Warp one!

This is the sort of story that creates two contradictory feelings inside me:  I become excited, and at the same time, highly skeptical.  Call it "cold fusion syndrome."  I want to believe, but I'm afraid of feeling like a fool later.

It seems that

...noted physicist Dr. Franklin Felber will present his new exact solution of Einstein's 90-year-old gravitational field equation to the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) in Albuquerque. The solution is the first that accounts for masses moving near the speed of light.

Felber's antigravity discovery solves the two greatest engineering challenges to space travel near the speed of light: identifying an energy source capable of producing the acceleration and limiting stresses on humans and equipment during rapid acceleration.

"Dr. Felber's research will revolutionize space flight mechanics by offering an entirely new way to send spacecraft into flight," said Dr. Eric Davis, Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin and STAIF peer reviewer of Felber's work. "His rigorously tested and truly unique thinking has taken us a huge step forward in making near-speed-of-light space travel safe, possible, and much less costly."

The field equation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity has never before been solved to calculate the gravitational field of a mass moving close to the speed of light. Felber's research shows that any mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'antigravity beam' in front of it. The closer a mass gets to the speed of light, the stronger its 'antigravity beam' becomes.

If he's right, this is as revolutionary as Relativity was 100 years ago.  Those of you familiar with Relativity theory know that as any object's speed approaches the speed of light (c) its mass approaches infinity, hence its gravity (and the space curvature around the object) also approaches infinity.  Unfortunately, so does the amount of energy required to accelerate the object.

In addition, the other main obstacle to near-light-speed travel is the lethally immense g-forces created while accelerating.  In order to avoid this we would have to accelerate so slowly as to negate much of the advantage of traveling that fast in the first place.  This is why Star Trek writers had to invent "inertial dampers" so that the occupants of a starship wouldn't be turned into blotches of organic matter on the rear bulkheads whenever they went to warp speed.

Felber's theory would mean that the very thing that was once considered an obstacle to near-light-speed travel now becomes the means by which it can be accomplished.

This seems almost to good to be true.  Thank goodness for peer review--I have no doubt that we will shortly know whether this theory is truly plausible or simply the product of one man's overenthusiasm.

And if he's right, we will indeed soon be traveling to the stars.

Comments

[Steel]

His theory DOES tend toward the laws of symetry - I like that. I posted a story about 'faster than light' speeds having been attained recently too. I REALLY like that.