Physicist builds Star Trek ‘Warp Drive’ in his garage

A three-pound weight hanging in a frame shifts forward gently in an electrical field generated by a V-shaped motor array - and its creator claims this is the first step towards a real, working Star Trek Warp Drive.

David Pares of the University of Nebraska at Omaha claims that his low-power array (it uses just 100 watts, and is housed in his garage) “compresses the fabric of space.”

If true, it would be a gigantic leap forward for propulsion systems - and potentially the first step on Man’s journey to other star systems.

Others claim that the system (where the weight is electronically isolated inside a Faraday cage) is not compressing space at all, but air.

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Pares is confident that what he has found is genuinely new - with the weight drawn towards the motor by a force that has not been harnessed before.

‘You’re not supposed to be able to do this,’ he says.

Some colleagues are supportive.

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Retired University of Nebraska physics professor Jack Kasher says, ‘A lot of people are going to flat-out dismiss it off the top, but I think he’s crossed some kind of bridge here. Just showing this is possible with reasonable energy. It wouldn’t surprise me if NASA latches on to this.’

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Pares has submitted papers to science conferences and publications but has so far not met the support he needs.

Both Pares and Kasher are aware that if the Warp Drive is to become reality, Pares needs to boldly go it alone.

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Kasher says, ‘It is so far out there, he’s not going to get funding to do it. If it’s going to be done, it’s going to be done in his garage.’