4 ms·

In terms of an Alcubierre drive, particles would collect along the perimeter of your space time bubble. As soon as you stop and the bubble collapses the collect

In terms of an Alcubierre drive, particles would collect along the perimeter of your space time bubble. As soon as you stop and the bubble collapses the collection of particles would explode outwards and more than likely vaporize anything immediately in front of you.

isoprophlex 5y ago
That's an interesting plot device/weapon for a sci fi story..!
- avian 5y ago
  I can't remember the title or the author, but I remember reading a story based on a similar premise years ago - the first interstellar ship goes out from Earth to a nearby star, only to barely escape as it goes nova shortly after they arrive. They first think it's just a coincidence, but later suspect that their ship's drive might have been the cause. On their way back home they make up a desperate plan to drop out of FTL drive way out of the solar system to make sure Earth's sun would be safe. This would stretch their supplies, etc. because the flight will now take years instead of months. While traveling they realize that turning on the drive might have had the same effect as turning it off. They stop at the right distance from Earth to catch the light from the time of their departure and observe as the sun goes nova.
  - faeyanpiraat 5y ago
    Wow
  - 6502nerdface 5y ago
    This plotline sounds familiar to me, too. I hope someone will remember the author... are you thinking golden age SF, 60s/70s?
  - YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
    You remembered more details of the story than me but I manged to find it... 3 years after someone else asked about it on SE: This is Randall Garrett's "Time Fuze", first published in IF, March 1954. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/203584/short-story-about-the-maiden-voyage-of-an-ftl-capable-ship https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/203584/short-story...
    - avian 5y ago
      Thanks for finding it! I'm certain this is the story I remember reading.
phs318u 5y ago
First use case that comes to mind is "Alcubierre torpedoes" or "Alcubierre shaped-charge" (if the bubble could be focused in such a way). Possibly a mechanism for disrupting any orbital objects on a collision course with earth? Hit it at an oblique angle to its orbit and poof!
- imoverclocked 5y ago
  This was used in “Another Life” on Netflix.
- throwanem 5y ago
  Any mass moving faster than light and still able to interact with matter that isn't, will necessarily have enough kinetic energy that any warhead would be an afterthought. That also doesn't necessarily improve matters in the Earth impactor case, since shattering a single large impactor without changing its vector only creates many small impactors. Some models make that look a little worse than the status quo ante, while more optimistic ones just say it's exactly as bad, but either way, if the mission is to see that zero rocks hit Earth then it isn't really a win. I'm more interested in the idea that, the longer your FTL leg, the less well you're able to see where you're going - not that that's likely often necessary for starships any more than for sailing vessels, but you can think of circumstances in which it might matter. Too, it might come to be considered unneighborly to take too direct a course anywhere, lest you inadvertently Kessler-spray your destination. Insystem use of the drive would be most complicated by this in general, especially since there's rarely much point in visiting stars without lots of rocks around them. You might also not be able to make sharp maneuvers in FTL, hence needing to plan legs with care not only for safety, but to minimize time and reaction mass spent on slow thruster rendezvous maneuvers. This has implications for travel time, navigation in general, and thus implicitly for supply chain logistics, travel time, and thus what's feasible both economically and politically - especially should it coincide with the absence of any FTL comms cheaper and faster than "record a message and then have a packet boat take it where it needs to go".
  - willis936 5y ago
    I don't believe any model that says many small impactors cause more or the same damage than one large impactor. Surface area is higher, drag is higher. V becomes lower. 1/2mv^2 becomes dramatically lower. In every single case that an impactor is split. Also, in the case of hitting a rock with sufficient kinetic energy it will become atomized. A cloud of fast moving space dust would burn in the upper atmosphere.
ck2 5y ago
Perimeter? As in -outside- the warp bubble? So the dust is now moving at beyond light speed but without the protective effects of time inside the bubble? We know what happens to matter at those speeds, it becomes infinitely "heavy" and would experience time in relative light-years (I mean time-to-travel at light speeds) no?
- serverholic 5y ago
  What I said is about the limit of my knowledge unfortunately. However here’s the paper from the University of Sidney that goes into much greater detail. pdf warning https://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.5708v1.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.5708v1.pdf From the paper: > These results suggest that any ship using an Alcu- bierre warp drive carrying people would need shielding to protect them from potential dangerously blueshifted particles during the journey, and any people at the des- tination would be gamma ray and high energy particle blasted into oblivion due to the extreme blueshifts for P+ region particles.
- handol 5y ago
  > We know what happens to matter at those speeds, it becomes infinitely "heavy" and would experience time in relative light-years (I mean time-to-travel at light speeds) no? I don't think we do know what happens. Relativistic mass approaches infinity at exactly c. Beyond c we obviously have no data, but if we just apply the same equations the relativistic mass would drop back to a finite value. A finite complex value.
wcarss 5y ago
And so were coined the warp bombs and the warp shots, two weapons of unimaginable power against which no defenses could stand. Undetectable until arrival, unstoppable upon arrival. A very fast and saucy radiation souffle.

