2 informational references for Alcubierre fields can be found at the end of this question.
Warp-lanes aren't a novelty in science-fiction. Space ships can use a specific route to go through a Galaxy at often superluminal speeds. Alcubierre found a way to use current physics of relativity by Einstein and create a possibility for FTL travel in the Alcubierre drive. One of the disadvantages of this drive is that you lose the negative mass that you require for the field. The solution to this is to send a subluminal ship with the negative mass and this ship creates a lane of negative mass that can be used and re-used by ships afterwards to travel faster than light.
A problem that I expect to occur is that everything is spinning. Mass of a planet spins around an axis, the axis spins and wobbles around a sun, the sun spins around the center of the universe. Building a warplane from one solar system to another could simply have "seasons", where during a certain season the enter/exit point of the warplane is farther or closer to the solarsystem's center. But it could also mean that you need to build and re-build warp-lanes every so many years to keep a proper lane open.
My question is: What is the most efficient way to lay down a warp-lane in a way that it requires the least amount of new warp-lanes?
If necessary, two scenario's are considered:
- A warp-lane from Earth to Alpha-centauri.
- A warp-lane from Earth to a system at 50.000 lightyears from earth, at the other end of the Galaxy (Earth is approximately 25.000 lightyears from the Galactic center).
For an answer, it is allowed to simply keep extending the warp-lane if it drifts off, so long as it does not extend the warp-lane length more than 20% of the original length.
For some background information you can watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ed4v_T6YM
More information can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258317793_The_Status_of_the_Warp_Drive
Notable are the advantages in this paper:
Benefit 1:
Removal of interstellar distance barrier, as
no longer restricted to subluminal speed limitations. Get
faster than light travel, as measured by distant observer
outside of disturbed region. This will allow missions to
the nearby stars and closer examination of astrophysical
phenomena than is possible today.
Benefit 2:
It is a conventional transport scheme, in that
it requires no ‘tearing’ of space or non-trivial topologies
(i.e. wormholes) and does not require the transmission
of copies of objects across space as a means of getting to
the destination (i.e. teleportation).Warp drive is a simple
transport from origin to destination through space.
Benefit 3:
No time dilation effects, as usually expected
with other space propulsion schemes due to special
relativity. This is because the vehicle could be moving at
subluminal speeds so that clocks on board would remain
synchronized with the origin and destination.
Benefit 4:
No relativistic mass increase of vehicle,
since ship is at the centre of warp bubble is at rest with
respect to locally flat space.
Benefit 5:
No requirement for rocket type propulsion to
achieve near light speed, which usually restricts the
maximum speed attainable due to special relativistic
effects such as infinite thrust for infinite masses.
Benefit 6:
Technological and economic benefits to
mankind.
(1) (PDF) The Status of the Warp Drive. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258317793_The_Status_of_the_Warp_Drive [accessed Jan 29 2019].
