"Prepare for warp speed." If you're a Trekkie or Star Wars fan, and maybe even if you're not, you've heard about warp drives and probably dreamed of being able to travel faster than the speed of light. It seemed like the stuff of fantasy—until now. Physicist Erik Lentz has come up with a theoretical model of a warp drive that would shorten a trip to the star Proxima Centauri, the closest star beyond our solar system, from 50,000–70,000 years using rocket fuel, or 100 years using nuclear fuel, to just 4 years and 3 months.
The theoretical warp drive as it stands now would need the energy of 100 times the mass of Jupiter to work. So it's still far from becoming a reality. But Lentz says that the next phase of research and development could bring a working prototype within the next decade, and actual warp speed travel within the decades following. “I would like to see this technology in use in my lifetime,” he says. So would I! I probably won't, given my age, but my grandchildren could. Imagine a world where warp speed travel is commonplace. What might we find out there? Or who?