At some point in a person’s life there comes a time when they find a second home. For many, that home takes the form of a spaceship. Whether that ship is the USS Enterprise, the Battlestar Galactica, the Serenity, the Millennium Falcon, or the TARDIS, we all have that one ship that will always be home. Having watched many sci-fi shows and films that primarily take place in a futuristic space age, I became intrigued with the technical side of these pseudo homes. Specifically with the methodology behind the propulsion systems of the spaceships. Each series or film created their own world in which to have their own technology. Varying technologies lended to different methods of travel. With many different types of technobabble to sift through, I set out to educate myself on the absolute basics behind driving spaceships.
In my research I found that most of what we see are variations on three basic theoretical propulsion systems: Warp Drive, Jump Drive, and Hyperdrive. All of these systems are faster than light, making them FTL type propulsion systems. They vary, however, in how they achieve faster than light speeds and how they effect the space around them.
The concept behind Warp Drive is the multiplication of the speed of light to different orders of magnitude. Warp Drive still requires a certain amount of time for the traveler to make their journey. This method operates in the Theory of Special Relativity. Allowing for the literal warping of space to propel matter at colossal speeds without interfering with objects in the vicinity of said matter (ie. asteroids, planets, other ships).
Jump Drives also operate under the Theory of Special Relativity. It’s main variation from Warp Drive is that it takes time out of the equation. Moving instantaneously. It’s pretty much teleportation. Manipulating the matter inside a certain section of space and transferring the matter from point A to point B without messing with the physical space between the two points.
Hyperdrives operate much like the Warp Drive. Both manipulate the speed of light and both require varying amounts of time to complete the journey. The Hyperdrive, however, is dependent on Hyperspace. Hyperspace is an adjacent dimension that allows matter to travel at faster than light speeds. Instead of manipulating the space in our dimension (like the Warp Drive) it cuts a separate path through someone else’s dimension to get to the destination faster.
Once I learned the difference between the three propulsion systems, I wanted to try them! Slight problem. This is all science fiction. Spaceships and FTL drives are far beyond the reaches of modern science. But are they possible? Sure, we could build a spaceship right now (not in this economy), but we wouldn’t be able to get it out of our solar system and back without some serious time and manpower. It currently takes 36 years to reach the edge of interstellar space. And since the scientific community hasn’t figured out how to break the light barrier, it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon. Most of the scientific community believes that any type of FTL travel, though not impossible, is still a discovery to be made in the distant future.
The Solace of Hope 