14th February 2006, 3:51 PM
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=4292
According to this solution of Einstein's field equation, at 57.7% of the speed of light, relative to us, an object's gravity well will warp to such a degree that, directly in front of the object (relative to it's direction of motion), the gravity well will actually shoot foward as a beam, growing stronger and stronger as the ship accelerates. This can be thought of as an "anti gravity beam" the object can "fall" through. This is only good for up to about 90% light speed, but that's still pretty good. The solar system would all be within reach.
There are all those other nasty relativity consequences to take into account though, as well as how to build something that could use this method. Also others are rechecking this guy's work to make sure the equations do result in this. Assuming Einstein might actually have been right (and we have good evidence to say he was right on a number of things), we're off to Pluto on a quick 15 (I'd guess) hour trip.
According to this solution of Einstein's field equation, at 57.7% of the speed of light, relative to us, an object's gravity well will warp to such a degree that, directly in front of the object (relative to it's direction of motion), the gravity well will actually shoot foward as a beam, growing stronger and stronger as the ship accelerates. This can be thought of as an "anti gravity beam" the object can "fall" through. This is only good for up to about 90% light speed, but that's still pretty good. The solar system would all be within reach.
There are all those other nasty relativity consequences to take into account though, as well as how to build something that could use this method. Also others are rechecking this guy's work to make sure the equations do result in this. Assuming Einstein might actually have been right (and we have good evidence to say he was right on a number of things), we're off to Pluto on a quick 15 (I'd guess) hour trip.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
![[Image: mars_surface_vik2.gif]](http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/mars_surface_vik2.gif)