futuretalk

Hyperspace engine could roundtrip Mars in 5 hours

New hyperspace engine could roundtrip Mars in 5 hours

By Dick Pelletier

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Mars Inter-Dimensional Express. In a few moments, our spacecraft will transfer into a parallel dimension where we will achieve greater than light-speed travel. As we get underway, be sure to glance out your window and watch the solar system flash by at dizzying speeds, truly, the most breathtaking views you will ever observe. Our expected arrival at Rattan Colony is noon Martian time”.

This scenario may sound like fantasy, but physicists, encouraged by recent interest in the work of German scientist Burkhard Heim, believe his hyperspace propulsion idea could become a proven concept within five years. Heim’s theory adds two forces to Einstein’s four-dimensional space-time: one, a repulsive anti-gravity force similar to dark energy that appears to expand the universe; the other force would accelerate spacecraft without using any fuel.

If Heim’s idea works, it will radically change space travel. Forget spending six months holed up in a rocket on the way to Mars, a round trip on the hyperdrive could take as little as five hours. Worries about astronauts’ muscles wasting away will disappear. What’s more, the device will put travel to the stars within reach for the first time.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented each year. Last year’s winner went to a paper authored by physicist Jochem Hauser, calling for experimental tests of Heim’s theory. “This hyperdrive motor”, Hauser said, “would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could reach a star eleven light years away in eighty days”.

The US government believes this theory could become reality; researcher Roger Lenard at Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories says he can test the idea with their “Z” machine, which can generate the necessary field intensities and gradients. NASA and the Department of Defense are also expressing interest in hyperspace engines.

Enthusiasts believe our future lies in space. “Our job is to help life spread from this planet and make the rest of the universe as beautiful and varied as Earth”, said legendary physicist Freeman Dyson. “Dead worlds may be beautiful, just as deserts may be beautiful, but worlds full of life will give birth to a far wider range of beauty”.

Princeton’s J. Richard Gott III believes space colonization is necessary to prevent our species from becoming extinct. Although Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years, there is no guarantee of survival if we remain only on Earth. Colonies in space would provide insurance against catastrophes that could obliterate life on a single planet.

“Space colonies are an incredible bargain”, Gott says. “One only has to send a few astronauts. They then multiply at no further cost to us: the colonists do all the work, and colonies can establish other colonies”.

As we trek into our “magical future”, aided by technologies we cannot even imagine today, it is easy for this writer to believe that by 2150 or before, more humans could live in space than on Earth. We will always keep in touch with these hearty space pioneers, because sharing experiences of life in a strange new world will enrich us all.

This article will appear in various print media and blogs; comments always welcome. See other published work by Dick at http://www.positivefuturist.com

