Alcubierre drive question. Wouldn't the contraction of the space in front ot the ship still be limited to 'c'?

"Alcubierre drive question. Wouldn't the contraction of the space in front ot the ship still be limited to 'c'?"

Not necessarily. Of course, the Alcubierre filed might end up swallowing the Universe, or just be a suitable garbage disposal.

"Say you get one of these drives to actually work. Won't it still take at least one year to contract two light years into one?"

No, the hope is the space in front of you (at whatever rate it approaches) is decompressed and swept around behind you to be compressed to provide "thrust". It is no sort of light propagating at c.

But if "changes in gravity" propagate at c (as so many insist), you are exactly correct. It simply allows us to approach c, but may allow us to maintain "time sync" with the Universe at large.

"I realize this is still a lot faster than we can currently travel, but is that a legitimate limitation?"

It very well could be, but I think not (since mass everywhere votes on what spacetime is hear and now, I think changes in gravity propagate infinitely fast). But as both "Argent" and "who" state, it would be the least of many technical problems.

why would it take 1 year to compress 2 light years into 1?

(you dont have to compress all of it in 1 go then travel across it .- you compress just the bit of it in front of you, but that bit is constantly changing as it moves behind you and decompresses as you travel across it)

(and I think "argent"'s statement is a HUGE understatement

We are nowhere near getting the science sorted , never mind the engineering

The problems are far more than formidable- at this moment they are impossible)

The Wikipedia article on the Alcubierre drive makes no mention of the time required to stretch/squeeze space. I suppose that the theoreticians anticipate no great problem with that aspect -- but the engineering problems that remain are still quite formidable.