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[Jerick]

"Fly me closer, I want to hit them with my bubble of distorted space-time!" works for me.

Yeah, I was thinking that firing a host of drones with small Alcubierre drives on them would make a great weapon. Have them go superluminal close to the enemy hull (or enemy planet) and watch the fireworks. Sure, the drone will get cooked in a sea of plasma shortly thereafter, but if that plasma was formerly the hull of the ship (and some of its innhabitants), then mission accomplished.

Or in the case of planets, see how far it can penetrate into the atmosphere before failing, leaving behind a downward pressure wave of expanding plasma. Not to mention if the drive stops suddenly, you're going to have a shockwave created by that compression front suddenly not being compressed. Only, it's not just an atmospheric pressure wave, it's a spacetime pressure wave. Not even sure what the fuck that would do, but I'm assuming it would be bad for the target.

This is assuming that the drives become relatively simple and cost-effective to manufacture, of course.

Hrrm Alcubierre missiles.
Wait what happens when one Alcubierre drive acts on a region of space being acted on by another drive?

[Graknorke]

I see the words but sense isn't falling out. I think I've been awake too long.
"Fancy theoretical science yay", is the sort of reaction I would probably be having if I weren't too tired to make the slightest bit of sense out of this.

[OREOSOME]

If this works, the whole idea of Colonizing other planets not being possible will just be thrown out the window. I mean, If we can get to Say... Kepler in the next 5 years or so it would be The Defining moment of mankind right there.

[Vorthon]

Auugh don't have time to re-open that link, but didn't it say that a ship equipped with a working Alcubierre Drive would take something like 2 weeks to reach Alpha Centauri?

Got me thinking: It'd be like the Age of Sail, but in SPEHSS and with less disease. Which would be awesome.

If this works, the whole idea of Colonizing other planets not being possible will just be thrown out the window. I mean, If we can get to Say... Kepler in the next 5 years or so it would be The Defining moment of mankind right there.

Those Kepler stars are hundreds of light years away. That'd take a while, even with FTL.

[Levi]

Got me thinking: It'd be like the Age of Sail, but in SPEHSS and with less disease. Which would be awesome.

I dunno man.  For all we know warp bubbles give you space cancers.

Whenever I hear about FTL I remember this one dream I had where it turned out souls do exist and they can't travel faster than light.  So when the first astronauts went on FTL journeys, they were eventually haunted and killed by these evil lost souls that were ripped out of their bodies. 

It was a pretty sweet dream. 

[Flying Dice]

"Fly me closer, I want to hit them with my bubble of distorted space-time!" works for me.

Yeah, I was thinking that firing a host of drones with small Alcubierre drives on them would make a great weapon. Have them go superluminal close to the enemy hull (or enemy planet) and watch the fireworks. Sure, the drone will get cooked in a sea of plasma shortly thereafter, but if that plasma was formerly the hull of the ship (and some of its innhabitants), then mission accomplished.

Or in the case of planets, see how far it can penetrate into the atmosphere before failing, leaving behind a downward pressure wave of expanding plasma. Not to mention if the drive stops suddenly, you're going to have a shockwave created by that compression front suddenly not being compressed. Only, it's not just an atmospheric pressure wave, it's a spacetime pressure wave. Not even sure what the fuck that would do, but I'm assuming it would be bad for the target.

This is assuming that the drives become relatively simple and cost-effective to manufacture, of course.

Hrrm Alcubierre missiles.
Wait what happens when one Alcubierre drive acts on a region of space being acted on by another drive?

In technical terms, things get fucked up.

In practical terms, I imagine that both failsafes and diplomatic agreements for drives would be pretty damned tight if these ever came into common use.

[werty892]

If this works, the whole idea of Colonizing other planets not being possible will just be thrown out the window. I mean, If we can get to Say... Kepler in the next 5 years or so it would be The Defining moment of mankind right there.

Or we can make the bay 12 space program a reality... decisions, decisions.

[Euld]

I just hope our corner of the galaxy doesn't have warlike space faring aliens that will want to pwn young civilizations like ours.

[Duke 2.0]

 Scientists have been thinking about this concept for decades. From what I can tell this is just math showing how such manipulations would have to work to cause thrust. No word yet on how one messes with spacetime with such accuracy from within the bubble. Lasers?

 It's like a scientist nailing the voltage needed to make a hovercar work. Now they just need to perfect the antigravity drive.

[Rose]

So.

When's this experiment they're doing gonna be finished?

[ChairmanPoo]

And suddenly nobody cares about the one way tickrt to Mars anymore

[Vorthon]

Screw that, I want a two-way ticket to Alpha Centauri.

[Euld]

Very true XD  Now suddenly you can visit Mars on the weekends.  Or work on Mars during the weekday then warp home to Earth for the weekends.

[Skyrunner]

The Alcubierre drives would be really awesome if they work feasibly.
If we can even have a glimpse at alien lifeforms, that would be so meaningful for biology. O_o
But the Alcubierre drive sounds like a gigantic hammer, and when you've got a hammer... It could wreck Earth if some terrorists get hold of a big one and slowly sizzle Earth's atmospere.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Wouldn't work. It would destroy itself rapidly if activated in atmosphere.