Micro-Warp Drive

This is so far beyond our current day science that it's SF, whether the author of this article wants to believe it or not. Fact is, we have no prototype for this in operation. It's all on paper and not clearly demonstrated. It's like a straw man. We're just not capable right now of knowing yet. We're kind of like pre-copernican star watchers contemplating the makeup of the local universe.

But you know, we have thousands of years to find out. You do believe we'll be here in a thousand years, right? I think we will be. Maybe not on earth or just on earth, but we'll be somewhere.

Look at this, it's an article about sailing to the nearest star in less than 7000 years:
news.discovery.com - Are Solar Sails the Future of Space Travel?...

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Of course, that also means the craft would require 7,000 years to reach the nearest star -- but that's if the sails depended on current technology. Matloff believes a 50-nanometer beryllium sail, built in space, could potentially make an interstellar voyage in as little as 2,000 years. Go lighter than that, via perforated sails or lighter metamaterials, and potential speeds increase.

"There are materials coming online like carbon nanotubes and graphenes, and these may allow you to cut the mass of the sail even more," Matloff says. "So, I think we'll be able to do to a lot better than 2,000 years to the nearest star. Will we get below 1,000 years? Maybe. Will we get down to a couple hundred? Well then I have my doubts, but that’s my own personal feeling."
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Hate to say it, but we're not the climax of human endeavour. We're just one generation in a long series of generations that will span thousands and millions of years.

Star watchers 500 years ago at least were contemplating other earths around other stars. Giordana Bruno was one of them. And if they were able to imagine other earths around other stars, they probably wondered how we would one day travel to them. And they did all this long ago.

reply to post by jonnywhite


I would consider that placing a soft laser ( a large one) in front of the vessel, so it could fire into the sail. It could actually be very practical way of propulsion even today.

The effects of time dilation at 1/2 that of light are virtually insignificant.

Travel from Earth to the Oort cloud and back would be about 14 years and the round trip to the nearest star, about 25 years.

Considering the time needed for exploration.

Any thoughts?

reply to post by Kashai


I wonder if you were to fire an electromagnetic pulse towards a dish which had alternating electromagnetic charge on it (from +to-) and you were to rotate the frequency of the fired pulse so it would be reflected off the dish as they matched ++ or --. Would it move the craft in the voids of space?

reply to post by rickymouse


It is possible that a vessel set up like like that could run into problems near planets or stars (unless it was insulated in some way). Though any sustained method of propulsion should get us up into speeds. Planets have poles and it is the rotating core of a planet that electromagnetic fields are generated. I would consider that what your suggesting is an interesting way to power a vessel.

Perhaps even protect it from radiation.