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Near Light Speed Travel Possible After All?

Posted by Zonk on from the best-part-about-space-travel-is-you-can-leave dept.

DrStrabismus writes "PhysOrg has a story about research that may indicate that close to light speed travel is possible. From the article: 'New antigravity solution will enable space travel near speed of light by the end of this century, he predicts. On Tuesday, Feb. 14, noted physicist Dr. Franklin Felber will present his new exact solution of Einstein's 90-year-old gravitational field equation to the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) in Albuquerque. The solution is the first that accounts for masses moving near the speed of light.'"

3 of 539 comments (clear)

  1. Actual papers... by QuantumFTL · · Score: 5, Informative

    For more information, see Dr. Felber's recent works on arXiv.org:

    Weak 'Antigravity' Fields in General Relativity
    Exact Relativistic 'Antigravity' Propulsion

    Personally I'm a bit skeptical about his claims, however energy appears to be conserved. This method uses gravitationally-mediated kinetic energy exchange - this is the same principle that allows gravitational slingshot to work.

  2. Has Slashdot become crackpot central? by Expert+Determination · · Score: 5, Informative
    The most obvious giveaway is
    Felber's research shows that any mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'antigravity beam' in front of it.
    because, of course, no physical phenomenon can operate only for masses travelling above a fixed speed like that because such a phenomenon would violate Lorentz invariance. Therefore he's not actually using Einstein's equations which are fully Lorentz invariant. Note that I'm making weak assumptions here - I'm not even assuming the validity of Einstein's field equations, I'm just saying that this work doesn't follow from the equations he claims it follows from. That means he's made up some new physics, something completely untested, and is therefore a crackpot.
    --
    "The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
  3. Re:Make sure you account for everything by Plunky · · Score: 5, Informative

    Surely time dilation effects would significantly lessen the amount of air and food that needs to be carried?