How to go faster than light? What can be done, what can't ? and how?

1. How to go
faster than light.
"Scotty, push it right to the edge!"

2. Speaker
@pruet

3. How to go faster than light?
● Light speed is not fast enough.
○ Milkyway's diameter is about 10^5 light-year
○ Andromeda galaxy is about 2.5 megalight-year away
● Physical limitation
○ General relativity said that ... " no object can
accelerate to the speed of light in the reference frame
of any coincident observe".
● How to avoid physical limitation
○ Move to another space -> hyperspace jump -> "Jump"
○ Don't move yourself -> move the space -> "Push"

4. Jump to where?
● To higher space/dimension (i.e.,
hyperspace)
○ 4th dimension, 5th dimension, ...
○ How?
■ Blackhole/whitehole
■ Wormhole (Einstein-Rosen Bridge)
○ Theoretically impossible by now (update me please)
■ require exotic material with negative energy
density.
○ Who uses this?
■ Star wars folk...
. ╮(─▽─)╭

5. http://images3.wikia.nocookie.
net/__cb20060328020141/hyperspace/images/8/80/Worm3.GIF

6. Push what?
● Basically your spaceship does nothing, but
the space around you is pushed forward,
then you follow the flow.
○ Think about surfing

7. How?
● By contracting and expanding
the space, before and behind
the spaceship.
○ "Warp bubble"
● Based on "Alcubierre drive" theory,
formulated in 1994 (~ 30 years after the
original Star Trek series)
● Alcubierre drive suggests that by using very
high energy, we can collapse and expanding
the space.
○ Problem: very large amount of energy required

8. How?
● OK, how much of that?
○ To move a small spaceship across Milkyway, you
need 10^64 kg mass-energy equivalence (Einstein
goes here)
○ How large is 10^64 kg? it's more that estimated
mass of the universe itself.
● So, is it also theoretically impossible ?
○ First, we can use "negative mass" to generate that
amount of energy.
■ Btw, negative mass is not "anti-matter", generally
speaking, anti-matter has positive mass.
■ Negative mass is theoretically possible

9. In Startrek?
● matter/anti-matter annihilation
● Fictional "dilithium" crystals is used separate
matter/anti-matter.

10. How soon?
● According to NASA, by carefully designing
the drive engine, we requires very small
amount of energy (energy-mass equal to the
mass of Voyeger spacecraft)
○ 10 times faster than light
○ They are testing the idea now at Johnson Space
Center now.
■ Using laser to expand/contract the space
■ More info, google "White–Juday warp-field
interferometer"
● So how soon?
○ Maybe before we send that guy to Mars .