THIS IS THE spacecraft that Nasa hopes will make interstellar travel possible.
The entire concept is in the very early stages, but Dr Harold “Sonny” White is working on the warp drive program at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, and came up with this concept with 3D artist Mark Rademaker.
The design is based on the 1960s designs upon which Star Trek’s Enterprise was based. The spaceship has been named the ISX Enterprise.
Dr White is the advanced propulsion lead at NASA and has successfully proven that faster than light travel might just be possible.
Here, he explains how.
Essentially, the craft would bend the space around it, shortening distances. This means that while it would be spanning distances faster than the speed of light, it would not disprove Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
This is because inside the bubble it had created, the spaceship would not be travelling faster than the speed of light.
The team at NASA Eagleworks has already begun experimenting with creating tiny warp bubbles.
White believes that if his work is successful, it will create an engine that could get us to Alpha Centauri in two weeks.
You can see more images of the ship in his Rademaker’s Flickr gallery.
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