Anybody have good ideas for going faster than lightspeed?

Question

I'm just checking around and seeing if anyone thinks about how Nasa could get to other places then our solar system, FAST.

Answer 1

I agree with Mark, although Warp speed, according to scientists is highly improbable.  

Another idea comes from science fiction as well - a folding of space that takes you from point A to point B in a flash.  Think of Stargate.  In more laymen terms, take a peice of paper, make two dots in different spots and then fold the paper to make the dots meet.  Theoretically, it's possible to do this with the right technology, but again, most things in science fiction are regarded by scientists as improbable in this day and age.  A hundred years from now, they may sing a different tune.

Answer 2

we're having enough trouble figuring out how to go faster than one ten thousandth of light speed, so let's work on that first eh?

Answer 3

So far, the speed of light is the speed limit. The fastest spacecraft is going 38,600 MPH (Voyager 1) Thats barely noticable on the speed of light scale.

Try Star Trek fiction from the web:Warp drive is a form of faster-than-light propulsion in the fictional universe of Star Trek, capable of propelling spacecraft or objects to many multiples of the speed of light but avoiding the problems of time dilation. It is also featured in the computer games Stars!, StarCraft, Eve Online, and Darkspace, the Starship Troopers universe, and other television shows including Red Dwarf. Warp drive, called 'FTL' in the Titan novels, isn't capable of instant travel between points at infinite speed, unlike the other fictional propulsion technologies hyper-, jump, and infinite improbability drives. Ships using warp drive differ from those using hyperdrive by traveling within a small created bubble of normal spacetime, rather than by entering a separate realm or dimension like hyperspace. Spacecraft at warp can interact with objects in normal space.

Although the idea of warping space as a means of propulsion has enjoyed theoretical study by physicists such as Miguel Alcubierre, who has speculatively designed his own drive, no actual technological approach has been proposed; currently, there is no way to induce the warp effect he has described.

Answer 4

Alan Guth deals with early 'inflation' of the universe at speeds greater than that of light.

Answer 5

It's impossible to go as fast as light because it will require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate any matter up to that speed.

Our only hope for going places in space fast is to shorten the distance between those places. Science fiction often talks about worm holes - the idea behind them is that they're shortening distances.