Can anyone explain how spaceships in popular science fiction might work?

Ships like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars or the Enterprise from Star Trek are mainstays in science fiction. However, I haven't been able to find anything about how these ships might work that is specific. Can anyone explain to me how these types of ships might work and what technology might be needed to create one?Can anyone explain how spaceships in popular science fiction might work?
I saw a Universe show on History Channel just the other night about making faster space ships.

Theories only:

Folding space to make the ship "seem to travel" a long distance. Like a wormhole between star systems. Problem is how to survive the gravity field in a black hole, how to connect two of them to make a wormhole, and how to make it stable over time.

Make space fold like accordian in front of ship, and expand behind. This would be a "warp drive" that makes a seperate space-time existence surrounding just the ship. This may be possible on a quantum level with sub-atomic particles, but no one is sure.

Make a "Stargate" of two identical space-time bubbles, and transport one of them to another planet or star. Since the space-time is identical in the twin bubbles, one can step into the near one, and emerge from the far one instantly. Conversely, if you make two that are at first light-years apart, and transport one at light speed until it's next to the other, you can step from one into the other, which would be time travel. Very confusing.

Anti-matter drive would supply enough energy to travel at almost the speed of light between planets in a few hours, or between star systems in a few years instead of centuries. We can make anti-matter in a giant accelerator now, but only a few hundred atoms at a time. Making enough to power a spaceship would bankrupt our country.

Space ramjet would compress hydrogen gas molecules from between planets and stars with giant magnetic scoops in front, and a fusion power plant to heat them for thrust out the back. This technology is a long way in the future, but we have the theory now. Problem is how to protect crew from radiation.

Laser beams push sailing spaceships. Projectors on the Moon powered by fusion or solar panels would beam intense light to miles-wide sails to get astronauts to other planets in a few months. Not for star trips.

Sleeper ships with suspended animation chambers to let the crew sleep for centuries on star voyages. We can almost do that now. But what would happen to a crew taking hundreds of years to arrive, and finding everyone had beat them there by using one of the above technologies?

Entire societies in a giant ship hollowed out of an asteroid could travel for hundreds or thousands of years across the galaxy. But who among the descendants would remember what to do at destination?
energy source would have to be HIGHLY efficient, probably fusion or anti-matter. They would need some shielding to protect when traveling near the speed of lightCan anyone explain how spaceships in popular science fiction might work?
Since these spaceships would have to violate the currently known laws of physics, I don't think there is any realistic way to explain how they work.



In the stories, they work by magic. The author throws in a magic incantation, with words like "dilithum crystals", "warp speed", "eye of newt", "tail of frog" (or is it tail of newt and eye of toad? I can never remember).Can anyone explain how spaceships in popular science fiction might work?
It is fiction. They work however the author says they work.

Generally some genius creates a widget that violates one or more

natural laws, and allows the thing to work.

EE Smith took the easiest route by positing a device that cancels

inertia.
Contrary to popular belief, even amongst scientists (for good reason), there is really no physics prohibition against traveling Faster Than Light.



Now, in defense of all the physicist bristling at this suggestion, it IS a mite difficult to imagine how something can get to FTL speeds without passing the Speed of Light, which there IS a prohibition against... a BIG one.



Still, you should read this:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than鈥?/a>
How they work is largely the FICTION part of science fiction.



Some authors spend more time on discussing the specific propulsion concepts than others, but all that is needed is to draw the reader into accepting the concept.



Some have multiples propulsion systems such as Star Trek, or limitations based upon the gravity wells of the stars.



Most with regular interstellar travel deal with getting around the limitations of the speed of light, so that the story can deal with those distances within a single human lifetime.



Some achieve this by postulating inter-dimensional travel, others by bending the space/time continuum.



If you read "On Basilisk Station" by David Weber, you will see a fairly detailed discussion of their space craft's propulsion system.



Many authors, merely ignore the systems, assuming that by reading the book the reader has assumed the concept will exist in the future.