Published Tuesday, January 17, 2006 8:48 AM by futuretalk

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	timeless wrote on January 17, 2006 10:49 AM Hi It s sad to see that this is presented as something new, it is not. We have had antigravity crafts flying in our solarsystems since the 1950 s. That s what some of the ufo`s are all about. (You know the supposedly extraterresrtial aircrafts, abductions etc-is just the secret projects in motion:-) The ones with the mind control .... http://www.uprootmedia.org/technology.html
	futuretalk wrote on January 17, 2006 11:07 AM These subjects certainly may become real science in the future, but today's minds cannot find proof necessary to convince mainstream scientists and technologists that they are anything other than wishful thoughts. By 2040 or before, humanity should be endowed with enough intelligence to unravel many of these controversial issues.
	tomexe wrote on January 17, 2006 5:26 PM I have not seen this answered yet either in the original article in SCIENCE or in any of the posts? What is the G loading on the crew? Does going into "hyperdrive" kill gravity effects as well as inertia?
	futuretalk wrote on January 17, 2006 7:10 PM We are creatures of four dimensions; one time, three space. Today, our limited neurons cannot tell us what exists at fifth or sixth dimension levels, but given the progress of this technology, how humans will adapt in hyperspace will surely be unraveled in the coming decades. Perhaps scientists could create an artificial gravitational field that “pulls” in opposite directions to the reaction force, thereby canceling it out. If the concept becomes reality by 2010 or so, researchers around the world will step up efforts to understand more of this amazing travel technology.
	Mr. Farlops wrote on January 18, 2006 4:40 AM Heim's theories and their derivatives may be legitmate, if obscure, but as I said when this item was posted in the BetterHumans news a few days ago, until a working model is built, I am extremely skeptical. If it does work--never mind all the FTL stuff--that's just engineering surface detail, Heim's work would revolutionize physics, solving serveral key problems in the Standard Model. That alone would be an enormous step forward. Would they be able to award Heim a Nobel posthumously?
	timeless wrote on January 18, 2006 7:36 AM Hi all It all exists already and it has been developed in secret military projects. Many people have seen the antigravity crafts themselves, people have worked on them. And the physics to do this exists. People who are educated on the matter know how the system works, why it is a secret, and how it is kept secret. It is no mystery at all:-) For those who are interested, please read http://www.prahlad.org/pub/bearden/scalar_wars.htm There is a lot of good information there. I do not agree with everything, but there is a lot of good stuff. Ben Rich (Lockheed Martin Skunkworks): "We already have the means to travel among the stars. But those technologies are locked away in a super secret project. And it would take an act of God, to ever get them out, to benefit humanity. And it`s a crying shame!"
	futuretalk wrote on January 18, 2006 1:44 PM If positive thinkers are correct, and in five years this concept becomes proven reality, then researchers could become more enthusiastic about other wild technologies, such as wormholes. The new European particle accelerator scheduled for completion in 2008 could verify that wormholes are possible. Spurred with success in hyperspace understanding, mainline physicists may become more likely to focus on developing stronger theories for the promise of constructing these “miracles of nature” that might one day provide instant access to vast distances in space and ability to send information back and forward through time. Each year, our future seems to get more exciting.
	nickptar wrote on January 19, 2006 10:24 AM Don't get me wrong, this would be great (as long as it doesn't enable time travel). But this is just another minor theory until its predictions are tested. I sense a strong air of wanting this to be true so much that you convince yourself it is.
	futuretalk wrote on January 19, 2006 11:00 AM It is entirely possible that most people alive today could live to see this concept proven and developed. Enthusiasm certainly exists, so who knows? We must remember, that technology advances exponentially. Infotech advances are doubling each year; this means in 25 years infotech will advance one billion-fold from today. Imagine increasing the power of computers, communication systems, and our knowledge of biology -- plus a billion-times clearer understanding of how our brain processes information; all in the next 25 years. Our "magical future" must certainly belong to positive-thinkers whose persistance promises to turn it into reality.
	Dynastius wrote on January 19, 2006 11:05 AM Well, to me the most interesting thing about Heim's theories (and the main reason to not just discount them as "wishful thinking" is their ability to correctly predict the masses of 16 elementary particles, which none of the more mainstream theories of physics (the standard model, string theory, m theory) does. The odds of that happening "coincidently" without the rest of the theory also having validity are vanishingly small. The man seemed to be on to something.
	will314159 wrote on January 19, 2006 1:04 PM This makes the second thread on Heim theory on this site. The more the merrier. Welcome Aboard For excellent info on Heim theory a good starting point is HDeasy's articles at Wikipedia Warp 7. Mr. Sulu. Engage.
	nickptar wrote on January 19, 2006 7:16 PM "...this means in 25 years infotech will advance one billion-fold from today." First, are you talking about hardware or software? If hardware, then all right, that's very possible - but it's also possible that physical barriers will slow down (if not stop entirely) progress, so that the computer of 2030 is only, say, ten million times as fast as today (although from our puny perspective it might be hard to tell the difference). If software, of course new things will become possible due to increased hardware power, and of course our techniques will become more advanced. But a billion times more advanced? I don't think human technique can progress that fast, and whether we'll have AIs writing complete programs by 2030 is completely unknown. I certainly think that technology can and will progress and enrich humanity, of course, but blindly projecting numeric trends into the future shouldn't be considered serious prediction. I mean, why not equally conclude that the population will continue to grow exponentially, meaning we're doomed?
