This is a very theoretical question I was thinking about lately and I don't think this has been asked before yet here, otherwise please point me to the appropriate Q&A. And I'm not talking about Tardis as it may seem :-)
Background (for anyone who's interested):
I have a sleeping disorder and continuously spend my time to voyage through space in my mind and to imagine alternative planets, moons and such. I really want to write a novel with some short stories soon but I hope that some (better: most) stories contain (theoretically) reliable physics. And I promise, I'll mention this "Q"(and hopefully "&A") in my book if I'll ever start and finish it :-)
Imagine the following situation:
Object A
- is a large object comparable to Earth, Mars or some other "big" object
- has a strong gravitational force (as most objects with a large mass have)
Object B
- is fairly small compared to the above (i.e. a car, house, phone booth)
- contains an energy source that contains infinite energy
- is stationary on Object A
Now imagine Object B would contain an Alcubierre drive that makes Space-Time distortion possible, so the object would be able to travel faster than light.
Question(s):
- What would possibly happen if the engine would be switched on with its direction pointing upwards? Remember the object is stationary on Object A.
- Now assume that Object B would not be directly stationary on Object A (not resting on its surface), i.e. it would be a balloon in high atmosphere, what would happen to Object A if the object is switched on?
- if Object B would move at a given speed (instead of being stationary), would it be possible to alter the speed and direction of the vessel using the Alcubierre drive? Also there are difficulties mentioned with the drive when stopping from a very high speed that would have an impact on any object that is ahead of Object B - but what would happen if the drive is used to travel at low speed i.e. 100 km/h? Would it even be possible for Object B to land on Object A if it would approach it?
Hope I'm not wasting your time, I'm really eager to get some answers and as stated above, I'll promise to reference the author in the story!
