the constant skeptic

Welcome to Mars express: only a three hour trip
IAN JOHNSTON
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
AN EXTRAORDINARY “hyperspace” engine that could make
interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other
dimensions is being investigated by the United States
government.

The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in
principle but is based on a controversial theory about the
fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a
spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to
a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a
report in today’s New Scientist magazine.

The theoretical engine works by creating an intense
magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by
the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would
produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a
spacecraft.

Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the
craft would slip into a different dimension, where the
speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be
reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in
the engine reappearing in our current dimension.

The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and
scientists working for the American Department of Energy -
which has a device known as the Z Machine that could
generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the
engine - say they may carry out a test if the theory
withstands further scrutiny.

Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put
forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything
went well a working engine could be tested in about five
years.

However, Prof Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences
University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of
aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned it
was based on a highly controversial theory that would
require a significant change in the current understanding
of the laws of physics.

“It would be amazing. I have been working on propulsion
systems for quite a while and it would be the most amazing
thing. The benefits would be almost unlimited,” he said.

“But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to
prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a
few physicists who have a different opinion.

“It’s our job to prove we are right and we are working on
that.”

He said the engine would enable spaceships to travel to
different solar systems. “If the theory is correct then
this is not science fiction, it is science fact,” Prof
Hauser said.

“NASA have contacted me and next week I’m going to see
someone from the [US] air force to talk about it further,
but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case
scenario would be within the next five years [to build a
test device] if the technology works.”

The US authorities’ attention was attracted after Prof
Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a
paper called “Guidelines for a space propulsion device
based on Heim’s quantum theory”.