What is warp drive? With it, we can break through the limit of the speed of light, and mankind will begin interstellar travel.

Although the only planet beyond the earth that humans have reached at present is the moon, this does not hinder our yearning for the universe at all. We fantasize that there is another similar galaxy outside the solar system, and there is also a planet that breeds life like the earth, and even the aliens we have always wanted to know live on it. We fantasize that one day human beings can realize interstellar travel and go anywhere they want in the universe.

This fantasy has been realized for us by many movies. In recent years, all movies about space have exploded, such as Interstellar, Star Trek, Star Rescue and so on. However, movies are movies, and reality is reality. The truth is that Voyager, the longest voyage of mankind, has not left the solar system.

Of course, this does not prevent us from continuing to yearn for star-rated tourism. The "warp drive" frequently mentioned in movies may be the most favorable tool for us to realize our dreams. With it, we can realize our wishes, break through the limit of the speed of light, and mankind will begin interstellar travel.

In order to realize interstellar shuttle, human beings must overcome three basic difficulties. The first is fuel. Our current spacecraft uses a mixture of space kerosene, hydrogen energy, solar energy and nuclear energy. When it is launched on the earth, it uses the combustion of space kerosene and liquid hydrogen to generate a huge driving force, reaching the first cosmic speed and sending space equipment into space.

Satellites orbiting the earth use gravity to maintain rotation after entering their own orbit, and at the same time rely on solar energy to maintain the operation of electrical equipment on them. If you need to leave the earth for other stars in the solar system, you must reach the speed of the second universe and escape from the gravitational range of the earth.

In this process, it is not enough to rely solely on solar energy. The spacecraft will turn on its own nuclear energy system. In theory, nuclear fusion and fission can circulate endlessly, but in practice there will be energy loss. In order to save energy, Voyager had to shut down several of its own systems in the later period, thus losing contact with the earth. It can be seen that we do not have the technology to provide interstellar energy.

The second is the driving force. We can use fuel to propel on the earth, but when we enter the vacuum universe, fuel can't burn. How can we provide a huge driving force? This can be achieved by using the gravity of other stars.

In 20 1 1 year, the spacecraft Juno launched by the United States reached a speed of 73.6 km/s by using Jupiter's gravity, becoming the fastest space equipment in human history. There are countless stars bigger than Jupiter in space, and we can use their gravity in the process of flying over them.

Finally, the question of speed. Juno can fly more than 70 kilometers per second, but this speed is nothing in space. The nearest star galaxy is Centauri, which is 4.3 light years away. Even if it reaches the speed of light, it will take more than four years, and the round trip will take about 10 years.

Therefore, for interstellar navigation, it is only basic to reach the speed of light, and you can cross freely if you exceed the speed of light. For human beings, we are far from reaching the speed of light, let alone surpassing it.

Of these three problems, human beings have barely solved the driving force problem, and the other two problems have no solution at all.

Although there is no way for human beings to surpass the speed of light, we can speculate on the world beyond the speed of light with existing theories. The speed of light in vacuum is 3 108m/s, that is, 800 million meters per second.

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, the speed of light in vacuum will not change because of the different motion systems, so it has stability and becomes the only constant substance in the ever-changing universe. Astronomers use it as a tool to measure distance, and light years become the unit of distance in the universe. Of course, light is not the fastest speed in the universe. Compared with the expansion speed of the universe, it is still inferior.

But this does not affect it at all as a reference for human beings to pursue speed. It has become the ceiling of speed in human minds. What happens if people travel faster than light?

Physicists put forward countless hypotheses on this issue, and finally reached a * * * knowledge, that is, human beings will go back to the past and travel in time and space. Travelers can go back to any time in the past and meet the characters in the history books, Qin Huang Hanwu Tang Zongsong Zu. Biologists warn that crossing is good, but it hurts the body, and our body tissues may not be able to withstand the speed of light. If it is not in a vacuum environment, superluminal operation will rub against various particles in the air, and human beings are likely to be torn apart in the so-called time tunnel.

So people fantasize that if they sit in a spaceship and fly at superluminal speed in a spacesuit, their bodies will not be afraid of the friction of high-speed particles, thus reaching every corner of the universe.

At present, the known age of the universe is about 65.438+04 billion years, and it is still expanding, with a diameter of 96 billion light years. I'm afraid that even at the speed of light, I can't see the end of the universe. But astronomers say it may be possible to go to the boundary of the universe.

Wormhole is a tunnel connecting two different time and space, also known as Einstein-Rosen Bridge. It was first proposed by the Austrian physicist Ludwig Flem, and then assumed by Einstein and Rosen. So far, humans have not found a real wormhole, and everything about it is still in the hypothetical stage.

Wormholes connect two distant time and space. For example, if you enter the wormhole at 1: 15, you will leave the wormhole at 1: 15 and reach the other end. Why is this happening? It turns out that the wormhole is equivalent to a huge whirlpool, which is composed of star rotation and gravity.

