Riddle Me This! Warp Drive vs. Hyperspace
In our quest to one day explore the universe, technology will surely move from the realm of science fiction into reality. After all, cell phones share similarities with communicators from Star Trek, but what about the propulsion systems of future spacecraft? Will spaceships use technology like Star Trek’s warp drive, or will we discover hyperspace like in Star Wars? What is the best mode of transportation: warp drive or hyperspace?
First, we need to define what warp drive and hyperspace are. Now, I’m not a physicist, just a fan. No matter how much research I do, I’ll never completely understand the science behind the technology, but I’m going to do my best to define these two terms for you.
WARP DRIVE
Warp drive is one method of faster-than-light propulsion. The ship sits in a bubble of normal space as the rest of space “folds” (hence the name “warp”) to allow the ship to travel between two places at a faster rate of speed. Think of it as a piece of paper with a dot at the top of the page and a dot at the bottom of the page: when the page is flat, there is a certain distance between the two dots; if you accordion-fold the page, the distance is significantly decreased. In this way, a ship is able to move at a speed faster than the speed of light.
Also, instead of the ship moving extremely fast, the ship remains stationary in its bubble of space as the rest of space moves at a hyper-accelerated speed.
HYPERSPACE
Hyperspace is another method in which a spacecraft can fly at a speed faster than light. However, hyperspace works in a way very different than warp drive. Hyperspace is an alternate region of space that co-exists with our own universe that can be used to travel faster than the speed of light. In the Star Wars universe, hyperspace allows ships to travel extremely fast; however, travel is still constrained by the position of objects in the galaxy. Pilots have to abide by standard hyperspace routes, otherwise they could fly straight through the middle of a star.
From our good friend Wikipedia:
Generally speaking, the idea of hyperspace relies on the existence of a separate and adjacent dimension. When activated, the hyper drive shunts the starship into this other dimension, where it can cover vast distances in an amount of time greatly reduced from the time it would take in “normal” space. Once it reaches the point in hyperspace that corresponds to its destination in real space, it re-emerges.
Map of the Star Wars galaxy
Unlike warp drive, which is basically limited to Star Trek, hyperspace tends to pop up in many more places than just Star Wars, including Stargate and Babylon 5. In fact, Star Trek uses an alternate region of space called “subspace” as a way to communicate at faster-than-light speeds, however, subspace is not used for travel.
COMPARISON
It seems that hyperspace is faster than warp drive. In the Star Wars universe, the trip that the Millennium Falcon took from Tatooine to Alderaan (from the outer rim of the galaxy to the inner core) probably only took a few hours. Compare that to the 70+ year journey that the USS Voyager was facing for a slightly longer cross-galaxy journey. In this way, hyperspace is superior to warp drive.
Map of the Star Trek galaxy
However, as Han Solo famously said, “hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops”. It takes complex calculations and planning to pilot a ship through hyperspace without incident. Warp drive is less risky, allowing ships like the USS Voyager to navigate unknown space in a nearly straight line.
Also, a theoretical warp drive has already been proposed. The Alcubierre drive, introduced in 1994, is a way to create the “warp bubble” that allows the ship to travel through space without breaking the theory of relativity. However, there is no known way to create a warp bubble or to dissipate it, so it only remains a hypothetical concept for now. While we have yet to discover alternate layers of space, we have a working theory of how warp drive could possibly work. However, this doesn’t mean that hyperspace couldn’t exist, and the idea of alternate dimensions could very well hold some truth.
So what do you think, PoP!ulation? Will we one day possess a working warp drive? Will we discover hyperspace? Are we going to explore the galaxy using another form of propulsion? Riddle me this! Warp drive or hyperspace?
Filed Under: Columns • Riddle Me This
The more we learn about quantum entanglement the more likely (still not very, at all) we are to end up with Stargate style stable wormholes. Of course getting the exit point to where we want it will take a while…
I vote hyperspace….on shrooms.
I think Warp Drive is faster. Star Wars takes place in one galaxy, while Trek takes place in multiple galaxies. I believe Andor and the worlds around there are in Alpha Centauri.
Also are we talking Next Gen or TOS warp speeds? Because they are two different things.
See, that’s what I was wondering. I couldn’t really get a sense of how the two really compare. Maybe they’re closer in speed than I was originally thinking. Still, it seems to me that because of the physics of warp drive, it would be relatively slow. I mean, how much can you really bend space?
And I’m totally throwing out TOS warp speeds. As far as I’m concerned, the warp system used from Next Gen on is the standard.
If it’s Next Gen speeds, we need to figure out how parsecs compare to lightyears, and go from there lol.
I really like this article because it is something that if we get the info we can actually scientifically test. Kudos Mary.
1 Parsec = 3.26163626 light years
Unfortunately neither universe is so dedicated to accuracy that they don’t travel at the speed of plot.
This is fun:
“In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, a boastful Han Solo claims that his spaceship made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. This is odd because he says parsec like it is a unit of time, but it really is a unit of distance.
The thing to keep in mind about Solo’s claim of doing the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs is that the Kessel Run is through the Maw. Event Horizons around black holes are dependent on the speed at which you are traveling. A standard ship has to do the run in 18 parsecs because to cut the route any closer, the ship would get sucked in. The Falcon, however, is fast enough to straighten the route and cut over 6 parsecs off the distance traveled. This makes sense, since the Falcon’s hyperdrive is often rated as a x0.5 faster than a x1 standard (i.e. hyperspeed x1.5), potentially making it 50% faster than standard ships. While this argument may all be after-the-fact justification for an actual scriptwriting error, the logic does hold, although Solo could have just been boasting to his potential clients. “
Let me correct a couple of points here:
1. Star Trek does take place in a single galaxy. It is all inside our Milky Way. Split into the four quadrants. From memory, I believe Star Wars was the same too.
