# Warp drive may have become a bit more practical...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/21 "2012-09-27T15:38:38Z")

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Assuming for a moment that this works, and they discover a practical way to warp space, will a vehicle be able to cross from the pocket of warped space as if it were not warped?

What I mean is: we want to travel to a star that’s 10LY distant, so we create a compressed region of space in front of the vehicle and a stretched region behind it, and in some sense, we find ourselves at the destination, but what is the state of that compressed space? If we compressed 10LY of space into 10 metres, is crossing it as easy as crossing any 10 metres of regular space?

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**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 27, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/22 "2012-09-27T15:44:18Z")

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> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Assuming for a moment that this works, and they discover a practical way to warp space, will a vehicle be able to cross from the pocket of warped space as if it were not warped?

I think that is what the Heisenberg Compensators are for.

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warp-drive-may-have-become-a-bit-more-practical/635092/23 "2012-09-27T16:04:38Z")

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Let me know when someone can define what “negative energy” is, can show that such a thing actually exists, and has a way to produce it.

Until then, I’m not overwhelmed.

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