Professor Chance Glenn believes that the creation of a warp drive will bring us closer… antifreeze
(ORDO NEWS) — The dream of a warp drive, a futuristic propulsion system that would in theory allow us to travel astronomical distances at the speed of light or even faster, still lives on.
It so happened that historically this idea belonged in general to the field of science fiction. However, despite this, many engineers continue to work hard, trying to bring it to life.
Take, for example, Chance Glenn, professor of engineering and president of the University of Houston in Victoria, USA, who said he was willing to do early research on a new concept in the lab.
Of course, the actual warp drive shown in Star Trek, if – or when – appears, it will be only in the distant future.
But researchers like Glenn are starting to suspect that ingenuity, coupled with luck, could bring us closer to discovering ways to “play” with the rules of space and time.
Glenn is willing to spend money and time developing a completely new idea – not to create a “warp bubble” that protects the spacecraft when it flies at FTL, but to try to find a way to warp space-time .
“My planned experiment involves “pumping” an RF chamber with a laser beam passing through it,” Glenn said, “and if in some way, even slightly, space-time is distorted, then it can be detected.”
To do this, Glenn plans to fill the chamber with ethylene glycol – a liquid that does not freeze at low temperatures (antifreeze) – a surprisingly simple and affordable material that is suitable for conducting a very complex experiment.
Ethylene glycol can help Glenn detect gravitational wave signatures or ripples in space-time first predicted by Albert Einstein over 100 years ago, not thousands and millions of light-years away, but right here on Earth.
By pulsing the laser in this chamber, Glenn hopes to capture the ripples in action. The results of the study, he believes, may influence our efforts to build warp drives.
Fortunately, the professor has already secured funding and valuable connections at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) and SpaceX.
In addition, Glenn even received an invitation from the famous engineer and warp drive expert Harold White, who invited the scientist to use his laboratory.
“I hope to conduct the first experiments in the first half of 2023,” Glenn shared his plans.
While the dream of a working warp drive to help us conquer interstellar space is still far from being realized, the first steps are often the hardest.
“Math calculations and all is great, but there is nothing better than practical evidence,” added Glenn.
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