2. Star Trek is actually the faster speed of the two. The Millenium Falcon is the fastest ship in the galaxy – and during episode 4 – Han states that he’s proud of the fact that it will make point five past lightspeed.
This would put the fastest travel in Star Wars at just over Warp Factor One.
The only reason that the Falcon can make journeys quickly, is due to plot restrictions. The length of the movie restricts what they can do.
Whether or not this is a bad thing, but even with the Clone Wars series doing the same passage of time. It is because they were stuck to using the same as what they used previously in the movies.
point 5 get a life.
Ok, first of all. Learn to count! I put TWO, how did you get to point 5?? Learn to count!
Second, it is a discussion you moron! Don’t have a go at me for putting in my thoughts. That’s what a discussion is!
And so it begins… kids… play nice or don’t play at all. Warf Jr… it’s “Worf” first of all, and second, don’t come to a nerd culture website and insult someone for being a nerd. And fifth of all, Summoner2100, no name calling. I know “He started it!” but still, rise above, good sir. I’d hate to have to start banning IPs just cause we can’t be civil.
Ok, point taken. I shouldn’t have succumbed. Sorry, I’ll think about the post before posting next time.
To me, the most likely answer is something halfway between the two, something like what Eli’s saying (I think).
I don’t know enough about what we know as a people to think we’d ever find another dimension per se. But I also feel like the specifics of warp technology would never work.
That being said, the ability to “pinch” space and create a bridge between the two pinch points seems the most likely to me. It means we’d have to find a different way to comprehend spatial relations and find a shorter distance between two points than a straight line (or, conversely, prove that the way we travel is NOT a straight line). Basically, it would be a combination of the two theories. We’d be warping space and navigating a path through that warp effect.
I’d like to thank you, Mary, for making our site a little nerdier with this RMT =D
Of all the methods Star Trek’s Warp Drive is the more accurate. The Article misstated when they said subspace was not used for travel.
Star Trek’s method of travel works like this.
Using Anti-Matter (protons have a negative charge instead of positive) and matter to create a powerful reaction, plasma is created and focused by a set of crystals (called Di-lithium in the show). The “Warp Plasma” is directed to the Warp Nacelles and fed through a set of Electromagnetic Field Coils. The Coils are made of a substance called Cortinide which is a special Cobalt/Iron alloy. The The coils focused the ionized gas (plasma) and create a Subspace field.
The field unlike a gravitational field actually lowers the apparent mass of the vessel. When the field lowers the mass enough that it is lower than a photon it achieves Warp Factor 1 which is the speed of light. (The factor for light speed is represented by the letter c.)
Instead of a gravity well the Subspace Warp Drive creates a spacial wave and the ship sits on top of it. The taller the subspace wave the higher the speed of light is. At Warp factor 9 the relative velocity of light (C) is 465,000,000 miles per second instead of 186,000 miles per second. The ship actually has a negative mass and the more negative the mass the higher he speed of light is.
In this way the ship never exceeds light speed, within the warp bubble light is faster.
Nerrrrrrrds!
The technical term for nerd is “future billionaire”
I am taking applications for Supermodel concubines….
Either one works for me, however the Warp drive, or something similar, seems more likely.
Keep in mind that two hundred years ago Skype would have seemed “Impossible”. A hundred years ago space flight was thought to be “impossible”.
Who knows?
I agree with Doug, warp drive would be more practical, and we could probably achieve it sooner than hyper drive.
What about both? warp inside hyperspace? why can’t you fold hyperspace? I’m being too heretical? Btw, I like the Babylon 5 idea of hyperspace.
Actually, this was the idea behind the “Transwarp Drive” that Captain Styles of the Excelsior was bragging about in Star Trek 3. Even after Scott’s sabotage was repaired the technology was never viable
Fusing the drives together may be impossible, I personally prefer to have least an emergency FTL system in case my primary fails or can’t be used so I have a secondary FTL drive that works on different principles. Hyper drive vs warp drive, i say primary should be the faster drive but have the other drive as secondary. And as long as our future starships don’t look like Star Trek or stargate ships I don’t care.
Finding a way to adjust your mass to be negative seems pretty outlandish, but much more likely then somehow being able to pinch space or moving temporarily into another dimension like hyperspace. The energy needed to do that would take probably every bit of energy in the galaxy. We know that tachyons move faster than light due to their negative mass so it’s possible if just found out how to do it. Unfortunately I don’t know if we are even close to finding anything that could do that.
I know this post was made 8 months ago but i felt inclined to add to your hypothesis regarding energy usage. Star ships usage “deflector arrays” to deflect micro-meteors and space dust, etc so that it doesn’t take kinetic damage from small obstacles during flight.
I remember doing some work on physics back in college and our tutor went over a calculation that anticipated the amount of energy required to deflect a single atom at FTL speeds exceeded the ‘out put’ in relation to its mass. I don’t recall exact figures, but a vessel the size and mass of the USS Enterprise would require the equivilant energy of a billion stars in that split second alone to directly deflect it.
But perhaps merely bending space will cause vector changes in space that naturally deflects obstacles rather than applying a direct force.
Warp drive is probably easier to achieve based on what Earthlings know. And Star Wars takes place in a different galaxy which based on the maps shown here, appears to be smaller than the Milky Way. I say that because the core looks a lot larger in comparison to the rest of the galaxy, which probably means it is more condensed, rather than spread out like the MW.
True, that is a good observation. However, the size of one galaxy to the next is irrelevant because space-time must be assumed to remain constant throughout the universe.
* So, I have to agree with you and Summoner that Warp drive speed is the faster.