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IXS Enterprise 3-D concept
Concept of the IXS Enterprise

Recently, a NASA physicist Harold G. White made headlines in the science and technology media by showcasing a 3-D artist's render of a "real life" warp drive starship (affectionately named the "I.X.S. Enterprise" - not sure what the "I.X.S." stands for). The starship model poposed is based on mathametical calculations that suggest that the Alcubierre warp drive could actually work!

In the 1990's, theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, mathematically demonstrated that a warp field could be created which could contract the space ahead of an object and expand the space behind said object, allowing the warping of space to effectively propel the object faster than the speed of light. The theory does not violate the "cosmic speed limit" imposed by relativity, since the object isn't being accelerated past the speed of light. Instead, the space around it is being manipulated to reduce the distance between the source and the destination by taking advantage of the fact that space itself is permeable and its motion is not constrained to the cosmic speed limit. Best of all: astronauts inside such a ship would not be subject to relativistic time dilation effects. A one-year trip for the astronauts would also be only one year for the people of earth!

IXS Enterprise 3-D concept
One of Matt Jefferies' original concepts for Star Trek's starship Enterprise.

Alcubierre freely admitted that his ideas were inspired by concepts from Star Trek, and considering that no similar theory of warp propulsion existed at the time of Star Trek, the concept and designs of the show are surprisingly prophetic. Alcubierre's models were met with early excitement when they were first proposed, but examinations by other physicists exposed certain flaws that made the effect impractical for human space exploration and travel:

  • The drive would require a tremendous amount of energy ranging from the equivalent of the total mass of Jupiter to the more mass than is contained in the observable universe! This, by itself, made the theory a non-starter.
  • The drive also may not be steerable or controllable from within the ship.
  • Also, there were concerns that a build-up of particles along the front of the bubble during travel would be shot forward when the drive slows down or stops, potentially destroying anything in its path (including the destination, whether it be a planet, another ship, or a space station).
  • There were also concerns about whether Hawking radiation inside the bubble would destabilize the bubble and/or kill the crew.
NASA physicist Harold White
NASA physicist Harold G White

These early concerns led many scientists to assume that warp drive (based on the Alcubierre equations) may forever be out of our reach.

But that hasn't stopped physicists from thinking about the possibility. In 2011, Harold White published a paper and gave lectures about how some of the variables of Alcubeirre's equations could be tweaked to make the drive much more feasible. Basically, by altering the size and placement of the engine rings, the energy required to generate the Alcubierre warp bubble can be substantially reduced. At certain sizes, the drive could require an energy source equivalent to the reactor used to power the Voyager space probes (which were launched in the 70s). White is currently undertaking experiments to show whether or not such a bubble could actually be created. The mathematical models are encouraging, but the experimental results are still inconclusive.

Earlier this year, White gave a lecture regarding his experiments in which he showed an artist's rendering of what a possible Alcubierre starship would look like if his hypothesis proves correct. The concept is inspired by one of Matt Jefferies' original designs for the starship Enterprise in the T.V. series Star Trek.

Don't get too excited though. The I.X.S. is far from being a "real life" starship, and is still very much just a conceptual model. Although White's math demonstrates that the Alcubierre drive could be made efficient and practical enough to be used in a starship using technology that exists today, his starship design seems to be lacking in several key practical, technical details:

  • He doesn't outline the exact power source for the drive.
  • He doesn't outline how the crew would operate the ship or live within it. Since the ship does not appear to rotate, it apparently cannot provide artificial gravity.
  • The ship would likely have to be assembled in orbit, but White does not provide any details regarding the materials involved or the cost of construction and operation.
  • As far as I know, he has not solved the problem of whether or not the ship will be steerable from the crew within.

So, for now, the I.X.S. Enterprise - as cool as it is - is merely science fiction.

IXS Enterprise 3-D concept
Updated concept based on Dr. White's theoretical findings with inputs from Mike Okuda (graphic designer for Star Trek: TNG - Stark Trek: Enterprise).

