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https://thedebrief.org/darpa-funded-researchers-accidentally-create-the-worlds-first-warp-bubble/
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/265295/20210912/nasa-warp-drive-explained.htm
As a fan of both Star Trek and Star Wars, I have always been anticipating the development of “warp speed” in my lifetime. Warp speed would give the pilot of a vehicle the ability to travel at or near the speed of light, putting stars like Alpha Centauri within reach.
The distance between Earth and the closest stars is approximately 4-light years. The Alpha Centauri star system is 4.27 light years away, which puts it out of reach with our current rocket-engine technology. A warp drive is a theoretical engine that warps the structure of space so that a ship could travel at the speed of light, allowing us to access other star systems and planets that could support life. Unlike our current engines that burn fuel to propel a spacecraft, a warp drive engine would use energy to create a bubble that would constrict space around the ship, effectively shortening the space between two points.
The theoretical warp drive engine that is being worked on by NASA is called the Alcubierre Drive. The drive itself is designed and theorized to bend space in such a way to create a bubble of warped space the spaceship can travel as fast as the speed of light. Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is the basis for this engine. The engine itself warps space and lessens the distance the craft would travel in total, essentially making space travel accessible to humans. Essentially, the warp drive circumvents current limitations we have using rocket engines by using principles from the Theory of Relativity to reduce the distance between objects. Such a technology would be groundbreaking for the human race, and the first steps towards this theoretical technology have been broached by engineers at NASA and DARPA.
In what has been an amazing development, NASA and DARPA have made progress towards warp-speed technology. During an experiment, engineers at the Eagleworks Laboratory were able to create a small structure that could project energy at scale to achieve warp speed. The structure itself is the precursor to the “warp bubble” structure that could theoretically push a spaceship beyond the stars. The main limitation for this technology is the energy required to power the engine, which is impossible to achieve at scale currently, and could be dangerous due to its intensity. I am confident that in the future, we will achieve warp speed and explore the galaxy as we have in countless science fiction stories.
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