WARP SPEED

THE TOTALLY INSANE, HIGHLY IMPROBABLE, BUT NOT AT ALL IMPOSSIBLE QUEST TO BUILD A WARP DRIVE.

- DARREN ORF

Miguel Alcubierre couldn't stop thinking about Star Trek.

For someone who, as a child growing up in Mexico City, devoured books filled with illustrations of our solar system or adorned with names like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, it wasn't necessarily a rare occurrence. Now a PhD candidate studying at University College in Cardiff, Wales, Alcubierre's life mirrored a kind of proto-The Big Bang Theory, the nerd-sitcom from the late aughts. He spent his days playing Dungeons & Dragons, coding, and reading lots of science fiction—all while studying and calculating numerical relativity.

Every Friday night, Alcubierre and his friends would rent a VHS tape of Star Trek: The Next Generation and watch an episode or two before heading out to the pub. A sci-fi sequel to the 1960s original series, The Next Generation (“TNG” to its most ardent fans) follows the crew of the USS Enterprise in the 24th century as it traipses across the galaxy, discovering “new life and new civilizations.”

The closest star system to Earth, Alpha Centauri, lies some four light-years (or about 25 trillion miles) away. If Starfleet relied on 21st-century technology, the show would be less trek and more slog. So how exactly does the Enterprise’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard hop among planets within the temporal confines of a 45-second TV commercial? Easy: He uses a warp drive, a nifty little propulsion trick that allows the crew to exceed the speed of light by warping space and time.

During one of these Friday night watch parties, as the Enterprise crew once again raced off into the farthest reaches of the galaxy, the interstellar journey sparked an idea in Alcubierre’s mind.

“I just kept thinking [