# NASA is working on a warp drive, for real

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-is-working-on-a-warp-drive-for-real/686612>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 21, 2014, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-is-working-on-a-warp-drive-for-real/686612 "2014-04-21T15:34:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-is-working-on-a-warp-drive-for-real/686612/26 "2014-04-22T14:18:32Z")

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From [post #15](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14448632&postcount=15) in the above linked thread on this project:

> [@Nasa Paper: "Warp Field Mechanics 101"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-paper-warp-field-mechanics-101/602135/15):
>
> Thanks **Spacial Rift 47**. I was hoping that someone like you would respond.
> 
> I guess what confused me is that, given my limited understanding, it seems to be saying that he believes it can be done with a **positive** energy density.
> 
> One of the diagrams (on page 31 of the PDF, but labeled as page 21 on the document) states:
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > [ul]  
> > [li]The figure depicts a modified Michelson-Morley Interferometer setup that makes use of a 1 cm diameter toroidal-ring of positive energy density on one leg of the interferometer.[/li][li]a He-Ne laser beam(λ = 633 nm) is split allowing one part of the beam to pass through the center of the ring and hence the spherical warp field region.[/li][li]This warp field region will induce a relative phase shift between the split beams that could be detectable provided the magnitude of the phase shift is sufficient.[/li][/ul]
> 
> It seems to assume that the effect will be produced with a toroidal-ring of positive energy. Is he simply wrong about this? Does the paper give his reasons for believing this? Am I just completely misunderstanding the whole thing (a real possibility)?

So, White’s plan is to build some toroidal interferometer using strictly positive energy to create a “warp field.” Then **Lumpy** suggests that the experiment is to see if they can detect a volume of negative energy, and the thread ends.

Can any physicists weigh in on this one? [PDF Link.](http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110015936.pdf)

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