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Warp Drives May Come With a Killer Downside

Posted by Soulskill on from the or-a-killer-upside-if-you're-a-klingon dept.

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."

9 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. Re:bussard collector by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    More like needing the radiation equivalent of a Catalytic Converter...

    If one knows that some undesirable trait will manifest, look at ways to mitigate that undesirable trait.

    Or, use that trait beneficially. If the act of dropping out of warp releases a fuckton of energy, find a way to harness that energy.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  2. Helluva weapon by Kissing+Crimson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sent from a long distance, nearly undetectable, essentially unstoppable. When it arrives, its arrival is itself a weapon, plus whatever payload it is carrying.

    --
    What's that smell? Ah, that's my karma burning...
  3. Awesome!!! by busyqth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a great thing! Now we know how to wipe out all our alien competition!

  4. Fermi Paradox by medv4380 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unless the resulting burst is a Gamma Ray Burst we should already have seen other aliens using this kind of tech.

    1. Re:Fermi Paradox by Oligonicella · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not just that, but probably determine how to collect it as usable energy. Many articles like this don't bother thinking any deeper than one.

    2. Re:Fermi Paradox by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are many patches of earth in my back yard that I have not set foot on. There are no doubt many living things in those patches of dirt. The fact that I have not interacted with he insignificant life forms in the out of the way places of my back yard in no way implies that I don't exist.

    3. Re:Fermi Paradox by CanHasDIY · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you believe in the power of prayer, or in the Bible as a moral rulebook, or any of the million and one other things which believers are constantly pushing, you have to believe in a God who should have left evidence of His active involvement all over the place, and yet has mysteriously failed to do so.

      That which ye seek, so shall ye find.

      If a person believes in a meddling deity, and looks for evidence of such, they will find it.

      If a person believes in a deity who has a firm stance of non-interference, and looks for evidence of such, they will find it.

      If a person believes in no deity at all, and looks for evidence of such, they will find it.


      That's the real problem of theology/anti-theology as an argument: It's a purely subjective realm of thought, and thus every person looking through the same window will, depending on their theological beliefs, see the world differently.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    4. Re:Fermi Paradox by JWSmythe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your scale is a bit off.

          I'll make some assumptions for you. :)

          You are an average male, with a size 10.5 shoe, and you have two feet.

          Your yard is 1 acre, with no other objects obstructing it.

          We are only considering a single plane for both your yard, and our solar system.

          The size of your foot equals the size of the earth (cross section at the equator).

          Then....

          If your foot were the size of the earth, the soles of your shoes would have had contact with 0.205381533% of the area of the Earth's orbit around the sun.

          I guess you're just about right then. We like to think we know what's in space around us. As has been proven by recent near misses with asteroids, we are not necessarily aware of rocks the size of a city before they are *very* close to us, or in some instances have just missed us.

          There could be a small intelligent alien species in a small object say a spacecraft or natural body that we have passed off as "just a rock", somewhere between us and our sun, who do not meet the criteria for living on earth, and we wouldn't have ever known it existed.

          We like to standardize "life" on the terms we know. Any advanced life will be roughly 1.5 meters tall, weighing roughly 72.5 kilograms, biped form, which breaths a nitrogen/oxygen mixture. That makes a lot of assumptions, including the idea that it would breathe.

          It could be plausible that an alien species travels in a FTL space craft which is no larger than a mosquito. If it used Star Trek based warp technology, the resulting emissions if it slowed to "impulse" several planets away wouldn't even register as a change in background radiation.

          But, we are humans, and we know everything.

          I just hope that when we are visited, they do breathe oxygen, eat compatible foods, are tall enough so I can stand up in their ship, and they understand when I say "Thank goodness you've arrived, I've been waiting for years to get off this rock. Lets get out of here before the others try to kill you."

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  5. Re:faster than the speed of light by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought that it was impossible (theoretically) to go faster than the speed of light.

    It is easy to theoretically go faster than the speed of light. It's darn near impossible to actually do it.