Warp Speed's First Stop: Mars

Image Source: last.fm.

From the Shatner Files: below the jump is today's report that travel ten times the speed of light is almost past the point of pure hypothesis, prompting newscasters to clumsily share their lack of knowledge about Star Trek (Hat tip: Spaceports). Michio Kaku popped up to explain how NASA scientists' experiments to achieve warp speed will not break the laws of physics. Mars is only the first stop they have in mind:

Former astronaut and NASA head Charles Bolden says the agency wants to one day design a vehicle that goes faster than the speed of light. "One of these days, we want to get to warp speed," he told a group at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. Bolden was discussing the future of American space exploration. "We want to go faster than the speed of light, and we don't want to stop at Mars."

"Some have claimed that we're adrift, that we have no clear human space missions. That could not be further from the truth," he said. "Those who perpetuate that myth are hurting the space program. We have a series of deep space missions planned."

Most imminently, NASA is designing the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle, which will be tested in 2014, with its first manned mission planned for 2021. That vehicle, he said, "will take us to asteroids, Mars, and probably back to the moon."

Hmm. The speed of light is 670 616 629 miles per hour. According to this chart which calculates time of travel at different speeds to the moon, Mars and Proxima Centauri, a speed ten times the speed of light would reduce the trip duration to the Red Planet to a few minutes. Incidentally, The Space Review has a good article this week which reviews some of the best sci-fi books depicting the terraforming of Mars.

Image Source: NASA via The Space Review.

Video Source: Youtube.