Hyperspace and Warp Travel.

In Space Based SciFi, there are mainly 2 types of propulsion used.
Hyperspace seems to be theorized about in Science, since it would allow even at sub light speeds to traverse far more distance, because we would kinda bypass space/time while traveling at warp speeds would require us to break the speed of light barrier, which still is taken as the absolute maximum speed to go trough normal space.

One is Hyperspace travel, the other Warp travel, some series put Hyperspace travel as the main used, others like Star Trek place the human race as being restricted to Warp travel up to the 24th century.

Hyperspace is generaly represented as a window generator that opens up a window or rift to hyperspace in which the ship can enter and while traveling at normal propulsion speeds(light and beyond) will travel much further then it would have in normal space at the same speeds, by pritty much bypassing space/time itself and entering a different plane of space, making us capable of intergalactic travel.

Warp Speed is a classification of multiples of speed of light, where Warp 1 would be the speed of light itself and is achieved with warp engines by warping space/time around the ship.

The big difference between Hyperspace travel and Warp travel seems to be the speed, where in most series Warp travel is the slower way of the 2 in space travel and hyperspace the method to use to traverse a galaxy in hours.

As Star Trek Voyager showed, at maximum warp(Warp 10 in the Star Trek Series) it would take a good 70 years to go from one side of our galaxy to the other.

With Hyperspace in many series, intergalactic space travel is done.

In Stargate SG1 and other series, warp speed doesn't even get mentioned although it is done when traveling short distances, because mainly they use hyperspace windows to go from place to place.

In Startrek, a series placed in the 21'st(Enterprise) to 24th century, hyperspace travel is very rare and only achieved by the most ancient and technologicly advanced races.

My question, do you guys think that hyperspace travel is achieved soon after intersteller travel, which will allow us to do intergalactic space travel or that it will be the way Star Trek shows it, where we don't have hyperspace technology even in the 24th and even later centurys and space exploration will be limited to our own galaxy?

I hope that we find a way to do more then explore just the stars and our galaxy, although I'm sure that we'll find alot in it, but will also be able to explore the universe and aren't stuck having to fly 70 years to get across our own galaxy.

Finding out the secrets and origins of our universe can only be achieved by traveling the universe itself and going out to the furthest reaches of it, maybe even to the edge.

Warp travel would restrict us to our own lil Milky Way galaxy, which is infinitly small compared to the size of the universe itself.

[edit on 23-1-2005 by thematrix]

I think the only real method of 'long' distance' space travel will be worm holes.
The alternative, the idea of travelling in a straight line really really fast (warp) would mean hitting space debris (spelling) at very high speeds thus causing massive damage to the ship.

Originally posted by UK Wizard
I think the only real method of 'long' distance' space travel will be worm holes.
The alternative, the idea of travelling in a straight line really really fast (warp) would mean hitting space debris (spelling) at very high speeds thus causing massive damage to the ship.

Well, thats what energy shields would be for really, not to mention that warp travel is supposedly done by creating a warp field around the ship, I think thats some sort of protection against debris too.

But what happens if the ship hits a big asteroid, i doubt the energy shield would help that much, the warp field could work though by deflecting the asteroid.

Originally posted by UK Wizard
But what happens if the ship hits a big asteroid, i doubt the energy shield would help that much, the warp field could work though by deflecting the asteroid.

Well, I'd think if your able to travel at warp speeds your navigational systems would be atuned to avoid planets, stars, big debris and other ships. You have to keep tech levels leveled with each other ya know.

Well even if we achieve to travel at the speed of light, that wont be for a few decades or so, then to acturly pass the speed of light which in this science paradigm is impossible will be a huge feet by itself.
Worm holes could possibly be a answer to traveling very long distances, but with that note worm holes are highly unstable and hard to predict were you will come out the other side, what happend if you came out in the middle of a planet?
A original theory that i saw in a movie once "event horizon" was that they made a device that would acturly bend time and space. THey demonstarte this in the movie by getting a piece of paper and asking a person in the crew what is the quickest way from one edge of the paper to the other, the "stuiped" creman replies "a straight line". Then another scientific crewman says that by bending the paper it shortens the distance between the edges. Although i think this theory is probably less likely than wormhoels it is a intresting one. Eventhough is used wrongly it could proably rip a whole in the space time continium, causing a black hole to emerge to suck our hole solar system in.
So i will say this "warp 6, engage"

Well, according to NASA, Warp Drive will be first. Only they are calling it the BPP project: Breakthrough Propulsion Physics.

In 1996, NASA established the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program to seek the ultimate breakthroughs in space transportation: propulsion that requires no propellant mass, propulsion that attains the maximum transit speeds physically possible, and breakthrough methods of energy production to power such devices. Topics of interest include experiments and theories regarding the coupling of gravity and electromagnetism, vacuum fluctuation energy, warp drives and wormholes, and superluminal quantum effects.

www.grc.nasa.gov...

You can find some basics out here.

www.nasa.gov...


As it stands, we are still a very long time from manned intersteller space travel at faster than todays current speeds.

Technicly in Warp travel your not moving the ship faster than light, the ships in a bubble of spacetime moving faster than light.

