San Diego, CA "hyperspace" engine being researched by US Government

Whoah!

Sure hope this pans out!


http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18925331.200.html

Fancy a trip through another dimension? New Scientist Space uncovers the curious tale of the rocket driven by quantum gravity


http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006

Welcome to Mars express: only a three hour trip
IAN JOHNSTON
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
AN EXTRAORDINARY "hyperspace" engine that could make interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other dimensions is being investigated by the United States government.

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.


The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.

Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.

The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy - which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine - say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.

Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.

However, Prof Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned it was based on a highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics.

"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," he said.

"But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion.

"It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."

He said the engine would enable spaceships to travel to different solar systems. "If the theory is correct then this is not science fiction, it is science fact," Prof Hauser said.

"NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [US] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works."

The US authorities' attention was attracted after Prof Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a paper called "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory".

 

Well I hope they hurry up and do this before I die. Thats on my list of things to do before I die.. go in outerspace... even if its just to orbit around the earth once, that would be cool.

 

They've had this technology from the 50's, but it's been locked away so securely only an act of god would get it out. It's the technology the Roswell crafts used

 

Whatever ones views are on Roswell sorts of things.

Please give credit to the very much human physicist that came up with this theory. Only time will tell if he opened the door to the stars. And he deserves full credit for his work. I have never heard of this fellow before this article. He was disabled and it took incredible dedication. Admirable no matter how his theory hold up.


Who was Burkhard Heim?

Burkhard Heim had a remarkable life. Born in 1925 in Potsdam, Germany, he decided at the age of 6 that he wanted to become a rocket scientist. He disguised his designs in code so that no one could discover his secret. And in the cellar of his parents' house, he experimented with high explosives. But this was to lead to disaster.

Towards the end of the second world war, he worked as an explosives developer, and an accident in 1944 in which a device exploded in his hands left him permanently disabled. He lost both his forearms, along with 90 per cent of his hearing and eyesight.

After the war, he attended university in Göttingen to study physics. The idea of propelling a spacecraft using quantum mechanics rather than rocket fuel led him to study general relativity and quantum mechanics. It took an enormous effort. From 1948, his father and wife replaced his senses, spending hours reading papers and transcribing his calculations onto paper. And he developed a photographic memory.

Supporters of Heim theory claim that it is a panacea for the troubles in modern physics. They say it unites quantum mechanics and general relativity, can predict the masses of the building blocks of matter from first principles, and can even explain the state of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.

More detailed info here....

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18925331.200

Take a leap into hyperspace
05 January 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Haiko Lietz
EVERY year, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented at its annual conference. Last year's winner in the nuclear and future flight category went to a paper calling for experimental tests of an astonishing new type of engine. According to the paper, this hyperdrive motor would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could leave Earth at lunchtime and get to the moon in time for dinner. There's just one catch: the idea relies on an obscure and largely unrecognised kind of physics. Can they possibly be serious?

The AIAA is certainly not embarrassed. What's more, the US military has begun to cast its eyes over the hyperdrive concept, and a space propulsion researcher at the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories has said he would be interested in putting the idea to the test. And despite the bafflement of most physicists at the theory that supposedly underpins it, Pavlos Mikellides, an aerospace engineer at the Arizona State University in Tempe who reviewed the winning paper, stands by the committee's choice. "Even though such features have been explored before, this particular approach is quite unique," he says.

Unique it certainly is. If the experiment gets the go-ahead and works, it could reveal new interactions between the fundamental forces of nature that would change the future of space travel. Forget spending six months or more holed up in a rocket on the way to Mars, a round trip on the hyperdrive could take as little as 5 hours. All our worries about astronauts' muscles wasting away or their DNA being irreparably damaged by cosmic radiation would disappear overnight. What's more the device would put travel to the stars within reach for the first time. But can the hyperdrive really get off the ground?

The answer to that question hinges on the work of a little-known German physicist. Burkhard Heim began to explore the hyperdrive propulsion concept in the 1950s as a spin-off from his attempts to heal the biggest divide in physics: the rift between quantum mechanics and Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Quantum theory describes

 

"Has hand up"
Must I say that is the second biggest post I have ever seen on the boards the first is the monthly newsletter we have over on the collectors forums.

 

Only one problem with this hyperspace engine at this point. THe magnetic field would probably kill anyone on the ship. So i guess they need to come up pwith some deflector shields. On the bright side, they do have Ion engines now, so i guess TIES arent that far off.

 

I am sure they have said before about hyperspace that if they did it and the ship hit some space dust it can rip a giant hole into the ship.

 

Only time will tell. But I'm glad that there are people trying to come up with ways to reach the stars.

Its pretty astounding. We only learned how to fly (powered flight) about 100 years ago, and even went to the moon only seven decades later. And here are people contemplating a possible working theory for stellar travel today. 100 years is a long time to us as individuals, but to the course of human history it is a mere heartbeat of time.

"Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops." -H. L. Mencken

Lets hope the theory pans out. We might live long enough to see it produce some sort of test vehicle.

 

Just found out one of my professors is a consultant on the Ion engine project, so if you have any questions ill relay them to him and see what he says