Skip to content

Is Star Trek’s Warp Drive Possible?

How can physicists tackle the problem of achieving faster-than-light travel? 
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

How can physicists tackle the problem of achieving faster-than-light travel? Marc Millis, the former head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, explores this question in the video below from Space.com, and also provides an elegant answer to the question of why. 


Not only would finding a shortcut through space-time enable us to go places where we have never been and possibly protect ourselves against ‘Doomsday asteroids,’ Millis argues that even if it’s impossible, “it’s worth working on, because of what you learn in the process.”

Watch the video here:

Image courtesy fo Shutterstock. 

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Related
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
13 min
with

Up Next
Very often the first piece of information we have about a person is their name. It’s often the first thing you learn about someone and we form judgments about people very rapidly.