Have you ever heard of the phrase “life imitates art?” Well, two scientists are out to prove that science is not exempt. Or, at least, it shouldn’t be. Taking a cue from Star TrekOpens in a new tab, scientists Dr. Hal Fearn and Dr. Jim Woodward are attempting to build an “impulse engine” to make interstellarOpens in a new tab travel possible in a human lifetime.
In the Star Trek universe, impulse enginesOpens in a new tab are used to provide a high thrust for a short period to break out of the orbit of a planet or moon. Which also speeds up interstellar travel and allows the team to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” Without that, we probably wouldn’t have a Star TrekOpens in a new tab franchise or the millions of space-dreaming fans it has accrued. But sadly, space travel is eons behind the sci-fi franchise.
According to Fearn, it would take about fifteen to sixteen thousand years to travel to Earth’s nearest starOpens in a new tab. So unless real vampires are roaming the world, it’s doubtful that interstellar travel will be reached during any human’s lifetime.
In a video on the YouTube channel Bloomberg QuicktakesOpens in a new tab, Fearn and Woodward propose using the “Mach Effect Gravity Assist” drive to cut interstellar travel time down to within a human lifetime. The MEGA driveOpens in a new tab, as its best known, relies on some controversial physics. Mach’s principle has many interpretations, but Fearn is specifically focused on one. The principle in which distant matter can influence things up close.
A MEGA drive works like an electric toothbrush. Using Piezoelectric crystals and applying a specific electric frequencyOpens in a new tab causes the crystals to expand and contract. In turn, that makes the device vibrate. Similarly, a MEGA drive vibrates mainly in one direction, which causes it to accelerate slightly. Fearn and Woodward say this enables the device to tap into the gravitational potential of the universe.
Bloomberg QuicktakesOpens in a new tab
The YouTube videoOpens in a new tab offers a couple of examples that make it a little easier to comprehend the actual science behind it. And now, Fearn and Woodward have received two grants to advance and improve on their prototype. But, while this finding could change how we see and use space travel, the physics of it all is still being debated. For example, Michael McDonald, an aerospace engineer at the US Naval research library, agrees that a finding like this would be “groundbreaking.” But he has doubts.
“If something like that were true, it’d be earth-shaking,” he says on the video. “But those sorts of advancements don’t come along that often. So that would be a pretty extraordinary claim to say that we’ve put a new spin on the way the universe works that we didn’t know before.”
