11 thoughts on “Anti-Matter Engines”

  1. Clearly they are not familiar with the work of the late Dr. Robert Forward. He argued that production rates of a dedicated factory would be thousands of times more then amount CERN produces. Enough to make it a practical source of fuel. He co-authored a great book on it.

    http://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Matter-Pioneering-Antimatter-Physics/dp/0595198171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337208641&sr=8-1

    Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics

    Also they overlook the value of anti-matter rockets for use inside the Solar System. Exhaust Velocities that large would really cut the fuel needed for Interplanetary flight while also greatly reducing the transit times. Finally perhaps we may see Robert’s Heinlein’s torch ships.

  2. Isnt’ there also a recent plan for harvesting antimatter that is trapped by the magnetic fields of the planets? There’s supposed to be a fair amount that can be trapped from the Earth’s field, but a huge amount that can be collected from Jupiter. Maybe that is the McGuffinite.

    1. Bickford’s idea is to use a magnetic scoop to extract antiprotons trapped within planetary magnetic fields. He estimates that 10 micrograms of antiprotons and 10 milligrams of positrons are contained within the Earth’s magnetosphere at any given time. Significantly larger quantities should be found in the radiation belts of the Jovian planets. The collector involved is an adaptation of an idea first proposed by Robert W. Bussard for interstellar propulsion, in this case an electromagnetic scoop attached to a satellite in planetary orbit. over here: http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=27

  3. It’s chauvinistic of us to assume that what we call “matter” is really the pro-matter in the universe. It could just as easily be the actual anti-matter. And just like white Europeans colonizing the world, our anti-matter spread throughout the universe destroying most of the indigenous (and noble) regular matter. The UN should demand the return of the universe to regular matter…

  4. Speed kills. To go any appreciable fraction of lightspeed (say, ten percent) you’re gonna need a gigantic erosion sheild of some sort. The intersteller medium is filled with hydrogen atoms (about 1 per cubic centimeter) and Ghu-only knows how must dust.

    This is, to me, the biggest engineering challenge for interstellar travel, save for, um, er, making enough antimatter to, um, matter.

    1. What if you used a magnetic field to keep a diffuse cloud of anti-matter far ahead of your hull, to annihilate normal atoms and vaporize dust before they collide with the hull?

  5. Probably better to use the the antimatter to power a laser to ionize the dust and hydrogen in your path and the magnetic field to sweep it aside. Oh, and to concentrate it, and to mix it with more antimatter which annihilates some of it forming energy which can be directed by the magnetic field to create thrust, to make some sort of interstellar ramjet. Hmm. What a neat idea. What should I call it?

        1. NSWR is the neatest rocket design since Orion and the nuclear space battleships. Hard to look at that design and not think of the atomic rockets of 50’s SF.

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