Making The Jump To Light Speed

Well, it’s not the discovery of hyperspace or a faster-than-light spacedrive, but UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory has announced last Wednesday the discovery of a new “natural” method of accelerating particles to near light speed. Directly measured for the first time using NASA’s Wind spacecraft, the process may explain some exotic distant astrophysical phenomena. However, it is also occurring a few thousand miles above your head right now. Remember the magnet-and-iron-filings demo of magnetic force lines in second grade? At the point where the Earth’s and Sun’s magnetic fields are at equal strength, those lines are continuously breaking up and reforming, trying to “decide” if they are attached to the Earth or the Sun. This chaotic effect can accelerate electrons to over 100,000 miles per second. Maybe this will someday be the the basis for a replacement to the ion drive…

Other uses of space plasma and the solar wind to develop radical, high speed propulsion systems is further along. At the University of Washington, research on a process called “M2P2” is underway to “blow up” bubbles of magnetic force in the vacuum of space to make gigantic non-material solar sails. These can catch the solar wind and theoretically speed 21st century spacecraft to the edge of our solar system at incredible speeds…