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The idea of traveling at the speed of light has fascinated not only science fiction writers but also scientists for many years. Light travels at an astonishing speed of 299,792,458 meters per second. At this speed, you could circle the Earth more than seven times in just one second, and humans could finally explore the universe beyond our solar system. In 1947, humans first surpassed the speed of sound (which is much slower, by the way), paving the way for commercial aircraft like the Concorde and other supersonic planes. But will we ever be able to travel at the speed of light?
Based on our current understanding of physics and the limits of the natural world, the answer is unfortunately no. According to Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity, described by the famous equation E=mc², the speed of light (c) acts as a kind of cosmic speed limit that cannot be surpassed. Thus, traveling at or faster than the speed of light is physically impossible, especially for anything that has mass, such as spacecraft and humans.
Even for very tiny things, such as subatomic particles, the amount of energy (E) required to approach the speed of light poses a significant challenge. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest and most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, has accelerated protons as close to the speed of light as possible. However, even a tiny proton would require nearly infinite energy to reach the speed of light, and humans have yet to figure out what “nearly infinite energy” actually means.
However, physicists and enthusiasts are confident that there is no fundamental law of physics that prohibits humans from traveling through space – it’s just very, very difficult. So today, let’s discuss a few potential methods for interstellar travel, from the least to the most plausible, as seen by experts in the field.
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Traveling faster than the speed of light
You will never be able to travel faster than the speed of light. At least, that’s what we understand thanks to Einstein’s theory of special relativity – a revolutionary theory that merged space and time, making them interconnected. While it’s easy to say that future advancements in physics could overcome this limitation, implementing such a concept in practice could be much more complex.
Special relativity is one of the most thoroughly tested theories in all of physics. This is because it’s not just a theory; it’s a meta-theory. It’s a set of instructions that helps us build other physical theories. Special relativity teaches us how space and time are fundamentally interconnected. The nature of this connection sets the speed of light as a fundamental speed limit. It’s not just about light or even motion; it’s about causality itself.
This theory lays the foundation for the connection between the past, present, and future. In other words, traveling faster than light could allow for time travel, which seems impossible in our universe. Since all other modern physical theories are built upon relativity, every time we test one of them, we are also testing the theory of relativity. While we might be wrong about the fundamental structure of space-time, the light-speed limit is unlikely to be overturned.
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Wormholes
The light-speed limit is also linked to the apparent impossibility of wormholes. Wormholes are shortcuts in space that connect any two points in the universe. These strange objects are a natural prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which explains how gravity arises from the curvature and distortion of space-time.
General relativity allows for wormholes by distorting space-time in a very peculiar way. However, there’s a small caveat: these objects are catastrophically unstable. The moment anything, even a single photon, tries to pass through the throat of a wormhole, it immediately tears apart. The only known way to stabilize a wormhole is by introducing a thread of exotic matter into it. This matter has negative mass, which, like time travel, seems to be forbidden in our universe.
It’s entirely possible that our future descendants will discover an alternative way to stabilize wormholes and make interstellar travel a reality. However, the time it may take to uncover the necessary breakthroughs in physics could prove to be longer than the journey to the stars themselves.
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Ships of generations
While sending a spacecraft to another star may not pose a fundamental physics problem, it presents numerous engineering challenges. One of the fascinating ideas for interstellar travel involves creating generation ships—large, slow-moving vessels where most passengers would not live to reach their destination. Instead, they would live for generations aboard a self-sustaining city-ship, which would eventually reach another star.
Technically, humanity is already an interstellar species. Many years ago, the Voyager 1 spacecraft crossed the heliopause, the boundary of our Solar System, and entered interstellar space. The good news is that it only took a few decades for this feat to be accomplished. The bad news, however, is that this is just the beginning. Even at an incredible speed of over 57,940 km/h, if Voyager 1 were heading towards Proxima Centauri (though it is not), our nearest neighboring star at a distance of about 4.2 light-years, it would take the spacecraft roughly 40,000 years to reach its destination. This time span predates the development of the first cities and the advent of agriculture. The good news, however, is that the Parker Solar Probe, thanks to gravity assist maneuvers, currently holds the highest speed of 700,000 km/h. If it were heading to Proxima Centauri, it would take about 6,500 years to arrive. The progress is evident.
So, a “generation ship” is not just a handful of generations, but hundreds of them, all needing to live self-sufficiently in the void between stars, without additional sources of water, fuel, food, or spare parts. Because even 6,500 years is an immense stretch of time.
