So NASA May Have Just Invented The Warp Drive IRL
Rumours circulating in the scientific community suggest the space agency scientists built an engine not unlike the famous Warp Drive from Star Trek...
All you Trekkies out there, rejoice! If some NASA forum posts are to be believed, it might not be too long until the human race will be able to achieve intergalactic travel. In short the Warp Drive is kinda a real thing and it's kinda almost here.
Without going into too much detail (not that we could, with our scope of scientific knowledge!), the newly discovered principle comes as a result of experiments with something called the electromagnetic engine, or the EMdrive.
It was created by a British engineer called Roger J. Shawyer, who uses a magnetron to produce microwaves that propel the device without any reaction mass as fuel. Therefore, it could potentially solve the issue of needing massive amounts of fuel to reach nearby galaxies.
Nobody knows quite why this engine actually works, but there have already been successful experiments by NASA and a group of Chinese scientists. Still with us? Let's get to the juicy part.
So, according to posts on the NASA Space Flight forum, when scientists tried to fire lasers into the EmDrive resonance chamber (as one does) , it was found that some of the beams were traveling faster than the speed of light.
If this theory is confirmed, it could mean that the EmDrive is producing a warp field or bubble that can potentially be harnessed in the future to create Star Trek-style spacecrafts.
Nothing has been confirmed officially and the team of scientists now wants to test the device out in a vacuum, but so far things are looking very promising.
Very soon humanity may well be Boldly Go(ing) Where No Man Has Gone Before!