[CraigD]

Originally Posted by Gardamorg

The Unlimited Voyager is a shuttle that is propelled by growing explosions, it has unlimited fuel, and unlimited speed.

The first explosion is created by curving a micro inch of space time into a hundredth of a micro inch of space time using lots of energy …

This first step is pretty tricky one. The only think known to curve space-time is gravity. The only thing known to produce gravity is mass. To curve (compress) 1 cm of space by a factor of 100, requires the mass-energy equivalent of about 10 kg (about 5% the mass of the sun), concentrated somehow within that centimeter of space. (For a look at the math behind these numbers, check out the wikipedia article “gravitational time dilation”) This is way beyond the usual meaning of “using lots of energy”, requiring matter denser greater than even exotic theoretical stuff like quarkium.

A more serious problem is that such a region of space doesn’t result in an explosion – just a region of space gravitationally similar to near the event horizon of a black hole.

… and then shooting particles of matter and antimatter at the opposite sides of the curved space time so they go through more space in less time, this causes them to collide and annihilate at astronomical speeds…

You don’t need to go to any unusual lengths to get matter and antimatter to annihilate – in its ionized form – the way the little bit that’s been created and observed comes – it’s magnetically attracted to its ordinary matter counterpart particles, rapidly annihilating with them. Preventing antimatter from annihilating before researchers have had a chance to observe or do interesting things with it is the current focus of research.

Though colliding anti-particles at relativistic speed will result in more energy being released, matter/antimatter annihilation is already not only a tremendously high-energy event, but the theoretically highest energy event there can be for a given mass.

Though I’m not sure why you’d want to, space-time “curved” into less distance as described above would result in particles taking more time to go through the same space, as observed by someone outside the curved space-time, not less. To get the opposite effect, you need a sort of negative-mass Exotic matter, something nobody has more than the slightest idea can even exist, yet alone how to make.

None of this is of much concern, however, because the next claim,

… which causes the curved space time to bounce back and uncurve, which releases tons of energy, this energy pushes the shuttle at great speeds, the shuttle takes some of that energy by absorbing it, and uses it to curve more space time into less space time and repeat the process on and on, and each time it repeats, the explosions get bigger, and the shuttle accelerates even faster forever.

just isn’t predicted by any theory, or suggested by any experimental observation. What’s being described is, in essence, a perpetual motion machine “of the first kind”, or, if you prefer a newer name, an “over unity device”. Though a popular subject with inventors and science enthusiasts, such devices simply can’t, by any of the known rules of nature, exist.

A note on word usage: As in your previous exotic spacecraft propulsion thread, ”The Explorer Shuttle”, you call your proposed spacecraft a “shuttle”. That word, which comes from an old one for the device used to carry thread back and forth when weaving, is normally used to refer to vehicles that make short, frequent trips between regular destinations. For example, NASA’s STS is called a “shuttle” not because it is powerful, fast, or cool (which it is), but because it was intended to routinely travel between the Earth’s surface and low orbit (which its proven not-so-successful at ).

The sorts of spacecraft you appear to be most interested in, Gardamorg, though none actually yet exist, are more commonly called “interstellar vessels”, “starships”, or other names conveying “ultra-long-range”.

A note on source citations. Gardamorg, your illustration looks suspiciously like a couple of copies of a 1977 NASA archives illustration of the proposed Project Orion spacecraft (such as the one at the preceding wikipedia link), stuck together only one copy of the nose on that end. The tubes for ejecting little fission bombs are still visible – and the one in the middle of the craft makes very little sense!

Though you do note that they are “same design as the Orion shuttle”, and I’m certain neither NASA, wikipedia, nor any of the Orion designers would be in the least offended by you using these images, its customary, polite, and technically a hypography site rule to mention where you get images from, unless you make them yourself. The image in question is, as are most NASA archive images, in the public domain, but it’s still a good idea not to give the impression they’re you own work.

Gardamorg, I admire you enthusiasm for and dedication to spacecraft design and space exploration. I recommend, though, that you put at least as much effort into learning the fundamental of physics well. Without a grasp of these basics, you’ll likely be doomed to chase after impossible design ideas, without being able to figure out what’s wrong with them.