Move Over, Star Trek:
NASA Is Developing
A Fully-Functional Warp Drive
InventorSpot.com
Star Trek's warp drives aren't going to be the domain of science fiction for much longer. NASA may be on the cusp of one of the biggest breakthroughs in space travel since it first put a man on the moon. Late yesterday, it unveiled the design for a prototype ship capable of moving faster than the speed of light.
Crafted by a joint effort between NASA engineer and physicist Harold White, and Star Trek graphic artist Mark Rademaker, images of the prototype design were revealed at a SpaceVision 2013 conference, and have just recently gone viral. The theoretical design - called the IXS Enterprise - was based off the concept known as the Alcubierre warp drive; a theory first proposed by Mexican Phsycist Miguel Alcubierre; the theory suggests that FTL travel could be achieved if a ship were to warp the fabric of spacetime both in front of and behind it.
The vehicle itself consists of a ship nestled at the center of two enormous rings, which would be responsible for creating the warp bubble. According to White, the ship would move by making the empty space behding it rapidly expand, pushing it forward with a degree of speed impossible with current technology. Even though the ship wouldn't technically be moving or accelerating, the passengers within would perceive the motion as such.
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