The curvature bubble detected in the work of the DARPA team. |
But, in principle, the study claims that the bubble has nothing to do with the Casimir cavity. It was during one of the experiments to investigate the Casimir cavity phenomenon that the Boundless Space Institute team under the supervision of Dr. Harold G. “Sonny” White identified a structure that matched the warp bubble.
According to their research, “performing an analysis related to a DARPA-funded project to evaluate the possible structure of the energy density present in a Casimir cavity, as predicted by the dynamical vacuum model, a structure has been discovered to micro/nanoscale that predicts a negative energy density distribution that closely matches the requirements of the Alcubierre metric .”
In an email interview with The Debrief blog, Dr. White said that what they have identified is not a warp bubble analog, but “a real warp bubble, albeit modest and tiny.” The scientist —who for years led the NASA Eagleworks research group— affirmed that the significance of this discovery is very important and opens up the possibility of future practical applications hitherto unimaginable.
Eagleworks was NASA’s advanced propulsion research group in which White conducted research to solve the gigantic power consumption problems opened up by Alcubierre’s equations. His work managed to reduce these energy needs, proposing for the first time a possible solution so that humanity could travel to other star systems as it can now only be done in science fiction series such as ‘Star Trek’.
If ever we are able to develop theory and technology to the point where energy needs are manageable and materials strong enough. That, for now, is something that is still centuries away.
Hence the importance of this accidental discovery, which Dr. White already discussed during a talk at the propulsion energy forum of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics last August, but whose results and conclusions have been reviewed and published in the scientific journal ‘European Physical Journal. Their next step is not to investigate the curvature bubble further. Tempting as it may seem, she says, they must first finish the research on the Casimir cavities paid for by DARPA. |