AN EXTRAORDINARY "hyperspace" engine that could make interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other dimensions is being investigated by the United States government.

 

The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.

 

 

The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.

 

Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.

 

The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy - which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine - say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.

 

Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.

 

However, Prof Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned it was based on a highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics.

 

"It would be amazing. I have been working on propulsion systems for quite a while and it would be the most amazing thing. The benefits would be almost unlimited," he said.

 

"But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion.

 

"It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."

 

He said the engine would enable spaceships to travel to different solar systems. "If the theory is correct then this is not science fiction, it is science fact," Prof Hauser said.

 

"NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [uS] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works."

 

The US authorities' attention was attracted after Prof Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a paper called "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory".

 

 

Source

:o

 

Can you imagine the motion-sickness from that?

Warp speed, Mr. Sulu.

That would be pretty damn sweet.

This is probably from the same people that said we would have colonies on the Moon and Mars by the 1980s.

 

Maybe they were right.... :mischief2 :mischief2 :mischief2

Not likely to happen anytime in the next 100 years if we can't even finish the damn ISS.

I hope it's true, even if they could prove the theory within a decade or so it would still take alot of time before people are actually traveling on any ships to other stars, go nasa !!!

Sounds pretty sweet. I wonder how you'd get the thing to stop.

Not likely to happen anytime in the next 100 years if we can't even finish the damn ISS.

 

 

The ISS is typical government waste. A giant money-sucking behemoth that when it really comes down to it doesn't even have any great reason for being built, other than to justify huge budgets.

 

I like to see NASA getting into stuff like this.

This is still wildly theoretical stuff, but hey.. so were a lot of things at one time or another.

NASA gets less than one percent of the national budget. No other government agency has given us so much with so little to work with.

 

Having said that I would like to see the United States once again leave low Earth orbit.

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big NASA supporter & I'd like to see them get bigger budgets. I just like to see them pushing the boundary with stuff like this. I've never been a huge supporter or the whole ISS idea.

How the crap would this actually work considering huge-ass magnets will rape electronics? I assume special computer will have to be made. Also, how would the human body be able to physically handle that fast of a trip? They better figure out a way to make a better human.

How the crap would this actually work considering huge-ass magnets will rape electronics? I assume special computer will have to be made. Also, how would the human body be able to physically handle that fast of a trip? They better figure out a way to make a better human.

 

Just get Chuck Norris to go.

How the crap would this actually work considering huge-ass magnets will rape electronics? I assume special computer will have to be made. Also, how would the human body be able to physically handle that fast of a trip? They better figure out a way to make a better human.

 

Just get Chuck Norris to go.

A flaw in your logic:

 

 

Chuck Norris doesn't believe in Mars, therefore it doesn't exist.

How the crap would this actually work considering huge-ass magnets will rape electronics? I assume special computer will have to be made. Also, how would the human body be able to physically handle that fast of a trip? They better figure out a way to make a better human.

 

Just get Chuck Norris to go.

A flaw in your logic:

 

 

Chuck Norris doesn't believe in Mars, therefore it doesn't exist.

 

 

Is Chuck into some kin of wierd religion?

How the crap would this actually work considering huge-ass magnets will rape electronics? I assume special computer will have to be made. Also, how would the human body be able to physically handle that fast of a trip? They better figure out a way to make a better human.

 

Just get Chuck Norris to go.

A flaw in your logic:

 

 

Chuck Norris doesn't believe in Mars, therefore it doesn't exist.

 

 

Is Chuck into some kin of wierd religion?

 

 

Leave Chuck alone. He is all right.

 

But... Magnetism is the answer.