Warp-drive spaceship design meshes graphic design dreams with NASA reality

THIS is possibly the best look yet at what NASA believes will be the spacecraft that will take us to the stars.

PR stunt or bold vision? Here’s what is possibly the best look yet at what NASA believes will be the spacecraft that will take us to the stars.

It’s slick. It’s circular. It’s gleaming white.

Everything a spaceship should be, based on the science fiction industry.

Oh, and yes: It’s been dubbed “Enterprise”, after the spaceship at the heart of the famous Star Trek television and film series.

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The catch?

It’s not real. Not yet.

But it could be.

Enterprising idea ... the engine and storage centre of the conceptual craft.

There’s the major hurdle of proving the theory behind warp-drive engines — yet alone building one.

What has been released by NASA is a graphic designers’ dream — blended with a scientist’s vision of the future.

Artist Mark Rademaker, of Concept 3D, told the website io9 that he spent some time with NASA’s warp-drive researcher Dr Harold White at the Johnson Space Centre. NASA spilt the beans he was working on the concept of a warp drive back in 2012.

Evolution of a dream ... An earlier version of the concept “warp drive” interstellar ship.

Fast forward to 2014 and the wheeling arrangement of rotating habitats, central engineering and detachable command modules represents the inspiration that ensued from the meeting of these creative minds.

The “Star Trek” look-and feel is a deliberate salute to the series that has inspired two generations of astronauts and space-related scientists.

The original NASA concept out of the “Eagleworks Laboratories” was much simpler. Less detailed. Less slick.

But the idea is based on real science. Not fiction.

Warp drives are not Dr White’s sole responsibility. He’s also working on advanced propulsion techniques only now beginning to become reality — such as ion thrusters.

But faster-than-light travel is the nut he’s most determined to crack.

His goal: Travel times to Alpha Centauri measurable in weeks, not light-years.

To achieve this, his research unit is trying to prove that the theoretical concept of wormholes in space is actually real. They’ve designed a sensor (the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer) which could prove capable of detecting natural, microscopic, “warp bubbles” occurring in nature.

What then?

“Second star to the right and straight on till morning,” as a certain Trek captain said on the silver screen.

Originally published as Warp-drive spaceship design meshes graphic design dreams with NASA reality