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Originally Posted by Anthrage
(Much removed)
Now, here's where things get tricky. In order for this to work (even as the insane pseudo-scientific idea it is), the ship needs to be able to have some method of control, and be able to re-emerge from wherever it was, in the exact place it was meant to travel to. This is done, in theory, because the sand of space, as it slides to fill the void left at the ship's departure point, does so in a measurable and predictable way - and while doing so, leaves a moving void of it's own, at the very top edge of the sliding 'slope of sand'. The ship 'simply' maintains the field - creating the 'size' of the hole that needs to be filled - until the void that is created at the top edge of the 'slope' is where it desires to travel to. Then through a mechanism I haven't quite figured out yet, it pops back into normal space in that location. Tada!
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So...if anyone has actually read all of that - any ideas or comments? Is a Quantum Chromo-Dynamic Displacement Cascade Drive (QCDDCD?) too 'thin' to be acceptable, or is there enough vague fact for it to fly?
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Allow me to announce right now I'm by no means a scientist of any sort, just trying to apply my own unique brand of common sense to fun theories.
The idea is intriguing but you still face the problems faced by drive systems such as in Star Trek's "warp drive".
1) Dust and other particles can cause great damage at high speeds, necessitating some sort of shield system
2) Detailed pre-flight navigation must be done to avoid high speed collision with known bodies.
3) Inertial forces caused by any sort of lateral motion would be *intense* at high speeds and must be compensated for.
I get two distinct impressions from your description and am having the following problem: I'm failing to understand if your ship will be in essence sliding through normal space, pushed by the "replenishment" of spacetime behind the vehicle, or if it's the ship itself that can leave normal space and then reappear again at a different location.
If the latter *is* the case, however, I don't understand why--if the vessel is capable of doing so--it doesn't just do it *once*; leaving where it starts, and ending up at it's final destination rather than only a short distance away. You could say that it's only capable of "folding space" like that over short distances, but if this is the case, the "sliding in" ideas are totally unnecessary.
That is my pseudo-scientific take on it.