Happy First Contact Day everyone! Well, we're celebrating it a little early since Vulcans first make contact with humans on April 5, 2063. That's in the Star Trek universe. For us though the first warp drive ship created by humans may be just a few years away.

Many of you may have heard about the idea of an Alcubierre drive. Several new developments in that theoretical proposal have occurred in the last two years as the video below describes.

Eagleworks researchers have devised a model which predicts negative vacuum energy distribution which could create a nanoscopic space warp bubble. If you skip to the 9:53 time point the video describes a theoretical model 1 micron in diameter inside a 4 micron diameter Casimir cavity. The researchers propose such a model warp drive design can be made with a Nanoscribe GT 3D printer.