isoprophlex 5y ago

That's an interesting plot device/weapon for a sci fi story..!

avian 5y ago
I can't remember the title or the author, but I remember reading a story based on a similar premise years ago - the first interstellar ship goes out from Earth to a nearby star, only to barely escape as it goes nova shortly after they arrive. They first think it's just a coincidence, but later suspect that their ship's drive might have been the cause. On their way back home they make up a desperate plan to drop out of FTL drive way out of the solar system to make sure Earth's sun would be safe. This would stretch their supplies, etc. because the flight will now take years instead of months. While traveling they realize that turning on the drive might have had the same effect as turning it off. They stop at the right distance from Earth to catch the light from the time of their departure and observe as the sun goes nova.
- faeyanpiraat 5y ago
  Wow
- 6502nerdface 5y ago
  This plotline sounds familiar to me, too. I hope someone will remember the author... are you thinking golden age SF, 60s/70s?
- YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
  You remembered more details of the story than me but I manged to find it... 3 years after someone else asked about it on SE: This is Randall Garrett's "Time Fuze", first published in IF, March 1954. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/203584/short-story-about-the-maiden-voyage-of-an-ftl-capable-ship https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/203584/short-story...
  - avian 5y ago
    Thanks for finding it! I'm certain this is the story I remember reading.

phs318u 5y ago

First use case that comes to mind is "Alcubierre torpedoes" or "Alcubierre shaped-charge" (if the bubble could be focused in such a way). Possibly a mechanism for disrupting any orbital objects on a collision course with earth? Hit it at an oblique angle to its orbit and poof!

imoverclocked 5y ago
This was used in “Another Life” on Netflix.
throwanem 5y ago
Any mass moving faster than light and still able to interact with matter that isn't, will necessarily have enough kinetic energy that any warhead would be an afterthought. That also doesn't necessarily improve matters in the Earth impactor case, since shattering a single large impactor without changing its vector only creates many small impactors. Some models make that look a little worse than the status quo ante, while more optimistic ones just say it's exactly as bad, but either way, if the mission is to see that zero rocks hit Earth then it isn't really a win. I'm more interested in the idea that, the longer your FTL leg, the less well you're able to see where you're going - not that that's likely often necessary for starships any more than for sailing vessels, but you can think of circumstances in which it might matter. Too, it might come to be considered unneighborly to take too direct a course anywhere, lest you inadvertently Kessler-spray your destination. Insystem use of the drive would be most complicated by this in general, especially since there's rarely much point in visiting stars without lots of rocks around them. You might also not be able to make sharp maneuvers in FTL, hence needing to plan legs with care not only for safety, but to minimize time and reaction mass spent on slow thruster rendezvous maneuvers. This has implications for travel time, navigation in general, and thus implicitly for supply chain logistics, travel time, and thus what's feasible both economically and politically - especially should it coincide with the absence of any FTL comms cheaper and faster than "record a message and then have a packet boat take it where it needs to go".
- willis936 5y ago
  I don't believe any model that says many small impactors cause more or the same damage than one large impactor. Surface area is higher, drag is higher. V becomes lower. 1/2mv^2 becomes dramatically lower. In every single case that an impactor is split. Also, in the case of hitting a rock with sufficient kinetic energy it will become atomized. A cloud of fast moving space dust would burn in the upper atmosphere.

ck2 5y ago

Perimeter? As in -outside- the warp bubble? So the dust is now moving at beyond light speed but without the protective effects of time inside the bubble? We know what happens to matter at those speeds, it becomes infinitely "heavy" and would experience time in relative light-years (I mean time-to-travel at light speeds) no?

serverholic 5y ago
What I said is about the limit of my knowledge unfortunately. However here’s the paper from the University of Sidney that goes into much greater detail. pdf warning https://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.5708v1.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.5708v1.pdf From the paper: > These results suggest that any ship using an Alcu- bierre warp drive carrying people would need shielding to protect them from potential dangerously blueshifted particles during the journey, and any people at the des- tination would be gamma ray and high energy particle blasted into oblivion due to the extreme blueshifts for P+ region particles.
handol 5y ago
> We know what happens to matter at those speeds, it becomes infinitely "heavy" and would experience time in relative light-years (I mean time-to-travel at light speeds) no? I don't think we do know what happens. Relativistic mass approaches infinity at exactly c. Beyond c we obviously have no data, but if we just apply the same equations the relativistic mass would drop back to a finite value. A finite complex value.

wcarss 5y ago

And so were coined the warp bombs and the warp shots, two weapons of unimaginable power against which no defenses could stand. Undetectable until arrival, unstoppable upon arrival. A very fast and saucy radiation souffle.