Light Speed, the Final Frontier

Most Americans have seen the epic sci-fi movie Star Trek. One question that comes to my mind and a lot of people who have seen this movie: how close are we to this light speed technology? No doubt we shouldn't be far off, I mean look at the accomplishments America made in 100 years. We went from the first ever flight to landing on the moon in that 100 year span! So just how close are we to light speed travel?

There is a theory called the Alcubierre Drive, proposed by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre. The theory states that if we can use negative energy we can in essence bend space around us. If we can bend space then we can travel faster than the speed of light. The only problem being we don't know if this energy exists. This solution was derived from Einsteins field equations. We know that the math works, we just haven't found the energy that can make it happen.

If we can find the negative energy proposed in this theory we can travel at light speed. How long it might be unfortunately can't be answered. It could be ten years or over a hundred that we have to wait for lightspeed travel. 

Sources: Wikipedia(Alcubierre drive)