03-18-2021, 08:38 PM
Hey, folks.
Bit sad that y'all beat me to talking about this, as I was rushing on here after a friend sent me a link to an article about this.
There are, however, some thoughts which occurred to me while reading up on this.
Firstly, it'd be neat if the SFnal dream of faster-than-light travel was solved through this method. The paper itself (https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125) does directly mention superluminal travel being possible through this method, as does a lot of the literature talking about this. Of course, this raises all the usual issues of causality, and I'd imagine something like the Unruh Effect would probably destroy any vessel attempting FTL travel.
Secondly, and most importantly for the OA setting, both the mass and energy requirements laid out in this piece of work sound far, far more reasonable than the requirements of the void/alcubierre bubbles we described in our various reactionless drive pages. The positive mass described is considerable (though the author believes it can be reduced by as much as 60 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE!!!) but the drive requires no finnicky, high S-Level exotic matter. If these drives work for subluminal travel (and they seem to be about as plausible as the alcubierre-natario metric?) they might:
- A) drastically reduce the mass-energy requirements for the creation of reactionless drives
- B) possibly place the manufacture of at least some of these drives within the hands of, if not modos, low transaps?
At the very least, some classes of reactionless drive may fall within the purview of High-S Ultratech (that is, ultratech provided by S4+ archai), which would allow modo polities to build their own reactionless ships, revolutionising travel.
Would love to hear folks' thoughts on this -- especially if we can get the bat signal working and call in Adam Getchell to take a look at the physics!
Bit sad that y'all beat me to talking about this, as I was rushing on here after a friend sent me a link to an article about this.
There are, however, some thoughts which occurred to me while reading up on this.
Firstly, it'd be neat if the SFnal dream of faster-than-light travel was solved through this method. The paper itself (https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125) does directly mention superluminal travel being possible through this method, as does a lot of the literature talking about this. Of course, this raises all the usual issues of causality, and I'd imagine something like the Unruh Effect would probably destroy any vessel attempting FTL travel.
Secondly, and most importantly for the OA setting, both the mass and energy requirements laid out in this piece of work sound far, far more reasonable than the requirements of the void/alcubierre bubbles we described in our various reactionless drive pages. The positive mass described is considerable (though the author believes it can be reduced by as much as 60 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE!!!) but the drive requires no finnicky, high S-Level exotic matter. If these drives work for subluminal travel (and they seem to be about as plausible as the alcubierre-natario metric?) they might:
- A) drastically reduce the mass-energy requirements for the creation of reactionless drives
- B) possibly place the manufacture of at least some of these drives within the hands of, if not modos, low transaps?
At the very least, some classes of reactionless drive may fall within the purview of High-S Ultratech (that is, ultratech provided by S4+ archai), which would allow modo polities to build their own reactionless ships, revolutionising travel.
Would love to hear folks' thoughts on this -- especially if we can get the bat signal working and call in Adam Getchell to take a look at the physics!
Hard and Firm Sci-fi nerd, transgender transhumanist, intend to live forever or die trying. Credit me as Lilly Harper.
I write my own hard scifi stuff and make 3D rendered art at https://beaconsinthedark.wordpress.com
I write my own hard scifi stuff and make 3D rendered art at https://beaconsinthedark.wordpress.com