http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/4098/Visit_Mars_in_3_Days
If this is real, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve read in the last…ever. A three hour trip to Mars? I’m pretty skepical about the whole thing, though. The mechanics seem a bit… odd. Discuss, disprove, and anything else that starts with dis.
Holy crap :o
dis_astranagant?
Anyway I don’t think there’s much that we can really prove or disprove here. No real specifics are given, only generalities. A quick google of all the proper nouns (Z Machine, Burkhard Heim, etc) shows that they all check out, and wikipedia-ing Mr. Heim’s work shows that he did indeed work on such a theory.
Unless one of us here can debate the foundation of modern physics, i doubt we can go into enough detail to prove this theory wrong, as it would require disproving Mr. Heim, a man who worked on the development of the German a-bomb and holds a Masters in Physic.
To me this sounds like another case of a department wanting further funding, thus going to the press to call attention to their otherwise useless project. :\ (Nothing here is specific to mars, yet Mars is one of the few space projects the uninformed public is aware of HUH IMAGINE THAT).
The only thing i can see is-
<i>where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached.</i>
So you’re in this dimension, and light is going faster…so what? Unless you can accelerate to those new speeds, how do you take advantage of them? <img src=“http://forums.psphacks.net/Smileys/default/emoticon_22.gif”>
Cliffs: Maybe in five years we might be able to begin testing a theory that goes against everything we already know and was formulated by a man shunned by the rest of science. Maybe.
[catchphrase]
:3
WARP DRIVE ENGAGE
While it would be nice, please take to mind that cold fusion was once presented as something nearly within our grasp, but that turned into a godawful debacle, from what I understand. Going off of what I’ve encountered in various readings, all sorts of scientific projects get funded that have little to no hope of succeeding, even by large orginizations such as governments. More than a few of them are just kooky projects like this one sounds to be.
It would be cool, but if they have to revolutionize physics for it to work, they better be cooking up some good explanations.
I recall hearing about this a few years ago. Nothing happened since apparently the technology would require more energy than exists in the universe.
The theory in itself is nothing new, especially for sci-fi fans. That article doesn’t explain how to solve any of the two greatest problems attached to it:
[ul]
[li]The Planck Energy needed for the dimensional slip is impossible to generate.
[/li][li]Like Dev said, being somewhere where traveling faster than light is allowed would be useless if you’re not capable of reaching even a tenth of that speed.[/ul]
[/li]
I believe in the theory, I don’t believe this is anywhere within our reach.
And there’s the fact that even if you could reach those crazy speeds, you’d need some way of protecting your ship from all the shit you’re crashing in to.
I thought that the “Z Machine” was a text-adventure engine kinda thing.
The z machine is a high energy x-ray generator. It makes a burst of a few hundred terawatts of x-rays for a few nanoseconds. There’s a neat looking picture showing crazy electrical arcing when they fire it.
Couldn’t they just harness the awesome power of sunspots?
That’ll be sweet if they are able to make it.
Man, who the hell cares about going to Mars. Is it so we can continue to waste Earth to oblivion?
NASA can’t provide safe flights to the ISS but now they want to travel faster than light. Sure.
This makes me laugh. No, not because I disapprove of it. I actually think it could be possible. Just not in this era.Ever.All I hear is theory this, hypothesis that. Why not put that great brain of yours Mr.Scientist and solve some of TODAYS problems. Talking about in another 5 years we might come up with a “hyperspace” engine ;my ass. But all in all, it’s still a pretty awesome idea/project/watchamacallit.
Eeh, it doesn’t really sound believable, at least not as diffusely descripted as it is in that article. It would be neat though.
Make it so!
It’s an Improbability Drive!
That’d be awesome, Lex, but I think it’s merely an improbable drive.
WE GET SIGNAL
