> We show that a class of subluminal, spherically symmetric warp drive spacetimes, at least in principle, can be constructed based on the physical principles kn

> We show that a class of subluminal, spherically symmetric warp drive spacetimes, at least in principle, can be constructed based on the physical principles known to humanity today This is awesome. Ever since I read about the Alcubierre paper and it’s followups it seemed obvious to me that while there are huge basic physicality issues with FTL those same issues don’t exist for a near or at light speed warp drive. Such a drive would not necessarily reduce the energy requirements of travel near light speed, but I wonder if it would eliminate some of the other huge problems. Things like a single dust particle annihilating you or blue shift turning all incident radiation into a gamma ray laser aimed at the front of your ship. Would it have any impact on time dilation? If you approach the speed of light conventionally you can experience the trip subjectively as near instantaneous due to time dilation. Is that still true if you are in a warp bubble? Light speed gets you to the centauri system in about 4.5 years Earth time. With time dilation the main cruise phase of the flight would seem instantaneous on board the spacecraft. (It would be years on Earth of course.)