In the universe, the speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute speed limit for any object with mass. As objects attempt to approach this speed, their body weight increases, requiring more and more energy for acceleration. Ultimately, an infinite amount of energy would be needed to achieve the speed of light, making it impossible.
This limitation creates disappointment because there is so much in the universe to be explored. The idea of reaching distant corners of space without the use of generation ships or waiting years for probe signals is appealing. This led to the concept of a warp engine, where sections of space-time can theoretically move relative to each other at speeds exceeding that of light.
The BARP motor, popularized by the Star Trek series and theoretically studied by scientists like Mexican physicist Miguel Alkubierre, aims to bypass the speed of light issue by enclosing the ship in a Bubble of spatio-temporal continuum. The ship stays stationary within the bubble while the bubble itself can move at super-light speeds compared to an external observer.
“By utilizing the local expansion and compression of space-time, it becomes conceivable to move faster than light speed for external observers,” explains Alkubierre in his research. “The resulting distortion is reminiscent of a ‘warp engine’ from science fiction. But, similar to wormholes, creating this space-time distortion requires