	futuretalk wrote on January 19, 2006 8:14 PM According to experts, information technology is doubling its power, as measured in price performance and bandwidth capacity, every year. We will see the power of information technology multiplied by a factor of a billion in-25 years. When you imagine increasing the power of computers for the same price, computation, communication, as well as our knowledge of biology, and knowledge of intelligence processes in the brain, by a factor of a billion in-25 years, you arrive at this radical conclusion. This observation assumes that information technology is not just computerized devices like MP3 and cell phones, but is something that is deeply influencing every aspect of our lives, including our biology, our knowledge of intelligence, and worldwide communications (Internet). Some believe that exponential growth associated with a specific paradigm like number of transistors on an integrated circuit (Moore’s Law) will eventually end, but it does not. It just yields to another paradigm; chips will give in to three-dimensional molecular computing which will keep this trend going on long after 25 years. One cubic inch of nano-tube circuitry would be 100 million times more powerful than the human brain. On the software side, in order to achieve the algorithms of human intelligence, we need to reverse-engineer the human brain, which scientists hope to complete by 2020 or before. Exponential growth rate is doubling in the spatial resolution of brain scanning every year, and doubling the information that we are gathering about the brain every year. Eventually, scientist believe we will model all regions of the brain, including the cerebellum; where we do our skill formation and which compromises more than half the neurons in the brain. In 25 years, by 2031, we will have detailed mathematical models and computer simulations of all regions of the brain and we will be able to recreate human intelligence in machines that do not have our biological limitations. Machines think much faster than humans can. They are better at logical thinking and remembering things – and most importantly, they can share their knowledge at electronic speed, a million times faster than human language. So, it just makes sense that in the 2030s we will find tremendous advantages of converting our biological bodies to non-biological “housing units” and allow this incredible efficient machine knowledge to become part of us. This “magical future” will be the next natural step in our evolution. We will remain “human”, but will become far more powerful than we are today.
	adbatstone wrote on January 19, 2006 8:29 PM Dick takes his view from Ray Kurzweil and his book "The Singularity is Near", which I've heard is severely lacking statements on political intervention, economic roadblocks and the social ramifications which could slow down progress by orders of magnitude. Kurzweil has not done his research. The endless graphs shown in his book are of highly dubious value. We can see signs today that the wall is approaching. Last year, Gordon Moore announced the end of his famous "law", and even he cannot see a new computing paradigm succeeding integrated circuits. Progress in all technological areas was faster in 2002 than last year as well, and there was a tad more advances in the first month of 2005 than the first few days of 2006. As technology grows more complex, the rate of advances and discoveries slows down with it.
	futuretalk wrote on January 19, 2006 8:41 PM I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion on Kurzweil’s “The Singularity is near” at our local Las Vegas Futurist Salon, and the group unanimously agreed that Kurzweil’s vision of how the future could unfold has an excellent chance of being correct. Naysayers can put this future down, but they cannot stop it from happening. A “magical future” is in our destiny.
	adidaprean wrote on January 20, 2006 1:38 AM The all take forever to come to market or to the general public. First they have to figure out the physics of his work and check it all. That task may take who knows how long. What is with everyone putting a date on this or that? Unless you work for the company making the technology, how can you know? You would sound alot better just talking about the technology, instead of sounding like your trying to sell an idea.
	will314159 wrote on January 20, 2006 11:27 AM "Eventually, scientist believe we will model all regions of the brain, including the cerebellum; where we do our skill formation and which compromises more than half the neurons in the brain." Insight into the function of the Cerebellum is gained into looking at it as a Co-Processor. The physical trait identified common across sufferers of ADHD is reduced cerebellum weight. The Cerebellum can manage stuff for you while your attention is directed elsewhere and free up your mind. Not having an adequate Cerebellum is like being a CELERON. A Pentium with the Nuts cut off. This is where Cybernetic augmentation of the human intellect will amplify human intelligence. The human brain will sit at the top of the consciousness pyrimid choosing from a menu and handing off tasks to powerful coprocessors which will return with the executed results. We will have artifiicial and powerful psudo-Cerebellums.
	futuretalk wrote on January 20, 2006 12:42 PM The brain is not a computer; supplying by rote an output for each input, it receives. Instead, the brain is a memory system that stores experiences in a way that reflects the true structure of the world, remembering sequences of events and their nested relationships and making predictions based on those memories. This memory-prediction system forms the basis of intelligence, perception, creativity, and even consciousness. Intelligence is the capacity of the brain to predict the future by analogy to the past. Researchers at Redwood Neuroscience Institute hope to one day build human-like intelligence into a computer that will not simply imitate but exceed human abilities. With machines able to out-think humans and build copies of themselves with each generation endowed with more intelligence, we will see an intelligence explosion nearly unimaginable with our limited neurons today. One thing for sure, though, we will definitely want to incorporate this intelligence into our minds, which will drive us towards swapping biological cells for more powerful silicon ones. Merging with our machines makes sense – and it could happen in the 2025 to 2035 timeframe!