Comments (2) -

Oleg
Oleg
01/25/2015 06:18:36 #

Russia successfully tested antigravity engine by Leonov
http://okomov.livejournal.com/577.html

Oleg
Oleg
04/02/2015 21:31:19 #

Russia successfully tested antigravity engine by Leonov

18:06 16.01.2015, Alexander Petrov, KM.RU, Moscow, Russia
Interview with Vladimir Leonov
http://okomov.livejournal.com/577.html

Russian:
www.km.ru/.../753573-rossiya-uspeshno-ispytala-antigravitatsionnyi-dvi
English (translate.google.ru)
translate.google.ru/translate
Russia has no other way of development, as a way of scientific and technical progress, said Vladimir Leonov
In an interview with a Russian scientist, winner of the award of the Russian Government Vladimir Leonov, we reported on the establishment to them of fundamental the theory of Superunification (www.km.ru/.../russkii-uchenyi-vladimir-leonov-op) that gives of the fundamental science Russian world leadership (http://www.atomic-energy.ru/papers/42752).
Theory of Superunification:
http://leonov-leonovstheories.blogspot.ru/
www.blogger.com/profile/03427189015718990157
Then the scientist shared with us the results of tests of quantum engine in 2009 with a horizontal thrust with a force 50 kg (500 N) in the pulse. It took more than five years, and we asked of Leonov current state of affairs:
- Vladimir, on the blog you have placed video testing of an apparatus with a quantum engine inside in 2009 (Results of the tests of a quantum engine for generating thrust without the ejection of reactive mass theoryofsuperunification-leonov.blogspot.ru/.../results-of-tests-of-quantum-engine-for.html). Drive wheel absent nevertheless apparatus moves horizontally due to internal forces. Opponents argue that the whole point in friction in bearings of a wheels. It will not work in zero gravity.
- To remove the existing skepticism, I have made over the years the quantum engine with vertical take-off to remove the "factor of bearings." In June 2014 were successfully held its bench tests. At weight of apparatus in the 54 kg the impulse of the vertical thrust was 500 ... 700 kg (5000…7000 N) for electric power consumption 1 kW. The apparatus flies up vertically along the guide rails with acceleration in the 10 ... 12 G (10…12 m / s2). These tests prove conclusively that gravity is neutralized experimentally confirming the theory of Superunification.
- You can give the comparative characteristics of modern quantum engine and a rocket engine?
- Based on the bench test such characteristics are obtained. For comparison, a modern jet engine (hereinafter - J.E.) on 1 kW of power creates a thrust in 1 N (Newton). Prototype quantum engine (Q.E.) of the sample in 2014 to 1 kW of power creates a thrust in 5000 N in pulse.
Of course in a continuous mode the traction characteristics Q.E. per unit of power are reduced. However, in a pulsed mode Q.E. now 5,000 times more efficient J.E This is because the Q.E. unlike J.E combustion products fuel does not heat the atmosphere and space. Q.E. uses electrical energy.
- But this is a revolution in engine. And how will this affect the development of the space industry?
- Today, jet engines (J.E.) spacecraft reached its technical limits. For 50 years the pulse of their work time increased from 220 seconds (V-2) only a 2 times to 450 seconds (Proton). Impulse operation of quantum engine is not hundreds of seconds, but for many years. Rocket with J.E. weighing 100 tons, at best, is 5 tons (5%) of payload.
The device with the quantum engine of 100 tons will have a quantum engine and reactor weighing 10 tons, a payload of 90 tons; it is 900% versus 5% in J.E.
- And what will be the speed characteristics of interplanetary spacecraft new generation?
- The maximum velocity of the spacecraft with the quantum engine can reach 1000 km / s compared to 18 km / s at the rocket. But most importantly, the spacecraft with a Q.E. have a great pulse thrust and it can move with constant acceleration. For example, a flight to Mars in a spaceship of new generation with a quantum engine in the constant acceleration of ± 1G (9.8 m / s2) up it will take time of 42 hours and with full compensation weightlessness. Flying to the Moon will require time 3.6 hours. A new era has come in space technology.
- What an energy source you plan to apply for power supply quantum engine?
