A roundtrip to Mars in one day?
According to ideas developed in the 1950s, it should be possible to build an 'hyperspace' engine allowing a spacecraft to reach Mars in 3 hours. It would also allow us to travel to stars more that 10 light years away in 80 days by slipping into a different dimension. But is interstellar space travel a dream or a future reality? It all depends if this controversial theory about the fabric of our universe is correct or not. So far, it seems that a majority of physicists thinks that this theory is either incomplete or almost understandable. Nevertheless, some scientists working for the U.S. Department of Energy think that such an 'hyperspace' engine could be tested within five years.
Let's start with two short quotes from an article from the Scotsman, "Welcome to Mars: Journey Time Three Hours."
"It would be amazing. I have been working on propulsion systems for quite a while and it would be the most amazing thing. The benefits would be almost unlimited," said Professor Jochem Häuser, a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency. "It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.
So let's now switch to this New Scientist article, "Take a leap into hyperspace" for some details about this hypothetical device.
This will require a huge rotating ring placed above a superconducting coil to create an intense magnetic field. With a large enough current in the coil, and a large enough magnetic field, Dröscher claims the electromagnetic force can reduce the gravitational pull on the ring to the point where it floats free. Walter Dröscher [, from Innsbruck University,] and Häuser say that to completely counter Earth's pull on a 150-tonne spacecraft a magnetic field of around 25 tesla would be needed. While that's 500,000 times the strength of Earth's magnetic field, pulsed magnets briefly reach field strengths up to 80 tesla.
For example, the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratories could probably deliver such field intensities.
Besides the requirements for intense magnetic fields, is such a trip really possible? New Scientist is not so sure.
The majority of physicists have never heard of Heim theory, and most of those contacted by New Scientist said they couldn't make sense of Dröscher and Häuser's description of the theory behind their proposed experiment. [For example,] Markus Pössel, a theoretical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany[...] says he finds it "largely incomprehensible", and difficult to tie in with today's physics.
So is this theory really difficult to understand? It's time to turn over to Jochem Häuser, who is currently 'Scientific Head' for HPCC-Space GmbH (High Performance Computing and Communication for Space GmbH) and has been appointed as member of the Nuclear & Future Flight Propulsion Technical Committee at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Here is a link to a paper he wrote with Walter Dröscher, from Innsbruck University, and which was selected to receive the AIAA Award for 2004, "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory" (PDF format, 30 pages, 535 KB). Here are some paragraphs extracted from the conclusion.
The authors are aware of the fact that the current paper contains shortcomings with regard to mathematical rigor, and also proposes two highly speculative concepts. It should be kept in mind, however, that any type of field propulsion necessarily must exceed conventional physical concepts.
The first of these concepts is the complete geometrization of physics, extending the Einsteinian picture to all physical interactions. This requires an 8D space, termed Heim space, comprising four subspaces that are used to construct a polymetric.
The second concept concerns the transition of a material object into a so called parallel space (i.e., there are other universes) [...] The concept of parallel spaces could indirectly be justified, since it also can be used in calculating the amount of dark matter.
I must admit that I don't really understand the contents of this paper, but I do hope that this theory is correct. Going to Mars in 3 hours would be fun...
Sources: The Scotsman, via Sci-Tech Today, January 5, 2006; Haiko Lietz, New Scientist magazine, Issue 2533, Page 24, January 5, 2006; and various web sites
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