Like a whirlpool in the sea. People will soon be caught in the Mariana Trench after falling in. If people sink automatically, it will take a long time to reach the bottom of the trench.

After the material enters the wormhole, under the influence of these stars, the speed reaches the level of light speed, and the high-speed rotation inside the wormhole will distort the space in the tunnel. Astronomers even assume that it exists at the same time as a black hole, and the black hole will devour the matter that enters it, so wormholes are not suitable as tools for interstellar navigation.

However, the virtual wormhole gave astronomers an inspiration. Why can't we simulate wormholes? So that the gravity in the tunnel is not so great, but it can also connect two spaces in series. It is really possible in theory that we need to accelerate the speed of matter to the speed of light or even exceed the speed of light. It seems that we are back to the original starting point of the hypothesis, but this time we need a device.

Curvature drive is a kind of speed propulsion device, which often appears in science fiction works to improve the speed of aircraft, thus exceeding the speed of light. It is also a very young concept, which was put forward by Mexican astronomer Miguel in 1994. Alku Bire proposed.

Warp drive does not directly accelerate the object itself, but distorts the space around it. The twisted space will produce a huge magnetic field, which can make the speed of objects exceed the limit of light speed. The space in the universe is not as flat as we think. On the contrary, it may have multiple dimensions. The twisted space-time will form a wormhole-like tunnel in which objects move at high speed.

If the spacecraft has such an engine device, it is equivalent to creating something similar to a "wormhole" during flight, so that a vortex bridge between time and space can be formed to realize the Interstellar.

But warp drive is not so easy to make. Even if it does exist, human beings can't do whatever they want, because the universe is too big.

Warp drive can distort space, so this process requires huge energy. How should mankind use energy to provide power for engines is a problem that needs to be overcome. Astronomers assume that the engine can be driven by the gravity of black holes and wormholes, but humans must take certain risks. Objects close to black holes will be swallowed up by it, and even light cannot escape. If you drive the spacecraft to a black hole, you may be attracted by gravity before you can use it, so keep a good distance when using the power of the black hole and the wormhole.

Humans are simulating the artificial sun and using nuclear fusion research to achieve the goal of eternal heat. By analogy, we can use nuclear fusion reaction to generate huge energy in space to simulate stars and even black holes and wormholes.

Nuclear fusion is different from our common energy. Theoretically, it is infinite, but now it can't be fully utilized because of efficiency problems. In the future, after the artificial sun is successful, it can be put into practice and powered by artificial warp drive.

However, there is one difficulty. Suppose we use warp drive to twist space to 100 times the speed of light, and our universe is expanding. Even at the current diameter of 96 billion light years, interstellar travel will take millions of years, and humans don't have that long life span to perform this task. However, it is still possible to use it for ordinary interstellar travel.

Using a warp drive to fly at 100 times the speed of light, it takes 75 seconds to go to Mars and 72 days to reach the boundary of the solar system. It takes 83 days to realize the space migration plan to the nearest star system Centauri. The nearest Gliese 667cc is suspected to have all the necessary conditions for the existence of life, 23.5 light years away from the earth. At this rate, we only need two years to achieve it.

From this, human beings can start interstellar tourism and even interstellar immigration, just as people discovered the new continent in the era of great navigation. However, it was the aborigines who were waiting for the colonists at that time, and the aliens waiting for the colonists of the human universe may be far more than our civilization. At that time, it was uncertain who would colonize.

If the engine can twist the space into a folded state, no matter how many light years, it can't stop the progress of mankind.

Space folding is real and expected to be realized. It makes the space twist to the extreme and fold up, just like the shortest line segment between two points, but by folding this line segment many times, the distance between two points is further narrowed. The premise of space folding is that it needs great gravity to distort it. Astronomers have always believed that only black holes, wormholes and other substances can make space fold, and now it can be achieved by warp drive.

With space folding, we can move in an instant, which is like being at 1: 15 at point A in the universe. Because point B of space folding coincides with point A, the object can also reach point B at 1: 15. Humans no longer have to worry about whether they need to reach a hundred times or even a thousand times the speed of light to cross the whole universe. They just need to master the degree of engine distortion and artificially create space folding. This is more efficient than increasing the speed to 100 times the speed of light.

Space folding technology is also the highest dimension for human beings to guess alien civilization. If humans can realize it, we don't have to be afraid of encountering aliens during interstellar travel.

Although warp drive is still a technology in sci-fi movies and TV plays, history tells us that all human progress comes from the initial fantasy. For example, if we want to fly, we invented the plane at the back; We want to go to the universe to look at the starry sky, so Gagarin looked at the starry sky for all mankind for the first time in the late 1950s. We wanted to go to the moon to see if there were humans, so Armstrong printed human footprints on the soil of the moon. We may not have reached this technology now, but it doesn't mean that future humans can't.

But at the same time, the universe is huge, and we have too many unknowns in it. The rapid development will bring us infinitely close to the universe, but is the universe really as safe as we think? Facing the universe, human beings are still too young.