Space
Is NASA
Working
on a Warp
Drive?
T
HE SPACE AGENCY ISN’T BUILDING AN
engine that can approach the speed of light—
yet. A recent internal feasibility report from
NASA suggests we could eventually realize
the idea of traveling through folded space.
In the report, advanced propulsion physicist
Harold White, PhD, resolves a major para-
dox in the leading theoretical model for superluminal
(faster than the speed of light) travel, what’s known as
an Alcubierre warp drive.
The colloquial term “warp drive” comes from
science fiction, most famously Star Trek. The faster-
than-light warp drive of the Federation works byILLUSTRATION BY PETE RYAN// BY CAROLINE DELBERT //8
30 September/October 2020