- The most promising energy source is a reactor cold fusion (CF), for example, according to the scheme of the Italian engineer Andrea Rossi, working on nickel. Nuclear cycle has energy-conversion efficiency of the fuel a million times higher than that of chemical fuel. So, 1 kg of nickel in the nuclear cycle releases energy as 1 million kg of gasoline.
But Russia has its own experience in the field of cold fusion. I wrote about this in the article "The Commission on pseudoscience and cold fusion raw bury Russia's economy" http://newsland.com/news/detail/id/884606/. Today, we are reaping the fruits of this in the form of falling prices for hydrocarbon energy.
Read: "Russia is going to choke cold fusion" http://vpk.name/forum/s187.html.
leonov-quantumenergeticscoldfusion.blogspot.ru/.../theory-of-superunification-examines.html
- Cold Fusion – this is a separate big topic, and returning to the quantum engine, I would like to know about its application in aviation.
- Creation of a universal motor, which could also work in space, in the atmosphere, on land and under water is a top priority of fundamental science.
Meets this requirement only one engine it is the quantum engine. For example, a passenger aircraft with turbojet engine at flight altitude of 10 ... 12 km have a flow rate of fuel to overcome the air resistance. He does not fly above. Installation of the quantum engine on aircraft will allow it flying at heights of 50 ... 100 km.
There is the air resistance is reduced by orders of magnitude, and thus is reduced the consumption of traditional fuel. The aircraft flies essentially on inertia.
The aircraft can fly for many years without refueling in the transition to the regime the cold fusion. For example, a flight time can be reduced from 10 hours to 1 hour on the flight path Moscow-New-York by increasing the speed.
- Well, it's fantastic. And what will happen with the car?
- Yes, this is not a fantastic. There is a fundamental theory Superunification, which defines the physical foundations of new reactors CF and quantum engine, working on new physical principles.
The present level of development of science technology a hundred years ago would be perceived as a fantasy, when aircraft and car have been in its infancy. And what will happen in a hundred years?
Already setting the quantum engine on the car radically changes him scheme. We have the vehicle body on wheels with a quantum engine and power unit. Transmission is not needed. The quantum engine creates thrust force for a car. Therefore, the wheels have no of sliding. A total of 1 kg of nickel will allow cars equipped with a nuclear reactor to drive 10 million kilometers without refueling. This is the 25 distance to the Moon.
The car will be almost "eternal" – 50 ... 100 years service life. There will be flying cars with antigravity cushion capable of by air across water obstacles.
- You have outlined our idealistic picture of the near future. But who will allow make it? Transnational corporations whose business is based on gasoline and oil will not allow this. And 50% of the budget of Russia before Western sanctions is made at the expense of oil and gas exports.
- This is not so in principle. All that now moves and flies – it's the last century. Believe me, it will take time, and transnational corporations will run a race to develop the production of new vehicles, aircraft and reactors. These are the rules of a successful business, and they are very tough. Who is late for the distribution, he will go bankrupt.
And Russia has no other way of development, as a way of scientific progress. Russian resource-based economy the sale of hydrocarbons was vulnerable to sanctions policy of the West, and it was not a secret. Now for the sanctions we have to thank the West that he awakened Russia. We must have just 2-3 years to modernize and rapidly grow the economy. Deng Xiaoping was 74 years old when he began the modernization of China and its economy was in worse shape. Putin has 62 years old.
- As far as we know, you spent 20 years at work on the theory of Superunification, quantum engine and reactor CF. But it turned out so that the Italian Andrea Rossi launched the first cold fusion reactor. The US and China are also working on the creation of quantum engine. Maybe we going to be late and who in Russia hinder the development of new energy and space technology?
