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Antimatter Rockets
3
Antimatter Rockets
by Matthew Dickey
What?
At the most basic level, Antimatter is exactly what it sounds like - the opposite of matter. While protons and electrons have positive and negative charges, anti-protons and anti-electrons are just protons and electrons with negative and positive charges - they're opposites.
Antimatter
What Does This Mean?
e = mc^2
What Does This Mean?
Everyone knows Einstein's famous equation. Energy equals the mass of a particle multiplied by the speed of light squared. And when antimatter comes into contact with normal matter, this is the reaction that occurs.
History
History
Antimatter is thought to have been a major component in the Big Bang, explaining the immense amounts of energy generated, and the fact that it is very rare in our universe currently.
Today:
How can it be Used?
Right now, space travel is limited by fuel consumption. You need fuel to power rockets, but the more fuel you use the heavier the rockets become, meaning more fuel needs to be expended. This negative feedback loop of energy expenditure is our biggest hurdle in space travel. But antimatter fuel helps nullify this issue.
How Will Antimatter Help?
How Will Antimatter Help?
When antimatter reacts, it produces unfathomable amounts of energy. When NASA announced their funding of antimatter research in 2006, they estimated that if utilized properly, a trip to Mars would take 45 days. With modern technology, it is estimated that this trip would take north of 180 days.
Progress?
Progress?
Right now, the most advanced research is being conducted at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research with much funding from NASA. Antimatter is extremely limited in natural state, so generating a stable supply is really only possible at CERN, the largest particle accelerator in the world. CERN has been able to produce antimatter for a while, but creating a supply stable enough for fuel is the current challenge.
My Opinions
Antimatter is the future of space travel. It may be a few decades away from being common place, but I believe it will be in use very soon.
My Opinions
Safety
Antimatter transforms mass into energy. Thus, despite it's radioactive properties, that radioactivity dissappears in an instant. When it reacts, it releases a flash of highly radioactive gamma rays that instantaneously dissappear. Thus, a spacecraft powered by this technology would not spew radioactivity into the universe or into the Earth if it were to return.
Efficiency
As already touched upon, antimatter fuel will make space trips much faster. This is because it takes minimal amounts of antimatter to produce massive amounts of energy. Thus, despite the lack of antimatter in the universe, we will still be able to produce all we need. One estimate indicates one-millionth of a gram of antimatter would be enough fuel for a whole year of space travel.
Efficiency
How Will it Affect Us?
Space travel is the future of man. Much like the New World was Columbus' frontier, space is ours. I do not see space colonies as realistic in our life times, but the movement of technology towards these endeavours will for sure impact the world we live in. A satellite with this fuel will be able to reach and explore deep space faster, and as our understanding of the universe increases, this knoweldge lends practical applications to our world.
Perhaps in the more distant future, antimatter fuel will make Mars colonies or beyond realistic. Expanding the bounds of our universe may help solve issues such as overpopulation, draining of Earthly resources, and more. While this cannot be in replacement to solving these issues on Earth, antimatter may be the key to lessening the impacts of these issues.
Perhaps in the more distant future, antimatter fu...
by Matthew Dickey
Sources
https://science.howstuffworks.com/antimatter2.htm
https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/antimatter_spaceship.html
https://home.cern/topics/antimatter