Warp Drive = superluminal shotgun of particles that will vaporize planets

[AZRedhawk44]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2234397/Bad-news-Scotty-Star-Trek-style-warp-drive-systems-turn-spacecraft-Death-Stars-destroy-planets-arrival.html

When activated, space behind the drive would expand while that in front of the drive would contract. In the meantime the ship would travel in a stable 'pocket', or 'bubble in space', according to extremetech.com.

But the Australian research indicates that the high-energy particles that are constantly shooting around space could get swept up in the ship's warp field and become trapped in the 'bubble', with more and more of the particles filling the stable pocket the longer the journey lasts.

While this would no affect the drive's ability to achieve warp speed, the instant it is disengaged that space-time gradient allowing it to move faster than light - and creating the bubble that holds the dangerous build-up of trapped particles - is gone.

Researchers now believe those particles would be blasted out in front of the ship, destroying anything around it.

In theory, a long trip powered by a warp drive could see entire planets vaporised upon arrival.

Kinda funny how the design of the ship is reminiscent of the Vulcan cruisers in the series "Enterprise."





And I imagine that once these particles are trapped in the same warp cavitation bubble as the ship, they can be harvested by some sort of weak force / strong force / electromagnetic / gravity magnet and trapped, stored, or used for some other purpose.

[birdman]

And I imagine that once these particles are trapped in the same warp cavitation bubble as the ship, they can be harvested by some sort of weak force / strong force / electromagnetic / gravity magnet and trapped, stored, or used for some other purpose.

I don't see why you -need- an additional purpose behind vaporizing planets?
It's just proof that niven's law extends to FTL (paraphrase: the more efficient the propulsion system, the more effective it is as a weapon...something those damn tabbies learned firsthand).

Besides, space is big, unimaginably, mind-bogglingly big, and Huygens law and space-charge mean that all you have to do is make your FTL departure vector not point at anything you don't want to destroy -in the local system-  by the time the particle cloud probabalistically gets to another location, it will be at too low of an intensity to do anything. 

[Fitz]

Excuse me, OP. I'd like you to send me some more information about the potential destructive power of this technology...

[AZRedhawk44]

Excuse me, OP. I'd like you to send me some more information about the potential destructive power of this technology...

Fail.

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

[AJ Dual]

I'd like to see if any further math could be done to isolate what the said energy/particle dump on an FTL vessel's arrival should look like, and how powerful it should be given the distance covered.

I'm curious if any observed gamma ray bursts, especially some of the more atypical "short bursts" that are often attributed to smaller burst activity relating to collisions with neutron stars etc. might actually be a venue for alternate SETI searches, such as "optical SETI", that tries something different than simple RF/Microwave SETI around the Hydrogen "water hole" etc.

[erictank]

Fail.

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

 

The Force is STRONG with this one...

[Devonai]

I'm curious if any observed gamma ray bursts, especially some of the more atypical "short bursts" that are often attributed to smaller burst activity relating to collisions with neutron stars etc. might actually be a venue for alternate SETI searches, such as "optical SETI", that tries something different than simple RF/Microwave SETI around the Hydrogen "water hole" etc.

Interesting idea.  If one could calculate the appropriate amount of redshift from the targeted area (i.e. scanning systems with known exoplanets), then maybe we've been seeing these bursts all along, and misinterpreting them as background radiation.

Keep looking up...

[Brad Johnson]

Fail.

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Especially if the Force originates from huevos rancheros with a side of frijoles refritos.

Brad

[birdman]

I'd like to see if any further math could be done to isolate what the said energy/particle dump on an FTL vessel's arrival should look like, and how powerful it should be given the distance covered.

I'm curious if any observed gamma ray bursts, especially some of the more atypical "short bursts" that are often attributed to smaller burst activity relating to collisions with neutron stars etc. might actually be a venue for alternate SETI searches, such as "optical SETI", that tries something different than simple RF/Microwave SETI around the Hydrogen "water hole" etc.

You know, that is EXACTLY what I was thinking :)

[Tallpine]

Maybe supernovae are FTL/time travel experiments gone awry 

[kgbsquirrel]

Maybe supernovae are FTL/time travel experiments gone awry 

Scientist 1 pushes a button, 'hmm's and says nonchalantly, "Oops."

Scientist 2 looks over worriedly, "what do you mean, oops?!"

[freakazoid]

Interesting idea.  If one could calculate the appropriate amount of redshift from the targeted area (i.e. scanning systems with known exoplanets), then maybe we've been seeing these bursts all along, and misinterpreting them as background radiation.

Keep looking up...

[Devonai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igHOaMOzzUo

[lee n. field]

Maybe supernovae are FTL/time travel experiments gone awry 

Larry Niven, "Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation"