NASAs Warp Drive Spaceship Concept

This is the Enterprise, NASA’s concept for a warp-drive spaceship capable of interstellar travel. Interstellar means between stars. So this is a spaceship that could travel between stars. Impressive! (via)

It’s not a fantasy sci-fi ship but a concept based on the equations of Dr. Harold White–lead at NASA’s Eagleworks Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory–who also works in ion engines and plasma thrusters.

Dr. White–whose daily life is working in future propulsion solutions for interplanetary travel in the near future, like ion and plasma thrusters–developed new theoretical work that solved the problems of the Alcubierre Drive concept, a theory that allowed faster-than-light travel based on Einstein’s field equations in general relativity, developed by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre.

A spaceship equipped with a warp drive would allow faster-than-light travel by bending the space around it, making distances shorter. At the local level, however, the spaceship wouldn’t be moving faster than light. Therefore, warp drive travel doesn’t violate the first Einstein commandment: Thou shall not travel faster than light.