Friday, December 5 2014
Warp Drives
Warp drives were made famous with the popular T.V. show "Star Trek." In this show the warp drive is used to travel at extreme speeds to reach a destination light years away in a few minutes. In the show the warp drive was called warp speed. The show explained it as a technology that travelled at faster-than-light speeds by creating a bubble around the ship that warped or bent space-time to travel at extremely fast. This was done by causing the space-time in front of the space craft to contract while behind it space-time would expand propelling them forward; however this required extremely large amounts of energy. Although, in the real world travelling at the or faster than the sped of light is impossible. This universal speed limit was established by Albert Einstein. Travelling at the speed of light is impossible because Einstein described it as the closer you approach the speed of light your mass would become infinitely large and never reach that speed. As a result because you have mass you can not travel at the speed of light. This is also why only mass less particles such as photons can travel at such extreme speeds of 3.0x10^8 m/s. This speed limit is universally accepted as true, and this would make the idea of warp drive remain science fiction; however, this may not be necessarily true. For example, if humans were able to build a machine that was able to warp space-time then we still might be able to travel close to the speed of light. This theoretical idea was first described by Trekkie Miguel Alcubierre published a paper describing how this is theoretically possible without disobeying Einsteins theories. However, this point in time is very far in the future because as of today the physics behind warp drives and bending of the fabric of space-time is very much in it's infancy, as there are still many missing pieces in the puzzle until something such as this might be possible. If humans ever finish the puzzle it would open new possibilities for space exploration and travel.
Worm Holes
The Einstein-Rosen bridge or commonly referred to as worm holes are simply bridges or shortcuts in space-time that can be used to travel through space to another point in significantly less time. These worm holes may have been predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, to be a path that would connect two points in space that would reduce distance and time between them. This would be greatly beneficial for space travel because the regular route would take light years to complete from start to finish but with a worm hole it would theoretically take only a couple of hours. Today, nothing like this has ever been witnessed or observed. Some speculate that a worm hole would require an extreme amount of negative energy and the dimension of such a hole would that of an atom. These worm holes would bend or distort the four dimensions of space-time. This includes the three dimensions of space are the x-axis,y-axis and the z-axis, the fourth dimension would be time itself. This is why some physicist predict that worm holes could be used for time travel as well. If humans were able to find a way to create or find a stable worm hole that was large enough to fit through, it would open up a wide range of possibilities and theories. For example, if such a thing existed it make time travel a real possibility and allow humans to travel to new unexplored places for humans to explore and observe.
Gravity Slingshot
The gravity sling is a form generating a greater speed and acceleration in space while using much less fuel than traditional methods. Gravity slings works by using the gravity of large massive objects in space like earth and other planets to create a sling shot that can cause the spacecraft to gain an acceleration and speed up. This can be done by sending spacecraft and satellites into orbit around a massive object that produces a force of gravity to generate an unbalance in the Fnet to cause an acceleration out in the direction you wish. This method has already been used in space proven that it does work. For example, NASA has used this method to help send deep space satellites going far away from earth to reach their destination faster and require much less fuel. This can be very easily used for human operated spacecraft and would help in a long space journey because it would reduce the amount of space needed to hold extra fuel and reduce the mass of the spacecraft, which in turn can help to allow more important equipment and tools to able to fit in the spacecraft. This can also help to increase the spacecraft momentum because on a regular flyby of massive object the momentum would decrease because of the pull of gravity from that object. Increasing the momentum is necessary because a higher momentum means a higher speed and a shorter journey to the final destination.
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