Warp Speed In Five Years... Engage!
It'll just take me a few moments to punch up the coordinates on the navicomputer... okay, done now:
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.
Okay... now, I know this is all absurd. But it comes from the Scotsman, a paper I haven't found to be just plain goofy. And it quotes scientists on the record saying they've been contacted about this.
Now, this is just silly:
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.
Five years. But obviously that's just the thrust part, not the hyperspace slip part.
Unbelievable. I may one day see hyperspace engines. I may see cancer cured. But I'll never see a stupid friggin' flyin' car.
Via Instapundit.