What is Alcubierre warp drive and how it's work?

Alcubierre wrap drive :     Hypothetical and fictional faster-than-light technology.

By Bhabesh Kumar

Warp drive Star Trek
(image: ©Axanar productions) 

From where the concept of warp drive arises?

It arises from the science fiction movie "Star Trek". Most of the science fiction movies hypotheses are seems to be unrealistic, that have become reality over the years of scientific research. But for the near future "warp drive" remains a dream.

 What is a warp drive theory?

Warp drive is a technology that allowed space to travel faster than the light. It works by creating the warp fields that form the subspace bubble that surrounds the sip. 

In an earlier article, we have discussed the wormhole, How we can create a shortcut path between space-time faster than light. 

Today we will talk about the Warp drive technique which makes the spacecraft faster than light, without any waste of energy. 

American space energy NASA is giving more attention to warp drive technique. 

An artist impression
Depicting the wrap travel
Courtesy: NASA image

According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, anything which possesses mass cannot attain the speed of light. For making it possible it will need an infinite amount of energy. But it seems, this theory is an only application which is travelling ‘in’ the universe not travelling ‘on’ the universe.

Let us explain in simple language.

The universe was created 13.772 billion years ago from Big Bang. If we assume after the explosion, the universe spreads uniformly in all direction with the light of speed. So it’s diameter would be more than 28 billion light-years. As per astronomers calculation, the diameter of the universe is about 53 billion light-years. That means the expansion of the universe will more than the speed of light.

The Barriers of Relativity is applicable to the universe itself. The universe can expand and shrink more than the speed of light.

How alcubierre-fronting warp drive works?

The region directly in front of the spacecraft experiences the most contraction of space, while the region Directly behind the spacecraft experiences the most expansion of space. Pushing the spacecraft to reach its destination.

If you think of time dilation (as speed goes nearer to speed of light, the time slows down) but it does not suppose to happen Warp drive because it remains in warp field bubble. 

What are the problems using warp drive technique? Is it possible?

Travelling through
Wrap drive.
Courtesy: NASA 

• To make wrap drive work properly, we need at least Jupiter planet weight. But the problem is How to expand space? In order to expand space, we need an object that has negative mass (negative mass are the objects that works opposite to the ordinary mass objects)  however negative mass are technically possible and can be obtained in quantum level through Casimir Effect. It requires a large amount of negative mass to expand and contrast the space. 

• Negative mass objects are quite difficult to find out because it is unaffected by gravitational force. Ultimately it gets repel by the celestial bodies and move apart. 

What obstacles we had to face during the warp drive  journey?

 We can’t communicate outside the warp bubble during the journey. 

 While travelling space junks are gathered on the warp field, When we reach the destination and make the space normal, the space junks are likely to collide with the same speed. 

The major problem regarding warp drive?

According to Hawking’s Chronology Protective Conjecture,  Quantum mechanics unknowingly prevents anything that breaks the casualty. That’s why Stephen Hawking believes that the time machine isn’t possible. 

In the case of Warp drive, quantum disaster may take place. Warp bubbles walls extreme space-time curvature can destroy the craft thought Hawking Radiation. 

 Nasa warp drive experiments.

With all these problem space agencies NASA, eagle work laboratory is currently working to make warp fields in the quantum level and trying to detect any changes in space-time through the interferometer. 

Read our previous articles, if you don't know about Wormhole 

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