Centauri Dreams asked Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, for his thoughts on so-called hyperspace propulsion, as recently published in an article called "Take a Leap into Hyperspace" (New Scientist, 5 January 2006). The article has received wide coverage because of its sensational implication that we may be much closer to a breakthrough in interstellar propulsion than anyone realized. And as discussed here in the last few days, it draws on the work of the German theoretician Burkhard Heim and the later refinements of Walter Dröscher and Jochem Häuser. Millis' response follows. But he leads it off with this qualification: "My assessments below are only a cursory response rather than the result of a full technical review. If I had done a full technical review, I would have submitted it to a journal. Given the level of interest, however, and the habit that many of us have to jump to conclusions (pro or con), I thought I should comment." With that...

A story in The Scotsman discussing how a hyperspace drive might work is in wide circulation, and today I read the feature in New Scientist that it's based on (thanks to Ian Brown for the tip). Under discussion is the possibility of building what is being called a 'hyperspace engine,' one that could get us to Mars in a matter of hours and to the stars within the kind of time frames once demanded of the crews of sailing ships. But to say that the theories behind this drive are controversial is to turn understatement into a virtual art form. Here's what The Scotsman has to say about how such an engine would work: The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft. Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing...