Aki Posted January 8, 2005 Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 I was just thinking, instead of using fuels, we could be using matter and antimatter annihilation as a source of energy for rockets. This would be more efficient, since 100% of the mass gets converted into energy, and that does not cause any pollution. What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargazer Posted January 8, 2005 Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 Absolutely! However, the technology is not mature enough, I believe. For one, it's still difficult and extremely expensive to produce antimatter, and also not all issues regarding storage has been solved yet. I have no doubt they will be solved though. Then we could finally cut shorter the times it will take to go anywhere, and of course there wont be necessary to bring as much fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aki Posted January 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 Yes, that's true. It would be a real problem storing antimatter without have it to react with the matter-made container it's stored in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargazer Posted January 9, 2005 Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 There are some ideas on how to do that, though, which is to contain the antimatter in a magnetic field (obviously the antimatter would need to have a charge, like antiprotons or positrons.) Unfortunately it's extremely expensive to produce antimatter, but I can see facilities used for that purpose alone for massproducing antimatter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddog Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 I was just thinking, instead of using fuels, we could be using matter and antimatter annihilation as a source of energy for rockets. This would be more efficient, since 100% of the mass gets converted into energy, and that does not cause any pollution. What do you think? Aki, about all we can do at the moment is make a bomb with it. However, this processis between 1000 to 10^6 times more efficient at elliminating everything that theconventional thermonuclear weaponry we all so fond of. To actually have proper combustion, you would need proper containtment. The only wayto do that would be in a magnetic bottle. Even with superconducting magnets, this ismore than can be done at the present moment. Maddog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgrmdave Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 How do we create anti-matter? Would the creation require more energy than it produces? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakon1323 Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 You would have to contain it in a vacuum as well as a magnetic field, would you not?...or does the magnetic field take care of that already Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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