Is hyperspace travel possible?

When will we be zipping round the cosmos like Baby Yoda and co?

- STEPHEN KELLY

Hyperspace travel – the ability for spaceships to travel as fast as the speed of light – is an integral part of the Star Wars universe. The new series of The Mandalorian, for instance, would be quite a different show if Mando and Grogu had to wait 6,000 years to fly from one planet to the next. But it does raise the question of just how feasible such technology is. Will we ever attain the ability to travel vast distances across space without having to burn through generations of astronauts? Or are we just marooned in our corner of the Galaxy?

To answer that, Prof Patrick Johnson, author of The Physics Of Star Wars, needs to be clear on what, exactly, hyperspace travel is. “If we’re talking about the idea that spaceships in Star Wars accelerate forward as fast, or faster than, the speed of light, then that is not plausible,” he says. “The speed of light is the speed limit of the Universe. Once you travel faster than light, cause and effect begin to break down. You could feasibly view an event happening five light-years away, travel faster than the speed of light towards it and get there before it happens. It’s basically time travel.”