How plausible are the advanced technologies in the Halo novels?

[kurushio95]

I recently read the novels based on the Xbox game "Halo" and was wondering about the technology.

1) There was frequent mention of a "MAC gun" (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon). For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Halo books, this weapon uses magnetic force to accelerate a metallic round to a fraction of the speed of light (there was one that could reach 1/4 SOL). Would these be plausible on a craft in Zero-G? There was also mention of a "Gauss cannon", basically a small MAC. How would these be possible? We already have similar technology for Maglev trains.

2) There was also a kind of warp drive that allowed a craft to enter into another dimension and travel between points of the galaxy in a few days. Would these be possible?

Kuru

 

[selfAdjoint]

I recently read the novels based on the Xbox game "Halo" and was wondering about the technology.

1) There was frequent mention of a "MAC gun" (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon). For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Halo books, this weapon uses magnetic force to accelerate a metallic round to a fraction of the speed of light (there was one that could reach 1/4 SOL). Would these be plausible on a craft in Zero-G? There was also mention of a "Gauss cannon", basically a small MAC. How would these be possible? We already have similar technology for Maglev trains.

2) There was also a kind of warp drive that allowed a craft to enter into another dimension and travel between points of the galaxy in a few days. Would these be possible?

Kuru

The magnetic gun idea is possible, though I don't know about the high speed. Something like this, called a rail gun, has been proposed for launching stuff off the surface of the Moon.

Space warps involving other dimensions are strictly bafflegab, the scifi term for made-up science that sounds good but isn't real.

 

[Sempiternity]

Concerning electromagnetic weapons, this site might be interesting:
http://www.powerlabs.org/emguns.htm

And a warp drive would deal with warping spacetime. On pages 334-336 of Parallel Worlds, Michio Kaku explains:

One key element to assemble the devices described above is the ability to travel across vast interstellar distances. One possible way to do so is to use the Alcubierre warp drive machine, a machine first proposed by physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. A warp drive machine does not alter the topology of space by punching a hole and leaping into hyperspace. It simply shrinks the space in front of you while expanding the space behind you.

...Recall that space itself can expand faster than the speed of light (since no net information is being transferred by expanding empty space). Similarly, it may be possible to travel faster than the speed of light by shrinking space faster than the speed of light. In effect, when traveling to a nearby star, we may barely leave Earth at all; we would simply collapse the space in front of us and expand the space behind us. Instead of traveling to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star, we are bringing Alpha Centauri to us.

So a warp drive would be a good way to travel vast distances, although a lot of positive and negative energy would have to be used in the process. Warp drives also have their limitations:

...But precisely because such a starship must travel within the existing universe, it cannot be used to leave the universe.

 

[Gaijin]

well the "MAC" gun is very possible. Superconductors can be made into very powerfull magnets, capible of high acceloration but operate at very cold temperatures. if/when a room temperature superconductor is created, this would be very plausible.

 

[Crynos]

Wow, Halo - a ripp-off of a role playing game from the late eighties, known as Rift's.

 

[Pengwuino]

I remember hte railgun in Eraser... hilarious movie! It can fire projectiles at nearly the speed of light... but arnold can STILL dodge the bullets