Summary

This paper reviews four of the most fundamental problems associated with interstellar travel. Written for NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Workshop in 1997, it illustrates the limitations of present day propulsion concepts (e.g. rockets), and shows why it will be unavoidable to invest in new physics concepts if humans are to achieve interstellar travel capabilities. In addition, the author addresses the engineering problem of system reliability, which is shown to be another significant hurdle, due to the extreme distances and durations associated with interstellar travel. He concludes that the development of a 'field-drive' (propellant-less propulsion) is an absolute requirement, and emphasizes that the physics discovered in the process will have far reaching consequences in our understanding of such fundamental issues as the nature of mass itself, the cosmological constant, dark matter, and various other as of yet unsolved questions in the physical sciences.

Abstract

Four basic problems that are posed by the challenge of interstellar space travel are explained and discussed: 1.) The propellant mass problem, 2.) The "round trip time" problem, 3.) Relativistic time dilation and mass increase and 4.) The reliability problem. These four problems drive the investigation of propellant-less propulsion and the transference of energy and information at speeds beyond the speed of light. The underlying problems of propellant-less propulsion are: 1) the need for an enormous and accessible reservoir of energy in nature, and 2.) The existence of a physical "structure" within space to provide a reaction to field induced forces that allows conservation of momentum and energy. The speed of light, c, is a basic, fundamental, speed limit of the universe. The limit is physically imposed by the rate of relativistic mass increase which becomes infinite as the speed of a body approaches c. Although the relativistic speed limit, c, is an "old" problem of physics, it remains unconquered.

Paper

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