（外文电子版资料）Star Trek Realities.docVIP

WARP SPEED WARP SPEED Perhaps the most exciting technology of the Star Trek universe is the warp drive. With its two enormous warp nacelles, the Enterprise can zip from star system to star system at speeds well above that of light itself. And what makes this technology so interesting is that while it is not actually feasible to go this fast, it is possible — at least as far as the laws of physics are concerned — and warp is the only way to do it. It appears Gene Roddenberry and the other writers clearly knew what they were doing when they dreamed up warp technology. Not only did it make for exciting chase scenes, it also meant the crew could actually explore the galaxy without inevitably becoming ancient old geezers in the process. Such would be the case if the Enterprise were stuck doing sub-light speeds. Thats because even traveling at the speed of light it would take more than 4 years to reach Earths nearest star, Proxima Centauri. Obviously, you have to go faster than the speed of light if you want to seek out strange new life and keep an audience at the same time. Now, wait, I can hear you say. Einsteins theory of relativity says nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. And certainly, youd be right. According to Einstein, as a starship started traveling at speed approaching the speed of light, strange things would begin to happen. To the crew of the starship, everything aboard would appear fine. But to a stationary observer, time aboard the ship would appear to be passing more slowly. The ship would appear to become shorter and its crew thinner. And most importantly, the ship would appear to become heavier - so much heavier that, eventually, it would require infinite energy to accelerate just as it was about to achieve the speed of light. But if you were to warp space, light speed and faster-than-light speed suddenly becomes a possibility. Warping space?!? Thats ludicrous, I can now hear some of you saying. According to Lawrence Krauss, chairman