Quantum Thrusters to Give Warp Drives a Boost?

Warp-drive technology, a form of "faster than light" travel popularized by TV's "Star Trek," could be bolstered by the physics of quantum thrusters -- another science-fiction idea made plausible by modern science.

Although Barnard's Star is in our cosmic back yard, six light-years is a long way to go, meaning relativistic speeds are required. And that means you will need a very, very big starship.

Adrian Mann

NASA scientists are performing experiments that could help make warp drive a possibility sometime in the future from a lab built for the Apollo program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

GALLERY: Into Reality: Top Star Trek Warp Speed Concepts

A warp-drive-enabled spacecraft would look like a football with two large rings fully encircling it. The rings would utilize an exotic form of matter to cause space-time to contract in front of and expand behind them. Harold "Sonny" White, a NASA physicist, is experimenting with these concepts on a smaller scale using a light-measuring device in the lab.

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