General / Off-Topic Ftl travel, 5 to 10 years?

Almondclint

A
I am sure this video has been seen on these forums before, but, in case it hasnt....

https://youtu.be/Xlmdtf3UbmQ

Judging on current technology and progress, it seems ftl travel has a medium-high probability within 10 years. Id say shielding is our biggest obstacle, besides large scale successful experiments.

Enjoy!
 

ianbillmorris

I
FTL travel is against the laws of physics as we currently understand them. Unless there is a massive rewrite of everything we understand about how the universe opporates it will never happen.
 

Deleted member 94277

D
Dwight-Schrute-LOL.gif
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
That guy is.. very optimistic. We don't even have faster than sound airline travel. (Yes, I know, Concorde, but it's dead, and no one seems interested in replacing it).

I doubt we'll have even close to light speed within the next 50-100 years, let alone 5-10.

Z...
 

ratchet5000

R
lol

But for a more scientifically grounded explanation and the problems with achieving it with current technology:

[video=youtube;yCCsmxGjEV0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCCsmxGjEV0&index=3&list=PLIIOUpOge0Lv2jCm7LnYBiRYAPvxHyuWL[/video]
 
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Panticus

Banned
Panticus
You don't need FTL travel to cross the Galaxy. At the speed of light you will do it in zero time. After accelerating up to a speed *close* to c, you can do it in a very short time. FTL is not necessary to travel great distances in a short time - c will suffice.

This is local time though - proper time as measured on board your spaceship. The time elapsed back at your base may be millions of years. Minimum 2.5 million years to travel to Andromeda for example, and add 2.5 million years for their 'we've arrived!' radio signal. 5 million years ago monkeys hadn't even evolved into apes..

My reference: My own post-graduate astrophysics genius.
 

markuslig

M
Holy Somethingimnotallowedtosay!!! i start building a Thargoid bunker right away, support me on kickstarter if you want a room, t shirt or a plaque in the bunker with your name on it :cool:
 

Erasmus Boone

E
Definatly not I'm afraid.
No one has demonstrated that Alcubierre drives are possible they speculative, its not just a case of over coming technical issues to build.
Also whilst these 'warp drive' ideas would overcome some issues with FTL (infinate mass/energy) you still have the problem of leaving your own light cone, unltimatly you can build a time-machine that can travel into the past.
That screws up causality and if in 10yrs someone builds one why haven't we seen them?
Every bit of verified physics we have says that FTL (in terms of travel or communication) is simply impossible.
Could we find out that that's wrong?
Well yes but that doesn't mean that we will, it seems extremly unlikley passed on how successful special relativity has been at matching reality.
If we do i doubt 5-10 years is long enough to rebuild our total understanding of physics and to build a working model.
 
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Ozram

Ozram
Almondclint said:
I am sure this video has been seen on these forums before, but, in case it hasnt....

https://youtu.be/Xlmdtf3UbmQ

Judging on current technology and progress, it seems ftl travel has a medium-high probability within 10 years. Id say shielding is our biggest obstacle, besides large scale successful experiments.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Not in the lifetime of our great grandchildren. All so very theoretical for the time being. Maybe semi true AI though.
 

Lucian667

Lucian667
Sadly that thing requires a purely conjectural concept called "negative energy" which may or may not even exist. They're trying to get around having to use negative energy to achieve the same effect, but until they do I wont be holding my breath.
 

Skyjack

S
I wish you luck. Not ironic, i really do.

The problem is, something like a ship engine deep down is an awful, spiteful and almost intentionally contrary thing. I don't know why (i speculate it's some quantum effect) but for some reason spaceship FTL drives, robotic upload shells and the like tend not to respect the reality and criteria we consider to be of prime importance - they have definitely demonstrated they don't care about how bold the claims in the underpinning theory are and how vigorously and masterfully they are defended. Worse still they display this same inert pattern when it comes to correlating with the number of previous publications and recognisabilility of the names involved in the project. As it is this is a standoff - and it's not us, it's the engines that must reconsider their behaviour.

Still there is some hope. Earth's infrastructure has been improved in leaps and bounds, and what was a mere 2h A&E response time in the space race USSR has now been improved to an amazing 6h - more than three times - or more, worldwide. same goes for other infrastructure. Also we have proudly concluded the experimental stage in faster-than-sound travel with Concorde and now the knowledge and technology is readily available, should we need it.
 
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Comrade Napoleon

Comrade Napoleon
You cant make predictions on speculation. FTL is speculation with not an ouce of science behind it. Fusion Energy has both science and theory behind it, but has proven difficult to harness. Very difficult.
In order to even theorize about FTL we need a much better understanding of space/time before we can boldly go. This can only be achieve with continued research and slow traditionally space programs. It IS moving forward, albeit slowly. Considering the moon landings and know, little has happened, we humans fancy crisp militaries and arms much more or our corporate masters do. There is no profit in space yet, but when there is....
Earth has been lucky, by been gifted with an almost inexhaustible abundance of mineral wealth and fossil fuels, which has proven a ignition for space exploration. Even use of cheap solar power has only seen a slow rise in use.
FTL will emerge when man needs to go beyond the solar system, not before.

Cheers Cmdr's
 

Lanceor

Lanceor
Going "faster than light" does indeed appear to be possible in certain situations, but so far there's been nothing that could theoretically allow us to build a warp drive or similar.

First is that a dense medium could slow photons to below the speed of light "c". Particles could therefore travel through this medium at below c, but be "faster than light". This is most commonly seen as Cherenkov radiation where fast moving electrons create a "photonic boom", analogous to a supersonic object creating a sonic boom. This curiosity is no use for space travel of course. :p

In September last year, scientists set up a pair of quantum entangled electrons six kilometers apart and appear to have teleported a photon between them. Could this be somehow upscaled to teleport people through quantum entangled stargates of some sort? Well, it seems impossible now, but so did supersonic travel a hundred years ago.

Anyway, I aint a nuclear physicist so I don't really understand how this wibbly, wobbly quantum stuff works. Click on the link and hope that it makes more sense to you than it does to me!
 
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