---
title: "Professor: Progress Toward Warp Drive Has Been “Enormous”"
description: "Scientists are getting closer to cracking the physics of warp drive, according to aerospace engineering professor Jason Cassibry."
date: "2019-10-15"
modified: "2019-10-15"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/professor-warp-drive-progress"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "propulsion"
  - "space exploration"
  - "the digest"
  - "warp drive"
---

# Professor: Progress Toward Warp Drive Has Been “Enormous”

![Scientists are getting closer to cracking the physics of warp drive, according to aerospace engineering professor Jason Cassibry.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/professor-progress-warp-drive-enormous.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Star Trek/NBC via YouTube\</em\>*

## Full Speed Ahead

Warp drive is, arguably, the holy grail of space exploration. With a propulsion system capable of faster-than-light-speed travel, humanity could reach distant corners of the galaxy and beyond.

Unfortunately, warp drives have long been relegated to the [realm of science fiction](<https://futurism.com/secretly-funded-research-ufos-wormholes>) — but according to aerospace engineering professor Jason Cassibry, scientists are getting closer to cracking the physics of a warp drive straight out of "Star Trek."

## Enormous Progress

Cassibry teaches at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, where he advises undergraduate student Joseph Agnew, author of a recently published warp drive study that [got the scientific world buzzing](<https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/alcubierre-drive?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4>).

In a recent [interview with *Motherboard*](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywaxeb/this-student-is-one-of-the-top-scientists-studying-faster-than-light-warp-drives>), Cassibry noted that "theoretical progress" toward building warp drives "has been enormous" thanks to the efforts of Agnew and other researchers.

## First Steps

Theoretical progress is one thing, though — physically building a warp drive is another, and as Cassibry noted in his interview with *Motherboard*, scientists still have "a long way to go" before they reach that latter goal.

Still, the first step toward building anything is making it work on paper, and the [increasing scientific interest](<https://www.universetoday.com/143422/just-how-feasible-is-a-warp-drive/>) in warp drives could lead to the creation of a system that actually lets us zip around space at a speed faster than light. Some day, anyway.

**READ MORE:** [This Student Is One of the Top Scientists Studying Faster-Than-Light Warp Drives](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywaxeb/this-student-is-one-of-the-top-scientists-studying-faster-than-light-warp-drives>) \[*Motherboard*\]

**More on warp drive:** *[The US Secretly Funded Research on UFOs, Wormholes, and Warp Drives](<https://futurism.com/secretly-funded-research-ufos-wormholes>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)