Hyperdrives are here says The New Scientist (well, sort of)

[PMC]

Are the days of massive rockets being required to put comparatively small loads into space numbered?  An intrigueing paper based on the work of an obscure scientist may offer the holy grail of space travel - the ability to accelerate an object beyond the speed of light safely using anti-gravity technology.

"Dröscher is hazy about the details, but he suggests that a spacecraft... could be propelled into a multidimensional hyperspace. Here the constants of nature could be different, and even the speed of light could be several times faster than we experience. If this happens, it would be possible to reach Mars in less than 3 hours and a star 11 light years away in only 80 days.."

Full link here:

http://www.newscientistspace.com/channel/space-tech/mg18925331.200

[Karlos]

Doesn't look like you want to have your credit card nearby with 80 Tesla magnetic fields etc... :-D

[PMC]

Yep, we'll be sending our astronauts to the stars equipped with anologue watches and the all important abacus for all those tricky calculations...

However, I'm sure ET would be just as impressed with all those Intel 8086 processors and late 70's tech that are responsible for managing the shuttle.

 :lol:

[JaXanim]

@PMC

Intel 8086 processors? I think you'll find it's Amigas that keep the Space Program going! It says so HERE.

Cheers,

JaX

[PMC]

Haha!

A couple of years ago NASA officials were reportedly worried that they would not be able to obtain replacement chips for the shuttle computers, which were designed in the 70s.  

Rumour has it that they even resorted to Ebay to find old 8086 chips to replace the knackered ones in their ground based simulators.

[countzero]

PMC wrote:
Yep, we'll be sending our astronauts to the stars equipped with anologue watches and the all important abacus for all those tricky calculations...

how about optic computers ?

[jkirk]

i really think that nasa should adopt a more modular approach so they can upgrade the hardware as time passes. imagine drop in consoles with athlon/ppc/p4 processors. sure it would need a shakedown each time they upgraded to shake out the bugs/conflicts but making it modular should minimize the effects.

[Dandy]

PMC wrote:
...
"Dröscher is hazy about the details, but he suggests that a spacecraft... could be propelled into a multidimensional hyperspace. Here the constants of nature could be different, and even the speed of light could be several times faster than we experience. If this happens, it would be possible to reach Mars in less than 3 hours and a star 11 light years away in only 80 days.."

Full link here:

http://www.newscientistspace.com/channel/space-tech/mg18925331.200

While I'm already fascinated about the possibility of travelling faster than light, I find it even much more fascinating that Burkhard Heim says his theorie would show that there is live after death, re-incarnation and that god exists...

[uncharted]

The speed of light MAY be faster, but what if it is the same, or even worse slower?  Blasting off to Mars at the speed of a dotty old granny in an C-reg Fiat Panda.

[PMC]

Good point, how do you go about stepping into another dimension where the speed of light is much faster and then step back into your own once you've got to your destination?

Perhaps Blob would explain this one (please type slowly in words of one syllable..)

[3246251196]

in theory it is a classic solution to problems. but applying it is not going to happen in our life time. the amount of enery needed to achieve a passage way to let us travel interdimensionally is something like a quadrillion times more than our most powerful machines. and that is a quote from Hyperspace (Machio Kaku).

[Agafaster]

actually, from what I've seen of Heim Theory, it is more like reducing the effects of gravity in the early stages - to the point of turning gravity into a repulsive force IIRC, hence the usefulness for getting to orbit, and other propulsion requirements.

interestingly, elswhere in the full theory, it predicts a particle equivalent to a neutral electron, but this hasnt been spotted in detectors yet. they are looking, BTW...