	RealFuture wrote on January 21, 2006 3:19 PM I have been reading Futuretalk posts for a while now. In my opinion Dicks predictions need to be taken with a large grain of salt. Heim's theories is being looked at by private & government researchers, But it is only an unproven theory at this point(Though it has the ability to correctly predict the masses of some particles). Dick’s prediction that humans will soon be flying on starships sounds like the predictions from my childhood of flying cars in ever garage or cities on the moon. Dick states “One cubic inch of nano-tube circuitry would be 100 million times more powerful than the human brain”. Were did he get this information? Since no one has yet built a nano-tube computer. Dick just throws out statements he reads seemly without regard of were they come from. I don’t believe Dick has any concept of what is required to get to his so-called Magical Future Fantasy. Optimism is one thing, but blind faith in wild predictions is just a waste of time.
	adbatstone wrote on January 21, 2006 4:52 PM Blind extrapolation is of no means a good way to successfully predict the future. What Dick is doing is just looking at the graphs that Ray Kurzweil chucked out on the web and making up his own conclusions. Kurzweil is just another of the long line of "futurists" since the time of H.G. Wells who have looked at an exponential trend and expanded it out into infinity. Doesn't work that way. You know all those "futurists" in the 1940s/50s that imagined flying cars and food pills by the year 2000? They were using the exact same method as Kurzweil is doing now, extrapolation. Looking forward from the fifties, it was easy to imagine VTOL vehicles and moon colonies, the way we were going from then. Somewhere along the line, these things ran into economic and feasibility roadblocks. Most of the grand visions of the fifties/sixties were tied up in political red tape, unable to escape the social pressures of the time. It will no doubt happen with Dick's "magical" future. If not that, than growth WILL be slower than he expects.
	futuretalk wrote on January 21, 2006 6:04 PM I see a future that truly promises to change our world in incredibly imaginative ways. Already, we are seeing nano-enhanced clothes that have the look and feel of cotton, but are virtually stain-, sweat-, and wrinkle-proof; now sold by Dockers, Eddie Bauer, Gap, Old Navy, and Perry Ellis. Future “nano-clothes” will be completely self-cleaning and will change texture and color on command. Another wild nano-product includes sensor no bigger than dust particles. These so-called “smart dust” devices – virtually invisible to the naked eye – could one day connect to consumer products, people, and animals, even scattered on a battlefield, wirelessly tracking atmospheric, environmental and biological data. One bold forward thinker at DARPA envisions one-day using invisible “nano-dust” on the battlefield to penetrate enemy brains giving them a compelling desire to surrender. Scientists could program this far-out future weapon to search the world for a specific neural pattern, say Usama bin Laden, find him and render him harmless. Economists predict nano products will become a trillion dollar industry by 2015, providing millions of new jobs, but these commercial ventures hardly scratch the surface of nano’s enormous potential. By 2025, futurists believe nano-replicators will find their way to our kitchen counters providing us with food, clothing, gadgets; even houses; at little cost at first, eventually no cost. From 2025 to 2035, we will begin to “nano-ize” our bodies – swap our cells for non-biological ones that never age or need maintenance and during this same time will increase our minds with far more thinking power than we have today. This “intelligence explosion” will enable us to “terraform” our planet and begin our trek to colonize space. I realize some of my future visions sound a lot like science fiction, but when you think about it; 200 years ago, who would have believed we would one day have talking pictures in our homes and would scurry about in cars at a mile-per-minute; or fly around the world in airplanes. A positive “magical future” will become reality. We only need to maintain faith.
	adbatstone wrote on January 21, 2006 9:16 PM ...we open up the minds of the conservative, ignorant masses, then our future won't go very far. It's as simple as that. Based on my studies, approx. 85% to 90% of people who have heard of Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns - the overwhelming majority - simply don't buy into his prognostications for one minute. Perhaps they also have studied other factors that Kurzweil hasn't.
	Riposte wrote on January 22, 2006 10:05 PM Did you actually just try to argue that technological growth is not occurring exponentially because 85-90% of the people that have heard of Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns don't believe it to be true? Either you are meaning to say something else, or your thoughts are not clearly organized.
	adbatstone wrote on January 22, 2006 11:10 PM It's just not nearly as fast as Kurzweil thinks it is. I say 2125-2150 for the Singularity, not 2045.
	futuretalk wrote on January 23, 2006 9:38 AM Adbatstone, please provide details of how you arrive at 2125-2150 for the Singularity to happen.
	adbatstone wrote on January 23, 2006 4:07 PM ...but Kurzweil and Vinge are still wrong. Here's someone who's really done his futurist research. http://www.jrmooneyham.com/ The Anti-Singularity: Will human civilization as we know it disappear during the twenty-first century? http://www.jrmooneyham.com/sing.html http://www.jrmooneyham.com/through-the-needles-eye.html
	Riposte wrote on January 23, 2006 7:03 PM Please, PLEASE learn to make an argument if you are going to throw out arbitrary dates or refute others' researched conclusions. If you would just take the time to formulate logical arguments and thought processes, you might convince someone that what you say is valid. Or you might be persuaded in an expected way.
	aldersondrive2007 wrote on April 22, 2006 11:38 PM One reason that Kurzweil could be correct in his futuristic prognostications and the futurists of the 40's and 50's were not, is that all the predictions of that time were very dependant on the old macro-industrial model which requires massive capital outlays in order to bring into fruition. Flying cars would require a large enough market to justify retooling plants that would otherwise manufacture ground cars, or military equipment. Moon bases and regular space flights to other planets would also fall under the same capital intensive trap. The difference between the afore mentioned paradigm and what could happen in the future is that everything is moving toward being smaller, cheaper, and, possibly, having the ability to actually manufacture the components for thier replication. AT the center for Bits and Atoms at MIT, first generation personal fabricators are being developed. They are to todays factories what the early Apple computers where to main frames in the 70's. Dr Gershenfeld sees a next generation of fabricators that can fabricate the components to, well, assemble more fabricators out of readily available components. The future may already be unfolding.