WarpDrive



NASA has sponsored study after study with many Universities over the past 2
decades, so this is not something that just popped up on the radar,
Remember, I am an engineer not a physicist, but I do understand the basic
principles. To most engineers this Sounds Far-fetched. Maybe, but you never
know where technology can go! Antimatter instantly creates an "annihilation"
reaction with matter on contact.

Here is about the limit of my understanding on applying the priniclple, in
antimatter-matter collisions, the entire rest mass of the particles is
converted to pure energy, heat and light. This is much greater than the
chemical energy or even nuclear energy that can be converted today, using
chemical reactions or nuclear fission or fusion. The reaction of 1 kg of
antimatter with 1 kg of matter would produce 1.8�1017 Joules of energy (by
the equation E=�mc�). In contrast, burning a kilogram of gasoline produces
4.2�107 Joules, and nuclear fusion of a kilogram of hydrogen would produce
2.6�1015 Joules.

The scarcity of antimatter means that it is not readily available to be used
as fuel, although it could be used in antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse
propulsion. Generating a single anti proton is immensely difficult and
requires huge atom smashers and huge amounts of energy, due to
inefficiencies in the process. Known methods of producing antimatter from
energy also produce an equal amount of normal matter, so the theoretical
limit is that half of the input energy is converted to antimatter.
Counterbalancing this, when antimatter annihilates with ordinary matter
energy equal to twice the mass of the antimatter is relesed, so energy
storage in the form of antimatter is in theory be up to 100% efficient.
Antimatter production is currently very limited, but has been growing at a
nearly geometric rate since the discovery of the first anti proton in 1955.
The current antimatter production rate is between 1 and 10 nanograms per
year, and this is expected to increase dramatically with new facilities at
CERN and Fermilab. With current technology, it is considered possible to
attain antimatter for $25 billion per gram, by optimizing the collision and
collection parameters, given current electricity generation costs.

Since the energy density is vastly higher than any other forms, the thrust
to weight equation used in antimatter rocketry and spacecraft would be very
different. The energy in a few grams of antimatter is enough to transport a
small ship to the moon. It is hoped that antimatter could be used as fuel
for interplanetary travel or possibly interstellar travel.

And with all that energy that would make a pretty badass bomb, the US's Air
Force Positronics Research Labratory, AFRL is working on a man-portable
brick bomb capable of storing 10 micrograms of antimatter... equivelent to
900 lbs. (408 kg.) of high explosive.

How do you hold antimatter if it can't touch matter, even air? You use a
Penning trap of course! It is basicly a box that uses electrostatic and
magnetic fields to stablely float the antimatter in the middle of the box.
These were featured in the book Angels and Demons, though they don't run on
batteries. But... Dr. Gerald Smith of Pennsylvania State University is
developing a portable penning trap, that will store up to 10 billion cold
anti protons for transit. A High Performance Antimatter Trap is being
designed that will carry up to 1 trillion anti-protons.

Antimatter catalysed thermonuclear fusion/fission pulse propulsion is done
by injecting a small amount of antimatter into a subcritical radioactive
mass, typically plutonium or uranium, the stuff goes boom and the spaceship
is pushed away.

In the "beam-core" design, the most efficient design, most of the energy is
released in the proton-anti proton reactions directed by coils. This will
generate pions, about 2/3 of which will be charged. A strong magnetic field
to deflect these charged pions, so that they exhaust out the back. The
uncharged pions have to be absorbed, otherwise dealt with, or just left in
space. Because only about 2/3 of the pions will be charged, efficiency is
around 66%.

A more conventional approach would be to inject the antimatter into a
tungsten block, producing heat, which could then be used to either directly
heat a propellant, or generate electricity to run some other propulsion
mechanism.

A nuclear photonic rocket involves heating up such a tungsten block or other
material so it emits light - a lens and a mirror would then reflect the
photons backwards and thus accelerate the spacecraft forwards. Though, most
of the energy of matter-antimatter reactions is released in the X-ray and
gamma ray spectrum, which cannot be reflected by any known means.

One possible solution to this challenge is the redshift rocket,( I did not
name it, had I, it would have been the redshirt rocket lol) the redshift
rocket proposes to use particle beams, such as those produced by ultrafast
laser pulses. Both the matter and antimatter would be accelerated to near
light speed away from the spacecraft before colliding in the reaction
chamber. This would lead to the electromagnetic radiation that reaches the
spacecraft being red shifted, meaning it will have a lower wavelength, and
high frequency, meaning it can be reflected.

In the Bussard ramjet design a laser is fired to hit hydrogen floating
around in space, and excite it so much that an electron flies off giving the
nucleus a positive charge; a magnetic field collects the charged hydrogen
particles, and funnels them inside. The hydrogen is used it in a fusion
engine, or even an antimatter catalyzed nuclear fusion engine. The Bussard
ramjet will only work when the vehicle is moving fast enough to collect
enough interstellar mass. Since the space part of space is almost empty, The
ship has to go faster than about 6% light speed for the ramjet to even work.
So it needs to carry sufficient fuel to get up to 6% light speed before
starting up the sucking. The biggest problem is the electromagnetic ram
scoop itself, it doesn't work. As the field lines of the magnetic field
contract at the inlet funnel, the charged particles will not want to go in,
but go away from the vehicle.

The Ion Compressed Antimatter Nuclear is being developed at Penn State. The
design would use antiprotons to implode pellets with nuclear fusion targets
at their cores. Shock absorbers would cushion the ship as a series of small
blasts propelled it through space. I was working on this the craft to house
this technology at one point.

Scotty would say that it's a good start, me I'm glad that we have these
ideas on the table and are being worked each day.

Roger D. Manley

 Antimatter Drive:
 http://science.howstuffworks.com/antimatter.h...