in caves, not the kind you hit baseballs with) rigged with incindiary charges over cities (when they tested it, they managed only to set fire to a hangar and a general’s staff car). Then again, the military also played with kooky ideas like trying to sink battleships with those goofy gimmicky airplanes, so they get it right sometimes.

[hlanelee]

Go to Mars on a three hour tour…a three hour tour!

So, have me taken out and beaten!

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

how long have you been on vacation on mars?

two weeks!
…yeah, sorry.

on a more serious note, yeah, i don’t see why space travel can’t be possible. improbable in our lifetimes, hells yeah, but impossible?

then again, i don’t think anyone’s saying that, i’m just covering the bases.

given enough time, space travel WILL happen.
how much time or how far in space is anyone’s guess. i’m just slightly disappointed that future me hasn’t come back to tell me about it. which means it’s after my lifetime.