So if we need a huge amount of energy for the Albuquerque Drive, what seems to be a problem, if we are going to release it afterwards?

It's not like we will use it and then it's gone forevere!

ReductioAdAstronomicus2021-04-08T00:37:39Z

I agree. Scientists should McGyver together an EM drive with a cold fusion reactor and a perpetual motion machine, cast a magic spell over it, chant and hum during it's construction, then voila: the impossible drive becomes, well, something.

I sure wouldn't want to be within miles of it during launch. Things get ugly when crowds of hyped up people experience a major disappointment.

David2021-04-08T00:17:00Z

Assuming you mean the Alcubierre Drive, we don't need a huge amount of energy we need a huge amount of funding.

neb2021-04-07T22:52:59Z

Your spellchecker autocorrected - it’s Alcubierre drive.

The mass/energy will be in a very dense form (a symmetric configuration of the mass) to produce the ‘warp’ which is just a particular configuration of a gravitational field. It’s not used up on a trip so it would simply be reused for the next trip.

Keep in mind that it is not just the quantity of mass/energy that is needed, but it has to be negative which we don’t think exists. The Alcubierre metric also has additional issues.

Recent ‘warp’ metrics using the basic Alcubierre approach have shown that positive energy can work also. The gravity for the warp is produced by charged plasmas - not sure how that would be contained.