I think both Warp and hyperdrive engines are possible, but that warp will be first, think about it whats easier, warping space, or opening a hole into a different dimensionspace.

perhaps space could be warped in such a manner as to cause a sort of wave effect, then a ship could "surf" that wave?.....

now i dont have any idea why or if this this type of thing could produce the speeds needed......it was just some sort of wacky idea that popped into my head while reading this thread so.......omm, ya....i'll stop talking now

Originally posted by wang
A original theory that i saw in a movie once "event horizon" was that they made a device that would acturly bend time and space. THey demonstarte this in the movie by getting a piece of paper and asking a person in the crew what is the quickest way from one edge of the paper to the other, the "stuiped" creman replies "a straight line". Then another scientific crewman says that by bending the paper it shortens the distance between the edges.

The theory they were refering to was a tesseract 'doorway'. Think of a four-dimensional cube, as an example. I think it's also referred to as a hypercube. But yeah, it is a really cool theory.

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It depends on what is in the 4th [or more] spatial dimensions. Maybe what is between Universes.

It could be that if Universes are almost infinitely thin on 4th+ dimensions there may be some kind of non-structural realm between them. Then there would probably be no junk or debris to worry about.

The question about debris comes from where you end your journey back in flat space.

If there are infinite Universes all in parallel close by, folding could be a problem. Also thinking of a crumpled piece of paper, 'Is that something you want to do to the Universe you live in? [don't you want to be kind to & take care of the Universe you live in?] Looks dangerous to me to wad up your Universe.

I think more of hyper/between-Universe space used like subways [you actually travel the distance, but without lightspeed limits or friction]. You might have to have some traffic control to avoid collisions and some kind of space clearing/cleaning device for where you dropped back out of hyperspace. You might also have to use some aspect of your Universe or the one on the other side of you in hyperspace as propulsion and braking. That could cause some wear and tear on which ever Universe you used.

Im thinking you make the short trip to hyperspace [perpendicular to the Universe] Then from a dead stop accellerate to super light speeds, decellerate, stop and have your cleaning device [maybe nanotech for robustness] go perpendicular into your Universe, clean up & seal off [force field?] your landing space, you get the 'all clear' message from you device, then your ship makes the short jouney perpindicular into clean empty space.

If Universes Undulate [are not rigid and fixed] in parallel you might be able to use that as a kind of propulsion method. [So Urn, your idea of surfing might not be off the mark]
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After further research, it appears that slank is correct and travelling via tesseract would probably not be such a good idea. In addition to the problems he brought up, there is apparently a possibly that you could come back inside-out, after travelling through the fourth dimension.

I guess that is why I failed physics in high school.

Are we to assume there is no inherent warp factor reverberating through the universe at different intensities throughout space already?
Warp Field Mechanics by Dr. Harry White is interesting but it leaves behind the thought for me that we are jumping too fast into hyperspace. We should be developing warp signature anomalie detectors. The theory is fine but completely bull# if there are other causes of space time distortion affecting us that we are not perceiving. We need to be catchers, we need to be listeners. I believe there is an embedded message from aliens in warped space time. Even if there turns out not to be at least we will have developed sensors that can reliably understand warp transmissions. Thee question lies in do we send a warp signal into space or listen or one that is already there looking for us. Do we want to put up a flag that we are here, if not done so yet, or look around and see whose flag is flying. This is totally going to end up like star trek, heh
Warp Fields require dark matter and energy supposedly to create. What is their relationship with fusion and fission, has anyone tried that? .

I am writing a shoert story about how this will effect my life, as i see the future. Check for chapter updates on my thread!

FTL (Faster-Than-Light) traversing is virtually impossible. Not for the fact that we couldn't achieve the speed, but due to a few other interesting facts:

The Earth hurtles through the solar system chasing after the sun in a vortex motion. The sun hurtles through our galaxy as our galaxy traverses the cosmic background.

The speed of light is 186282 miles per second. (In a vacuum)

If you were to travel at such speeds for a single minute you would be 11,176,920 miles from Earth, as well as the fact that the Earth has now moved exponentially from where it was when you took off. (good luck getting back)


Secondly: As a craft would begin to reach light-speed, the amount of heat generated as mass of the craft expanded would surely vaporize and/or tear apart any known materials we would be capable of building such a craft from.


I don't see FTL travel a very plausible scenario mostly due to relative movement of more or less everything. If any sort of interstellar space travel was created it would most likely involve the bending of space time rather than FTL travel, as that method would be instantaneous to both of the people on the craft and the people on the Earth, the only issue would still be getting back to Earth once you have left and it has moved.

reply to post by Vortiki

Human life extension is the key to human interstellar space flight. Once we learn to slow or stop aging and age related disease like cancer going fast wont be as important. Yes we will continue to find faster ways to travel but ultimately learning not to age will allow true huan expansion to other solar systems. Great news is they are getting very close to findi g away to stop aging. We will likely see that before warp drive

Xeven
reply to post by Vortiki

 

Human life extension is the key to human interstellar space flight. Once we learn to slow or stop aging and age related disease like cancer going fast wont be as important. Yes we will continue to find faster ways to travel but ultimately learning not to age will allow true huan expansion to other solar systems. Great news is they are getting very close to findi g away to stop aging. We will likely see that before warp drive

It's highly unwise to put human beings in "zero g" for extended periods of time, you're talking insane muscle mass loss, blood circulation problems, bone density, et ect. Expanding the length of the human life would only increase the over population issues that we have now. More applicable would be some sort of coma-induced sleep with artificial gravity in place.

Of course going to sleep just outside Earth's orbit and waking up in the Andromeda galaxy may be somewhat disorienting.