Re: starship-design: starship design: Alcubierre Drive... How?

["Kyle R. Mcallister" <stk@sunherald.infi.net>]

KellySt@aol.com wrote:
> 
> >==Once we understand these factors, we may be closer
> > to knowing what it takes to travel faster than light. Who
> > knows? It might turn out to be simpler than what we
> >  currently think. But I don't think we will be able to
> > do it for at least a few hundred years.
> >
> > Kyle R. Mcallister
> 
> Don't bet on that.  Now-a-days things go from weird physics concepts, to
> marketed products REAL fast!  NASA's funding research into this stuff.  They
> obviousl expect something far less long term then centuries.

Well, to do that we will likely need to know about the following:

1. Inertia control. Such as preventing it from skyrocketing when C is
approached. It has been suggested that relativistic 'mass' increase
might be circumvented if we knew how to 'mess' with the cause of
inertia. Note: many top physicists are beginning to doubt Mach's inertia
theory. It would also be nice to accelerate at 1000g's and not be turned
into chunky salsa.

2. Space-time modification. Pretty obvious.

3. Learning more about light speed and what it is based on. Or: how can
we exceed C and live to tell about it? Like I said, when we know the
fundamentals, FTL might not require warps as complex as Alcubierre's.
Something simpler might exist.

Less than a century to do this? It would be nice, but I don't know...
Kyle R. Mcallister