An 'antigravity' propulsion system was proposed at the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) in Albuquerque on Febuary 14 by Dr. Franklin Felber. His new exact solution to Einstein's gravitational field equation gives hope to space enthusiasts that it might be possible to accelerate space craft to speeds approaching that of light without crushing the contents of the craft. If it works, it could be even better than apergy, as described by science fiction writer Percy Greg in 1880.

Dr. Felber's paper states that a mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'antigravity beam' in front of it. This "beam" intensifies as the speed of the mass approaches that of light.

Check out the full article here: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/06...ntigravity.html

What are your thoughts?

Sorry I accidently added this to the wrong forum. Please switch it to the Science area. I apologize.

Topic moved ;)

We actually have already engineered a craft which can theoretically go 3/4 the speed of light, though have not yet had the audacity nor brawn to run its testing trials. As well, there is one they are currently working on, which could plausibly go faster than light.

You see, the problem with traveling at anything remotely close to that speed is not the fact that you may encounter small objects (Which Dr Felber suggests would be repelled), but rather it's avoiding the larger ones. As much repulsion as there may be, I am certain that any object 1/2 the size of the craft would, if deflected (which it surely wouldn't), alter the route right unto an oncoming star! or something similar. The inherent problem with near light speed and above traveling, is navigation.

Now as for actual antigravitanional propulsion, we've approached it in all the wrong manners possible. Everything has its antithesis and we have found most in nature, yet remain blinded at this one. Why do you think that is?

what have YOU been smoking? matter (w/ mass) cannot go faster than the speed of light! or evan AT the speed of light! Also what craft can go 3/4 the speed of light? Last i heard we were still working on hypersonic...

Really? I'm 99% sure that even 10 years ago we had already acheived Mach 3 (3x the speed of sound), and now we've gotten up to something like Mach 6 or 7.

However, I have hard that nothing can move faster than light because light is the only thing whose speed is constant (for reasons I don't know).

However, I've heard that space (not the matter in it, but the space itself) can expand/contract faster than light. If we could discover a form of energy called "Dark Energy" that scientist theorize is what is currently keeping the universe expanding, and if we could find a way to control it after we found it, then we could expand/contract the space around a ship or other object faster than the speed of light, essentially moving a ship at the speed of light without it ever actually "moving".

However, Dark Energy is only a theory ATM, and hasn't been discovered. And even if/when it is, we'd still need to find a way to produce it and control it. So if this is possible, it probably won't be a reality for hundreds (or possibly thousands) of years.

-IMP ;) :)

no no, just faster than the speed of sound is <i>super</i>sonic. Hypersonic is like 3 times the speed of sound or something...i dont actually remember but its no where near the speed of light(or even 50% of it).

the reason that nothing in the universe can move faster than the speed of light is slightly complicated and has to do with einstein's famous equation E=mc^2. You see as something move faster and faster it (obviously) has more energy. Using the equation we can see that with the huge amount of energy that the object has, its mass will increase thereby necesitating more engery. Basically, as something starts moving close to the speed of light, its mass aproaches infinity and thus the energy needed to accelerate it would be infinite also. So actually, nothing with mass can even move <i>at</i> the speed of light, much less faster. The only reason that light(actually all electromagnetic radiation) and a few other things can move with such speed is that their constituent particles are massless and therefore the equation does not hold for them.

and yes the whole thing about dark energy is true because the object would not actually be moving relative to the bit of the universe that the object was existing in.

But if the speed of light is finite (as it is a constant), then why would something moving AT the speed of light need an infinate amount of energy?

E=MC^2
Energy=Mass*Constant (speed of light)^2
Energy=Mass*Finite_Amount^2

Therefore, Energy and Mass must always be finite?

-IMP ;) :)