>>>it would require a minimum amount of energy equivalent to completely annihilating the mass of the planet Jupiter<<<

Halliburton are said to be looking into it.

>>>if it were mishandled - would explode with a force of some 17,000 megatons, equivalent to several global nuclear wars all in one<<<

With Enron as equal partner.

Warp 2.15 thankyou

I see someone posted while I was calculating it

I'd still like to see us capable of the speed of light or greater during my lifetime. It would make getting around our solar system so much quicker. Besides, we need to get going on colonising Mars... I just kind of hope we're on the cusp of it all.

Read the story and the comments

concluded I or the world had gone totally mad.

Taking rest of day off, intend to end up dead drunk

BCNU

Weighty matters

Einstein showed that the issue was around particles with mass having difficulty accelerating to the speed of light.

Slipstick Libby developed the inertialess drive, which turned the ship inertialess, thereby instantaneously travelling away at the speed of light. Acceleration becomes much easier without mass...

Heinlein had it right - don't try to accelerate to light speed, look at removing the effect of mass....

Mind you, the Long Earth suggests that all you need is a do-it-yourself box powered by a potato to reach the next planet....

Using the Software route

It may seem silly now. However, within the next few decades mankind would be contemplating on the idea that this material universe is designed and maintained by something akin to a super software. Physical distances would just be a matter of numerical value in the Code View.

As to there being live elsewhere, I was once told by a person who seemed to be connecting to some supernatural intelligence that currently there are 35 planets in this universe, with MANKIND living there, not just life. He did also mention that within 300 years man will be travelling to the distant stars, within seconds, so to say.

Fly in the ointment

If you put a magic warp field generator on your spaceship, the warp field has to move faster than the speed of light through unwarped space or your spaceship will overtake it. To use a magical warp field generator to get to Alpha Centauri at ten times the speed of light, you switch on you field generator and project a beam of warped space towards Alpha Centauri for 3.93 years. You then jump into the beam and switch it off. You ride the beam for 159 days (Earth time) and arrive at Alpha Centauri at the same time as the leading edge of the beam. Calculating the size of the lens needed to keep a beam of gravitation waves focussed to the size of a space ship 4.37 light years away is left as an exercise for the reader.

Thanks For The Update Lewis !

Now back to my copy of Greg Bear's Eon, which would make a great movie.

I don’t think we need FtL to colonise the galaxy, considering there’s no rush.

Start mining the asteroids, shipping the proceeds to Earth.

Start trading amongst the miners – no gravity well so it’s cheaper.

Asteroids declare independence.

Mining happens further and further out.

Eventually realise all you need is mass, and not that dot of a Sun.

Start to leave the solar system.

Hundreds of years later hit the Alpha Century system.

Thousands of years after that hit other solar systems.

Colonise them.

Do the same again.

At that point humanity is probably several dozen clades and might bump into FtL Earth ships near habitable planets – but they would never bother living in a gravity well anyway.

Where can you get Exotic Matter from?

I hear that it's very hard stuff to come by.

So NASA is catching up?

I mean the Austrians have been there in 1992.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55_E_QiNcQg

But be careful weird things happen there.

Biological effects

L. Krauss wrote an interesting book covering some problems that would need to be worked out before we could use warp drives for human travel.

Personally, I'd like to see someone go 'plaid'.

Personal time experience wont slow down as expected

If you are warping space to achieve FTL then the personal experience of time wont slow down as expected.

Personal time only slows down significantly if the people in the craft were approaching light speed in the traditional sense of acceleration.

However, warping space time means that the time around the craft is modified so the craft is not really travelling anywhere near light speed at all.

Ummm...traveling at the speed of light and taking several lifetimes to get to another planet outside our solar system. How many lifetimes to reach our nearest star. Let's see....our closest star is 1000 years divided by the average lifespan of 70 years..but wait, only about 45-50 workable years? That's aproximately 20 workable lifetimes! Add to that the fact radio transmissions travel a little slower than the speed of light, it could take 1000 years just for the transmissions to reach earth or 2000 years to send one and get a response back . What good is that? With 1000 years before they may even reach any place coupled with 2000 years, or a total of 3000 years to even learn anything about the place when they get there this looks like another useless program. I like the space program as much as anyone and loved growing up with it but why are we wasting tax payers money on this impracticle useless program???

Perhaps....

currently the theory states that the closer you get the speed of light, the greater your mass increases, and the more power you need to keep moving until you reach a point where you need infinite power to move infinite mass.

However, what if this is actually incorrect, and at a certain point there is actually a loss of mass, so after a certain point you actually require less power to increse to even faster speeds?

Perhaps after a certain point, if you can change your mass in relation to the rest of the universe, this is the breakthrough we need?