NASA Scientists have released 3D renderings for a concept design for a warp drive spaceship currently being prototyped.
Dr Harold “Sonny” White is working on the warp drive program at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, and along with 3D artist Mark Rademaker, has created a concept for what a future ship capable of allowing us to explore the galaxy might look like, though the project is still at such an early stage that nothing is concrete. The proposed design involves “a sleek ship nestled at the centre of two enormous rings, which create the warp bubble”, with some elements seeing to resemble parts of the famous USS Enterprise from Star Trek.
White has spent his career working on ways to propel spacecrafts to faster than the speed of light, and this model would do so by bending the space around it, making the distance shorter. This means, Diaz writes, that the Enterprise wouldn’t break Einstein’s theory of relativity, as within its little bubble it wouldn’t be moving faster than light.
If that confuses you, think of space as like a train. You, the passenger, are the spaceship in its bubble. Let's say you walk from carriage to carriage as the train is moving at 300mph. As you walk through the train you never break from your standard walking pace; but imagine someone watching your train go by from outside. To you, you're moving forward at 3mph; but to the outsider, you're moving at the same speed as the train. That's how a warp bubble would work.
NASA are already experimenting with the concept of warp bubbles in small-scale; and it turns out, White and his team are closer to this goal than you might think. White believes that if his work is successful, it will create an engine that could get us to Alpha Centauri in two weeks.
Enterprise, one to beam up.
