http://www.physorg.com/news93018835.html
When can you bottle enough "antimater" to fuel a rocket?
E.L.Earnhardt
Yes, but it won't happen in your lifetime. So far there is no manner to create enough that it wouldn't bankrupt the planet.
With anti matter you are basically using a billion volts to create the equivalent of a single volt. Anti matter as a rocket fuel is a non-starter unless you can actually find an anti-matter asteroid nearby.
A two stage ion rocket would be better where an initial high ionisation produces a fast speed, and then a continuous slow ionisation builds up more speed over time. A gravity slingshot can of course help.
A two stage ion rocket would be better where an initial high ionisation produces a fast speed, and then a continuous slow ionisation builds up more speed over time. A gravity slingshot can of course help.
You won't find an anti-matter asteriod. Space is not empty and any anti-matter asteriod would be quickly destroyed (and would probably be the single brightest gamma-ray source in the sky until then). However anti-mater is created (and almost immediately destroyed) in some interactions between the solar wind and Earth's or Jupiter's magnetic field, so technically it could be possible to 'harvest' it. Centauri Dreams had a post on that a few month ago but for now it's more science fiction than a real possibility.
Please see the WEB page
belle.kek.jp
which also reports evidence for D^0-D^0bar mixing at the
Belle experiment in Tsukuba, Japan.
belle.kek.jp
which also reports evidence for D^0-D^0bar mixing at the
Belle experiment in Tsukuba, Japan.
How big is the rocket?
Guest Anon. An anti-matter asteroid could drift into our solar system and there are relatively few positive atoms about from the solar wind to cause trouble for it. As it came close to the sun, it could be mistaken for a comet from the minor degradation caused by positive matter.
The only way that anti-matter could power a rocket ship would be if the anti-matter was suspended in mid-magnetic waves, (so to speak), in the electromagnetic force. This is the only way that anti-matter can exist, because if it comes in contact with matter, it explodes violently in a process called annihilation. Thus, it would be extremely difficult to create an internal combustion engine in a rocket powered by annihilating volatile anti-matter.
Anyone else have a view on this?
An idea on what? anti matter engine?
That's caveman talk.
That's caveman talk.