Warp Drive and Cloaking Devices: Not Just Science Fiction Anymore?
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Distortion of spacetime that may enable warp speed. Credit: Michael Alcubierre
Standard in almost every Star Trek episode are warp drives and cloaking devices. But in reality these science fiction gadgets defy the laws of physics. Or do they? Different scientists have been working on developing these two devices and they say they are getting closer to actually creating working prototypes. While warp drive won't be available anytime soon, scientists are gaining a better understanding of how faster-than-light speed could possibly be achieved. And as for cloaking devices, don't look now, but researchers recently cloaked three-dimensional objects using specially engineered materials that redirects light around objects.
Previously, scientists at the University of California, Berkley were only able to cloak very thin, two dimensional objects. But now, using meta-materials, which are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite, scientists have deflected light waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream. Objects are visible because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. But the meta-materials would ward off light, radar or other waves. In effect, it would be a type of optical camouflage.
The research group, led by Xiang Zhang say they are a step closer to being able to render people and objects invisible. Their findings will be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.
The path that light rays would take through a theoretical cloaking device. Credit: John Pendry
Another scientist and one of the leaders in cloaking research is John Pendry, a theoretical physicist at Imperial College, London. It was he who first worked out how a cloak could be built in theory, and then he helped build the first working cloak. Pendry recently submitted an abstract that discusses what he says is a new type of cloak, one that gives all cloaked objects the appearance of a flat conducting sheet. Pendry says this type of cloak has the advantage in that nothing remarkable is required to create the cloak. Pendry said the device could be "made isotropic. It makes broadband cloaking in the optical frequencies one step closer." This type of cloak seemingly creates a mirage to render an object invisible to the eye. Pendry's own website says information on his new cloak will be available soon.
While cloaking devices would have military applications, a group of scientists researching warp drives say they just want to have the ability to travel to Earth-like exoplanets, like Gliese 581c to better understand the origin and development of life. "The only way we could realistically visit these worlds in time-frames on the order of a human lifespan would be to develop what has been popularly termed a `warp drive,'" said researchers Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy from Baylor University in Texas.
Their work expands on research done by theoretical physicist Michael Alcubierre from the University of Mexico, who in 1994 demonstrated space could be made to move around a spacecraft by `stretching' space so that space itself would expand behind a hypothetical spacecraft, while contracting in front of the craft, creating the effect of motion. So, the ship itself doesn't move, but space moves around it.
Their new research tries to take advantage of advances in understanding dark energy and why our universe is ever-expanding in every direction. Comprehending that might give us a leg up in being able to generate an asymmetric bubble around a spacecraft. "If we can understand why spacetime is already expanding, we may be able to use this knowledge to artificially generate an expansion (and contraction) of spacetime," said Cleaver and Obousy in their abstract.
They propose manipulating the 11th dimension, a special theoretical part of an offshoot of string theory called the "m-theory" to create a bubble of dark energy by shrinking the 11th dimension in front of the ship and expanding it behind.
Obviously, this is highly theoretical, but if it leads researchers to a better understanding of dark energy, so much the better.
There’s one hitch, however. Cleaver and Obousy calculated that the energy needed to distort the space around a spacecraft-sized object is about 10^45 Joules or the total energy of an object the size of Jupiter if all its mass were converted into energy.
This creates a chicken and the egg type of conundrum. Which comes first: understanding dark energy or having the ability to create huge amounts of energy?
But Cleaver and Obousy are upbeat about it all. "This is a hypothetical propulsion device that could theoretically circumvent the traditional limitations of special relativity which restricts spacecraft to sub-light velocities. Any breakthrough in this field would revolutionize space exploration and open the doorway to interstellar travel."
News Sources: ArXiv (warp drive), ArXiv (cloaking), ArXiv blog, AP
Filed under: Science, Space Flight
August 15th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
… whereas it's not completely impossible that your manners will improve one day.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
dollhopf - a viable FTL drive is more likely to happen…
August 17th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Well James, I guess we all know what the B in your name stands for.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Actually, that was my second post to dollhopf . Somehow the first got deleted (there is some censorship going on in this thread, though I assume it's intended to the content civil, which is good I suppose).
My first post was simply hoping that dollhopf find the courage again that he once demonstrated in questioning his professors, for him to find again that fire he lost when he left university.
I would have actually loved to discuss this topic of a viable 11-th dimension warp drive with him. While I don't feel it's worth the effort to discuss how it might be implemented, I would relish discussion on whether there might be other viable alternatives, or ways to actually verify higher dimensions so that REAL discussions of using them could ensue.
I merely shot down the idea that using 'n'th dimension for FTL travel is viable since there is no empirical proof that higher dimensions exist and we are unable to even test for the existence of higher dimensions, which demonstrates that there is no basis on which we could presume to know how FTL travel could be done.
But 'n'th dimensions isn't the only potential route to FTL travel. No one bothered to counter my assessment of current technology with alternatives or to even challenge that assessment I made.
Nope- you instead chose to make your response a personal attack.
One of the downsides of posting here is that a person can actually post multiple messages under different IDs. I can't say that I've seen 'Cookie' posting on any messages before, and certainly not on this thread. Is this your fist time posting? If it is I'm honored by your indulgence to make me your subject.
Or is it that there is only one person using multiple names when posting. This is something we'll never now…
August 18th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Peter - by the way the word isn't 'arogant', it's 'cynical'…
That's what I come across as…
August 18th, 2008 at 8:48 am
JamesB ,I understand your need for resources to be focused on what is known and practical. BUT, It is the general public via politicians and companies that finance reaserch . They have to be entertained and hooked on interesting things to support by using the bait of speculation on the hook of serious science. Thus I contend that wide spread dissemination of , for instance, Science Fiction , is good for Science.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Science fiction as science is what I'm against, not science fiction as fiction.
The 'Star trek Technical Manual' is not a real manual, but a work of fiction! I understand that so I don't go around arguing about how a transporter works. When they invent one, then we'll have a real manual that we can argue about.
But no investor wants to be sold a bill of goods only to be told that what he was sold on was fraudulently misrepresented.
And as one of the people funding these projects I have a moral and legal obligation to point at the bare naked emperor and complain about the lack of clothes…
There are actually people on this thread who believe that the 11th dimension has been proven to exist and is waiting to be exploited. I'm not one of them. I say, show me the monkey!! Err, money!!! (sorry obscure reference to TNT TV network's old monkey commercials where they parodied current movies using monkeys as the cast).
August 21st, 2008 at 5:57 pm
warping spacetime via light wave manipulation looks to be optimistic….
The First Time Machine
September 10th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Come to think of it…..
back in the old days people use to think the earth was the center of the solar system, that the freakin' earth was flat, they never thought that electricity would be f *ckin' available…
whats to argue??!! we are in the midst of technological progress…. y'all dig??