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Warp Drives May Come With a Killer Downside

An anonymous reader writes "Alcubierre warp-drives (theoretically) allow rocket ships to travel faster than the speed of light, while staying within the rules of Einstein's general theory of relativity. New research (PDF) has shown that as such warp-drives zip through the universe, they gather up particles and radiation, releasing them in a burst as the warp-drive slows down. This is bad news for family and friends waiting for the ship to arrive, as this intense burst will fry them."

23 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. This is why you drop to impulse in a solar system by Y-Crate · · Score: 5, Funny

    Duh

  2. duh by Moheeheeko · · Score: 4, Funny
    Because we all know you drop to sublight IN the docking station.

    >thisfuckingguy.jpg

  3. Not even real and already weaponized. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yup.

  4. "We'll be there in a sec... by Openstandards.net · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... May the force be... uh... ummmm... so, sorry!"

    1. Re:"We'll be there in a sec... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      "I sense a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices all cried out in terror, and then were suddenly silenced. So ease up on the damn brakes next time, Solo."

  5. Seriously? by AmigaMMC · · Score: 4, Funny

    They came to that conclusion now? Every newly certified spaceship pilot knows that you must drop out of warp no less than an AU from destination.

    1. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Star Wars uses hyperspace, not warp. Get off my lawn!

  6. Visit The In-laws! by RapidEye · · Score: 3, Funny

    Makes a visit to the Mother-In-Law worth while now!

    --
    "Murderer? Well, that's a harsh word. I prefer to think of myself as a Mortality Technician."
  7. Re:Apparently these guys never watched any Star Tr by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean, as in:

    Data: Geordi, in my experiments to become more like a human, I seem to have lodged Captain Picard up my positronic rectum

    Geordi: Wow, Data, I mean, um.... Maybe I don't want to know. But I tell you what, we'll set up a tachyon burst through the deflector array and that should cause your mechanical sphincter to open. If we're lucky, it will also fry his brain so he won't remember you stuffing him in there.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  8. Re:Already handled by jamstar7 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Except in Star Trek: 90210 they went to warp only a couple hundred meters from space dock and dropped out in Vulcan orbit. Don't get me started on what else was wrong with it.

    --
    Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  9. Star Trek The Motion Picture by tekrat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Except that in the 23rd Century way back then, Pluto was a PLANET!!!

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  10. Jet aircraft... by greg_barton · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jet engines (theoretically) allow large metal objects formed into a lifting body to fly though the air at great velocities. This causes them to accumulate great momentum. This is bad news for family and friends waiting on the runway for the aircraft to arrive, as this momentum will cause the aircraft to run into them and kill them.

  11. Re:Fermi Paradox by medv4380 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then we just end up in the other areas of the Paradox like why if they have FTL travel they should have already come here, and there should be clear evidence of it. I'd rather think that this kind of tech gets developed tested and the entire civilization that made it is wiped out by the test flight.

  12. Re:Easy Fix by bytestorm · · Score: 5, Funny
    I think the problem is the particles and energy are collimated, travelling in the same direction the Alcubierre wave front, kind of like a laser. It's probably going to hit something, someday. This Mass Effect 2 quote comes to mind.

    Gunnery Chief: This, recruits, is a 20-kilo ferrous slug. Feel the weight. Every five seconds, the main gun of an Everest-class dreadnought accelerates one to 1.3 percent of light speed. It impacts with the force of a 38-kilotomb bomb. That is three times the yield of the city buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth. That means Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space. Now! Serviceman Burnside! What is Newton's First Law?
    First Recruit: Sir! A object in motion stays in motion, sir!
    Gunnery Chief: No credit for partial answers, maggot!
    First Recruit: Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir!
    Gunnery Chief: Damn straight! I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this husk of metal, it keeps going till it hits something. That can be a ship, or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you're ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your damn targets! That is why you wait for the computer to give you a damn firing solution! That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not "eyeball it!" This is a weapon of mass destruction. You are not a cowboy shooting from the hip!
    Second Recruit: Sir, yes sir!

  13. Re:Queller Drive by geekoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    So you're the other Space 1999 fan.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  14. Rebel propaganda exposed! by telso · · Score: 5, Funny

    Remember when the Millennium Falcon jumped out of hyperspace and Alderaan was gone? What we now know is that the dust on the leading edge of the ship is what actually destroyed the planet, arriving just before the ship, leaving it in the middle of an "asteroid field". However, this would have been mighty embarrassing for the Rebellion, so they made up this myth of destruction by the "Death Star" (which wasn't even operational yet!) as the killer. Who do we have to prove otherwise, Leia? She's from the planet that got destroyed and head of the Rebellion; of course she'd lie to protect it (remember, she'd never consciously give it up)! Let's stop the propaganda in its tracks!

    Oh, and when Kenobi felt that disturbance in the force: it was a premonition of what they were about to do, but Mr. "I've seen a lot of crazy things" didn't believe in some "force"

  15. Re:This is why you drop to impulse in a solar syst by NEDHead · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually, my ex wife can create an enormous bubble of negative energy with only a moment's notice...

  16. Re:Fermi Paradox by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Funny

    From their perspective, you might as well not.....

    Plus, I'm sure your HOA wishes you would mow more.

  17. Re:Conservation of energy by RenderSeven · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thats why we have politics, to generate ridiculous amounts of negative energy.

  18. Re:Fermi Paradox by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Gene Roddenberry was right again!

    --

    kurzweil_freak

    5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

    Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.

  19. Re:This is why you drop to impulse in a solar syst by owlstead · · Score: 4, Funny

    Proposing to use your ex as fuel is taking it a bit far...

  20. Re:Awesome!!! by Kjella · · Score: 4, Funny

    Uh, if we had this technology then the easiest way of wiping out the competition would be to not stop. You get all the mentioned effects plus the ship itself as an RKV and any destruction the warp field can do to their planet. It's like the difference between an asteroid and a space capsule - it's easy to hit Earth, it's harder not to leave a crater on impact...

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  21. Re:Awesome!!! by DinDaddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now we know why no one answers our calls. They've seen Star Trek.

    "It's that little planet out near the rim calling again."
    "Sssshh. Just pretend we're not home, or they might come over."