# Warp drive may have become a bit more practical... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092 "2012-09-18T18:34:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/1 "2012-09-18T18:34:39Z")
[Surprised nobody has brought this up on the Dope yet](http://gizmodo.com/5942634/nasa-starts-development-of-real-life-star-trek-warp-drive). Long story short, the amount of energy required turns out to be a number of orders of magnitude less than thought. Still an issue however is that said energy might still need to be negative. Feel free to speculate, eviscerate, and pontificate as only Doper science geeks can… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/2 "2012-09-18T18:50:35Z")
Apparently this guy does work at NASA. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/3 "2012-09-18T18:51:42Z")
It sounds very much like the ‘explanation’ given for a Cochrane warp bubble in the Star Trek universe. Truly fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/4 "2012-09-18T18:55:05Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > [. Still an issue however is that said energy might still need to be negative… Interesting. I think in just a few more years Obama or Romney can rename our budget surplus “energy” and we should be good to go 🙂 Ad aspera per badus bugetis. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/5 "2012-09-18T18:57:13Z")
The operative question being how one creates the field. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/6 "2012-09-18T18:58:18Z")
Er, um, not really supposed to drag politics into GQ… ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/7 "2012-09-18T19:13:25Z")
Screw space. It would mean the end of roads on Earth — if no one tells the oil companies. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/8 "2012-09-18T19:14:03Z")
If this is possible, where are the aliens that should have visited us by now? I remain a skeptic. Which is the correct scientific attitude since it is refutable claim. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/9 "2012-09-18T19:31:11Z")
Until someone explains what the hell a White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer is and what it’s measuring this is could simply be “proof” through computer models staring at each other. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/10 "2012-09-18T19:46:34Z")
Seems like over hyped theory without a lot of experimental data so far. Given that this would require several tons of a type of matter that exists only theoretically, I’m not getting my hopes up. If they can produce a microgram of this stuff and hold it stably for a few seconds, then I’ll start getting interested. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/11 "2012-09-18T20:02:26Z")
Yeah, the only reference I can find to this White-Juday thing is a NASA “What I did over the last fiscal year” report and all the useless “reporting” going on. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/12 "2012-09-18T20:58:39Z")
If a warp bubble is created, does that mean that the object contained inside the bubble does not exist in space and can pass through normal matter without interaction? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/13 "2012-09-18T21:54:57Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > If this is possible, where are the aliens that should have visited us by now? I remain a skeptic. Which is the correct scientific attitude since it is refutable claim. What makes you think they would be willing to show themselves to us? Perhaps the ‘prime directive’ is a basic concept for a advanced civilization. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/14 "2012-09-18T22:01:17Z")
From the OP’s link: > [@](#): > > If they optimize the warp bubble thickness and “oscillate its intensity to reduce the stiffness of space time,” Sounds amazingly simular to theories dismissed as ‘woo’ here on the dope. Just sayin’ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/15 "2012-09-18T22:31:59Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > If this is possible, where are the aliens that should have visited us by now? I remain a skeptic. Which is the correct scientific attitude since it is refutable claim. [How Not to Be Seen](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltmMJntSfQI). ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/16 "2012-09-18T22:32:00Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > If this is possible, where are the aliens that should have visited us by now? I remain a skeptic. Which is the correct scientific attitude since it is refutable claim. Or the astonishingly complex set of circumstances which permit the development of sentient life renders its very existence exceeding rare—an intuitively likely scenario. Has it ever occurred to you that we’re very likely alone in the galaxy? Probably not the universe as a whole—that would seem an intuitively _unlikely_ scenario. But the galaxy and maybe even the local supergroup? I can easily entertain that possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/17 "2012-09-18T22:41:09Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Or the astonishingly complex set of circumstances which permit the development of sentient life renders its very existence exceeding rare—an intuitively likely scenario. Has it ever occurred to you that we’re very likely alone in the galaxy? Probably not the universe as a whole—that would seem an intuitively _unlikely_ scenario. But the galaxy and maybe even the local supergroup? I can easily entertain that possibility. On the one hand it would be terribly disappointing to be alone. On the other, if this warp bubble thing works, we’ll have all the living space we could desire. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/18 "2012-09-18T22:58:00Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Sounds amazingly simular to theories dismissed as ‘woo’ here on the dope. > > Just sayin’ > 😃 If it’s so amazingly similar to theories that have been dismissed as woo, can you name just one that you think is the most similar? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/19 "2012-09-19T01:31:16Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > From the OP’s link: > Sounds amazingly simular to theories dismissed as ‘woo’ here on the dope. > > Just sayin’ > 😃 I… don’t think so. Do you have any specific examples in mind? I mean, I can give you ‘woo’ that uses a lot of terminology from quantum mechanics–in which case quantum mechanics will sound like my ‘woo’ but absolutely no significance can be drawn from that. But I don’t even know what ‘woo’ talks about stiffness in spacetime etc. The only thing I can think of that you may be thinking about is “oscillations”–but again, just because I can use that word in ‘woo’ doesn’t mean it’s even half-interesting that a scientific statement “sounds like woo.” Having the same words in has very little relation to having the same meaning overall. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/20 "2012-09-19T12:41:34Z")
[http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110015936\_2011016932.pdf](http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110015936_2011016932.pdf) paper describing some of what is being discussed - especially a description of the Warp Field Interferometer. This isn’t warp drive - this is how to test for evidence of intentional space-time expansion/contraction. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092.md?page=2)