It is ironic, but the main opponent of cold fusion and research in the field of anti-gravity was and remains the management of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), or rather the commission of RAS on pseudo-science, which announced cold fusion and antigravity, like terry pseudoscience.
It is easy to prove that the commission of RAS on pseudoscience was a special project from the outside, when the background of the fight against witches and pseudo-healers in RAS were crushed all groups of scientists and enthusiasts in the field of CF.
Fortunately for us experts in the field CNF did not give up and continued to work in the "underground", at the initiative one of the pioneers of CNF Yuri Bazhutov which organizes annual conferences on cold nuclear transmutation and CF. Now they are prepared by holding the 22nd conference. www.unconv-science.org/pdf/6/bazhutov-ru.pdf. As the reactor Rossi, special secrets he does not, and the reactor would have repeated Russian scientist Alexander Parkhomov.
But members of the commission of RAS on pseudoscience have reached to the military to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). Were stopped work on creating an artificial gravity in the Institute of Space Systems (NIIKS), and one of the pioneers of a new direction on engine space Maj.-Gen. Valery Menshikov resigned.
The media has hyped the company to discredit these works. Read: "The resumption of testing gravitsape - a volley of cannon at the Academy of Sciences". http://sibkray.ru/news/3/28217/. As a result, time was lost, and Roscosmos could not participate in the modernization of the quantum engine.
I should add that in the Q.E. there is no violation of Newton's third law. Q.E. creates traction when interacting with a quantized space-time. China and the United States are also working on the creation of quantum engine. But they got a thrust force less 0,01N compared with a thrust of 5000 N at the Russian Q.E. (Read: "New American engine has denied the laws of physics" http://www.rg.ru/2014/08/06/dvigatel-site.html).
- Vladimir, thank you very much for the interesting interview. And what do you say about the Higgs boson?
- As I stated, the Higgs boson and its searches at the LHC - the largest anti-scientific falsification. We were promised that after the discovery of the Higgs boson they will create a new physics and they will be able to solve the problem of quantum gravity. But they have not decided. Higgs boson does not exist in nature. http://leonov-higgsnot.blogspot.ru/.
Read: “Einstein vs. Higgs: or what is a mass?” docs.google.com/.../edit?pli=1
The theory of Superunification solves all problems of quantum gravity and artificial gravity control. The theory of Superunification is a new physics http://leonov-leonovstheories.blogspot.ru/. The basis of the theory of Superunification is quantum of space-time (quanton). Quanton was discovered by me in January 1996.
Quanton there is zero missing an element in the Mendeleev table – Newtonium . Quanton it is an atom of vacuum without which cannot form the chemical elements http://www.zrd.spb.ru/letter/2012/letter_0017.htm.
- Thank you for your interview. We hope that Western sanctions really push the development of national science in priority areas.
Books by Leonov:
1. Leonov V.S. Quantum Energetics. Volume 1. Theory of Superunification. Cambridge International Science Publishing, 2010, 745 pages.
2. V.S. Leonov. Quantum Energetics: Theory of Superunification. Viva Books, India, 2011, 732 pages.
Read more:
Spaceship with quantum engine can fly to Mars in 42 hours
leonovprojects.blogspot.ru/.../...ine-can-fly.html.
Quantum engine for generating thrust without the ejection of reactive mass
leonovprojects.blogspot.ru/.../...ting-thrust.html
Spacecraft of the new generation with the quantum engine
leonovprojects.blogspot.ru/.../...ration-with.html
Results of the tests of a quantum engine for generating thrust without the ejection of reactive mass
theoryofsuperunification-leonov.blogspot.ru/.../results-of-tests-of-quantum-engine-for.html
Leonov V.S., Russian Federation patent No. 220 1625, A method of generation of energy and a reactor for this purpose, Bull. 9, 2003.
http://www.freepatent.ru/patents/2185526
http://www.skif.biz/files/f9a856.pdf

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