Part 5/12:
One of the most significant challenges to the Alcubierre Drive involves the immense energy and mass it is presumed to require. Early estimates, such as those from Pfenning and Ford shortly after Alcubierre’s paper, suggested the energy requirement could reach levels 10 orders of magnitude greater than the mass of the observable universe. In 1997, Chris Van Den Broeck modified the shape of the warp bubble to reduce the energy requirement to three solar masses—a substantial improvement but still prohibitively high.
It is posited that despite the current technical hurdles, they could eventually transform into mere engineering challenges. The pursuit of new methods and understandings may one day reveal more feasible energy parameters.