A spacecraft powered by a positron reactor would resemble this artist's concept of the Mars Reference Mission spacecraft. Credit: NASA
Posted on 04/14/2006 10:51:10 PM PDT by cabojoe
Most self-respecting starships in science fiction stories use antimatter as fuel for a good reason – it’s the most potent fuel known. While tons of chemical fuel are needed to propel a human mission to Mars, just tens of milligrams of antimatter will do (a milligram is about one-thousandth the weight of a piece of the original M&M candy). However, in reality this power comes with a price. Some antimatter reactions produce blasts of high energy gamma rays. Gamma rays are like X-rays on steroids. They penetrate matter and break apart molecules in cells, so they are not healthy to be around. High-energy gamma rays can also make the engines radioactive by fragmenting atoms of the engine material.
The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is funding a team of researchers working on a new design for an antimatter-powered spaceship that avoids this nasty side effect by producing gamma rays with much lower energy.
Antimatter is sometimes called the mirror image of normal matter because while it looks just like ordinary matter, some properties are reversed. For example, normal electrons, the familiar particles that carry electric current in everything from cell phones to plasma TVs, have a negative electric charge. Anti-electrons have a positive charge, so scientists dubbed them "positrons".
When antimatter meets matter, both annihilate in a flash of energy. This complete conversion to energy is what makes antimatter so powerful. Even the nuclear reactions that power atomic bombs come in a distant second, with only about three percent of their mass converted to energy.
Previous antimatter-powered spaceship designs employed antiprotons, which produce high-energy gamma rays when they annihilate. The new design will use positrons, which make gamma rays with about 400 times less energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
A spacecraft powered by a positron reactor would resemble this artist's concept of the Mars Reference Mission spacecraft. Credit: NASA
Positrons... antimatter...it's all William Shatner's fault!
...We can go to Mars? Can we send Cindy Sheehan there?
Yeah, we wouldn't want to pollute the universe with gamma rays, now would we?
Space ping!
Chauvinist Star Gater....
Umm, gamma rays.
Yeah, we wouldn't want to pollute the universe with gamma rays, now would we?
"Positrons... antimatter...it's all William Shatner's fault!"
Scotty and Captain Kirk were being interviewed, when there was the sound of flatulence. The reporter accused Captain Kirk.
Scotty defended Captain Kirk, saying, "William Shat n'er at all."
Good God Man!
Cool ride.
as far as stargate travel, you first. let me know when ya get there. ;-)
a very cool concept tho.. someday, way way down the road.
Except for the manly arms and green skin, she's not bad.
Will they be using Microsoft,Linux, or Mac to control this antimatter?
Very cool bump!
<g,d&r>
(He's the banned ex-freeper who did the graphics for the Stargate movie.)
"I canna do it, Cap'n! She'll blow apart!"
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