A research paper has suggested that a warp drive capable of moving a craft at faster than the speed of light could indeed be possible.

Putting the Warp into Warp Drive was written by Baylor University physicists Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy.

The paper suggests that the speed of light could be broken by manipulating the fabric of space to create a bubble on which a craft could ride.

Einstein's laws of relativity would not be violated by such a drive since the craft itself would remain stationary and the bubble of space would be mobile.

This would also shield passengers from the enormous G forces from such acceleration.

However there are significant hurdles to be overcome, most notably creating an engine powerful enough to produce such a distortion.

"There is nothing that theoretically prevents the creation of warp drive," said the physicists.

"Early calculations indicate that superluminal propulsion for a ship of volume 1000m3 could be achieved at an estimated energy cost of 10 to the power of 45 J, or roughly the total mass-energy contained within Jupiter after using the famous relation E = mc2."

This is a significant step forward, since previous calculations have shown that it would take more energy than exists in the entire universe to power such a craft.

"This approach, although highly theoretical at this stage, gives us a glimpse as to how one might address the problems associated with the vast distances involved in interstellar travel, and opens up exciting new avenues for future research," the paper concluded.