A conventional spacecraft needs an engine to push it forward. But a document from the Defense Intelligence Agency examined another possibility: Could altering space itself help a spacecraft travel vast distances?
Written in 2010, the document considered what might happen if future technology could change the structure of space. In theory, that change could enable extremely fast travel and perhaps even provide power to a spacecraft.
Changing Space, Not Just Traveling Through It
To understand the idea, imagine that space isn’t simply an empty place a spacecraft moves through. The document describes it as having a structure that can be measured and calculated. If that structure changed, things such as the path of light, gravity, and the passage of time might change too.
The document also explored whether space could be altered in a way that would help propel a spacecraft. This idea is sometimes called a “warp drive.” The name sounds like something from a movie, but the document didn’t describe a spacecraft or engine that could actually be built. Instead, it considered what might happen if space could be altered.
A Big Idea, With No Way to Make It Happen
The document used the theory of relativity—the framework Einstein developed to describe the relationship between space, time, matter, and gravity—to calculate possible effects. It reviewed existing knowledge and ideas; it wasn’t an experiment showing that space could be altered.
According to the document’s theoretical calculations, creating such a change would require an enormous amount of energy, far more than current technology can supply. Even so, the document explored what this technology might make possible if it could one day be developed.
What We Still Don’t Know
The document offers no way to alter space or build such an engine. It’s not known how the change could be created, and the energy required by the theory remains far beyond current capabilities.
A spacecraft moving forward without a conventional engine pushing it: an image we can imagine. But we still have no way to make it happen.
