Slipspace Technology

So most of us have wondered what it would be like to travel faster than the speed of light. Slipspace technology is yet another type of travel that portends to do so. Is it possible?

In this segment of the Science of Halo we’re going to take a look at common as yet fictional Faster Than Light (FTL) technologies and compare them with the fiction of Slipspace technology.

First let’s mention some of those common names:
Hypserspace: A reference in Star Wars, it’s really the dimension of space when traveling at FTL speeds and not the actual movement/motion of it.
Lightspeed: This is yet another term popularized by Star Wars and is one of the most commonly reffered to terms when talking about FTL drives.
Space-Time Distortion: A famous theory of this is the Alcubierre drive.
Warp Drive: Warp Drive is known from the Star Trek franchise. The United Federation of Planet starships use this type of FTL drive.
Slipspace: Known to Halo fans, it’s become even more popular with several mentions in Halo Reach.

FACT

Before delving into specific common references to FTL drives, take a look at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light
It’s chock full of knowledge regarding FTL drives and other instances of things being faster than light, such as quantum mechanics, such as quantum entanglement. Here is another excellent link for knowledge of interstellar travel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel

Hyperspace is defined as space of more than three dimensions. It was first thought to have been used in 1867. Again this is not the motion of faster than light, but rather the space FTL exists in…possibly.

Surprisingly when I look up “Lightspeed” I am very often directed to a link for Warp Speed or something else entirely different. So suffice to say that Lightspeed is defined as such. Traveling at the speed of light. A famous Star Wars quote by Han Solo talking about the Millennium Falcon goes something like this, “she’ll make .5 past lightspeed.” In this respect we are then led to believe that starships in the Star Wars galaxy are able to travel FTL.

Space-time distortion

(Taken from the link above) Although the theory of special relativity forbids objects to have a relative velocity greater than light speed, and general relativity reduces to special relativity in a local sense (in small regions of spacetime where curvature is negligible), general relativity does allow the space between distant objects to expand in such a way that they have a “recession velocity” which exceeds the speed of light, and it is thought that galaxies which are at a distance of more than about 14 billion light-years from us today have a recession velocity which is faster than light. Miguel Alcubierre theorized that it would be possible to create an Alcubierre drive, in which a ship would be enclosed in a “warp bubble” where the space at the front of the bubble is rapidly contracting and the space at the back is rapidly expanding, with the result that the bubble can reach a distant destination much faster than a light beam moving outside the bubble, but without objects inside the bubble locally traveling faster than light. However, several objections raised against the Alcubierre drive appear to rule out the possibility of actually using it in any practical fashion. Another possibility predicted by general relativity is the traversable wormhole, which could create a shortcut between arbitrarily distant points in space. As with the Alcubierre drive, travelers moving through the wormhole would not locally move faster than light which travels through the wormhole alongside them, but they would be able to reach their destination (and return to their starting location) faster than light traveling outside the wormhole.

What’s interesting about this theory (Alcubierre Drive) is that it’s likely the closest to slipspace technology and could indeed become feasible someday. Here is the theory summed up better:
The Alcubierre metric defines the warp drive spacetime. This is a Lorentzian manifold which, if interpreted in the context of general relativity, allows a warp bubble to appear in previously flat spacetime and move off at effectively superluminal speed. Inhabitants of the bubble feel no inertial effects. The object(s) within the bubble are not moving (locally) faster than light, instead, the space around them shifts so that the object(s) arrives at its destination faster than light would in normal space.

The above paragraph taken from this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

Warp Drive

Take a look at this link from NASA that explains the current state of Warp Drives in reality:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/warpstat.html

other links on Warp Drive:
http://www.space.com/6649-star-trek-warp-drive-impossible.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_drive_(Star_Trek)

FICTION

Here are three links regarding Halo’s Slipspace Technology.
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Shaw-Fujikawa_Translight_Engine
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Slipstream_Space
http://www.halopedian.com/Slipspace_drive

“They have opened a path to the stars for all of us.” — Tobias Fleming Shaw, ScD, QeD, FRS January 30, 2220 – November 10, 2317, Wallace Fujikawa ScD, QEnD April 20, 2215 – February 18, 2318

Wallace Fujikawa and Tobias Fleming Shaw are the two scientists noted for leading the team of engineers and theoretical physicist who created Slipspace technology in the Halo universe.

Shaw-Fujikawa drives create ruptures in space or mini wormholes. Passing through these wormholes acts as a shortcut through normal space by entering “slipspace,” thereby attaining FTL speeds. Hence, Auntie Dot in Halo Reach saying “Slipspace rupture detected.”

The following paragraph is taken from this link:
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Shaw-Fujikawa_Translight_Engine

The elements Selenium and Technetium are used to manufacture Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engines. In the 2490s, the colony of Levosia was suspected of diverting the said elements to the black market. The ensuing UNSC blockade of the system and the Insurrectionist reaction eventually led to the Callisto Incident, which is said to have effectively sparked the Insurrection.

It should be noted that Covenant Slipspace is not only more accurate, but much faster than human slipspace tech. Forerunner tech is faster still.

In the same 24 hours each race’s slipspace tech can travel approximately:
Human 2.625 light years distant
Covenant 912.12 light years distant (nearly 350 times faster than human slipspace)
Forerunner 2371.2 light years distant (nearly 1,000 times faster than human slipspace)

Follow this link for more specifics on slipspace speeds: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Slipstream_Space#Velocities

SUMMATION

So is it possible to travel FTL in any form? Well not yet, though many scientists are working on some form of it. NASA is vested in some form of Warp Drive. It could be possible to have interstellar travel, albeit at greatly reduced speeds than FTL. This would require a generational starship that would allow many generations of BOB (Born on Board) humans to live, though they would only know life on the ship until the destination of a planet that would be habitable. Shielding would be required not just from space dust, but also the harmful radiation that permeates space. Given that this shielding is as yet not possible the likelihood that humanity will take to the stars for a long period of time is unlikely in the near future, though I would never say NEVER.

Here is another link for those interested in possibilities of FTL drives:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/

Okay, so I know that’s a lot of technical stuff to digest, but that’s part of the point of these articles. Halo is SO much more than the video game, if you allow it to be. Getting a glimpse and/or understanding the Science of Halo from a realistic stand point allows you to be more immersed in the lore of Halo.

-HFFL