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A very, very fast ship
Other enthusiasts argue that to reach other stars faster, you don’t need a giant, cumbersome ship. Instead, it should be as small as possible. This way, rockets or other types of fuel can achieve higher speeds, shortening the journey. Additionally, the theory of relativity helps at high speeds. Due to the constancy of the speed of light, movement in space differs from movement in time. The faster an object moves through space, the slower it moves through time. As the speed approaches that of light, a year for the traveler could shrink to months, days, or even minutes.
Unfortunately, these relativistic effects only kick in when an object reaches over 90% of the speed of light, a milestone humanity has not yet achieved. However, particle accelerators regularly accelerate particles to near-light speeds, so this is certainly not impossible.
The challenge lies in the fact that we’re dealing with tiny particles, not massive spacecraft. To accelerate something the size of a human to 90% of the speed of light, it might require more energy than the Sun produces in a thousand years. But this is more of an engineering problem than a fundamental physical limitation.
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Traditional warp drive concept
The traditional science-fiction concept of a warp drive involves warping spacetime in a very specific way: compressing it in front of the ship and expanding it behind. Theoretically, this would allow a spacecraft to effectively travel faster than light without actually exceeding the local speed limit. However, earlier research into this idea has suggested that exotic forms of matter with “negative energy density” would be needed to make this possible. These exotic materials are purely theoretical and haven’t been observed, and they pose significant challenges in terms of their creation and stabilization.
In our everyday experience, energy is always seen as positive. Even in a vacuum, there is a small amount of positive energy known as “vacuum energy” or “zero-point energy.” This results from Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, which states that there are always energy fluctuations in a system, even in the lowest possible energy state.
The existence of negative energy density is highly speculative and problematic within the framework of known physics. The laws of thermodynamics and the energy conditions in general relativity seem to prohibit the existence of large amounts of negative energy density. Some theories, such as the Casimir effect and certain quantum field theories, suggest the presence of small amounts of negative energy density under specific conditions. However, these effects are generally very small and limited to microscopic scales.
This is where new research comes into play. Researchers in applied physics have identified a new approach that could one day make warp drive technology possible. The team introduced the concept of a “constant-speed warp drive engine,” aligned with the principles of relativity.
The new model eliminates the need for exotic energy, instead using a complex combination of traditional and novel gravitational methods to create a warp bubble capable of transporting objects at high speeds within the bounds of known physics. “This research changes our understanding of warp drives,” said lead author Dr. Fuchs. “By demonstrating the first-of-its-kind model, we’ve shown that warp drives are not relegated to science fiction.”
The theoretical model of the new type of warp bubble employs both traditional and innovative gravitational methods, made possible by their publicly available tool, Warp Factory. This solution enables the transportation of objects at high, but sub-light speeds, without the need for exotic energy sources. This is achieved by designing the spacetime warp drive to behave gravitationally like ordinary matter, marking the first solution of its kind.
“Although such a design will still require a significant amount of energy, it demonstrates that warp effects can be achieved without exotic forms of matter,” added Dr. Christopher Helmerich, co-author of the study. “These findings pave the way for future reductions in energy requirements for warp drives.”
Unlike airplanes or rockets, passengers aboard a warp ship would not experience any gravitational forces. This is in stark contrast to some science fiction depictions. The team’s research demonstrates how such a ship could be built using ordinary matter. “While we’re not packing for interstellar travel just yet, this achievement signals a new era of possibilities,” explained Gianni Martire, CEO of the Department of Applied Physics. “We continue to make steady progress as humanity enters the age of warp travel.”
The Applied Physics team is now focused on addressing these challenges, continuing to refine their models and collaborate with various disciplines and institutions to turn what was once a fantastical dream into reality.
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Conclusions
As we stand on the threshold of a new era in space exploration, the prospect of creating warp drives is more tantalizing than ever. With each new discovery and breakthrough, we move one step closer to the stars and the boundless opportunities that await us in the vast expanse of space. As humanity embarks on the quest for faster-than-light travel, potentially using warp drives, we can only imagine the incredible adventures and discoveries the Universe has in store for us.
In the distant future, assuming our current understanding of physics holds (at least in terms of faster-than-light travel and wormholes), humanity will likely send only a handful of modest missions to other stars and habitable planets. However, within our own Solar System, there are countless places—hundreds of moons and thousands of asteroids—that could one day be called home. It’s a vast space, full of mysteries yet to be uncovered.
There’s no place like home.
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