Light Speed Time Travel

Not sure if you've settled all this in your mind yet or not, but it occurs to me for one thing that Star Trek made heavy use of the "slingshot effect". The idea being that a precise approach to a star at incredibly fast speeds (beyond Warp 9, which depending on the series and formula they were using is as fast as 1,517 x speed of light) would create additional gravity warps that would allow the ship to sling around the star to warp through time.

Given that this is designed to be accidental, this probably won't work for you, but it's food for thought.

Like a lot of the others have said, I don't think an in-depth study of quantum physics is necessary here. You need to take the Stan Lee approach to advanced science terms and theories: "Does this sound cool here?"

A horrible miscalculation, a spilled cup of coffee, an unexpected special anomaly... all are the kind of things that can create sudden malfunctions in a light-speed drive and when you're dealing with that category of speed, one miscalculation changes everything.

Random thought: jealous scientist working on the project transposes two numbers in a program somewhere so that astronaut has horrible accident. Jealous scientist can now tend to the grieving girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband of the astronaut.

SampleGuy said:

I want my astronaut character get sent back through time to a prehistoric age where he helps a tribe battle an evil lizard man kingdom to save a beautiful princess, who is kidnapped from her tribe. He pilots a ship that travels by light speed to reach another planet. Instead, it goes back in time.

Click to expand...

My inner kid is gushing to hear that story.

But as for Lightspeed the best theory i've heard is wormholes, or a warp drive, which essentially brings the destination to you in a manner of speaking.

- intro to Farscape

Light speed time travel, is theoretically possible but not to go back in time. Relativistic physics would age the universe around the person or ship traveling at light speed, so when he stops more time has passed around him than he has spent traveling. Orson Scott Card covers a lot of this in the Ender books. I would try to find a different mechanic to go back in time, like a wormhole or something. What ever it is it would be fiction-fiction because our current understanding is that forward travel possible/ back travel not.