Anti-Matter Engines

[Space_Goose]

Thanks for the links and comments everyone. Now I am not sure which would be the best option for a future space fairing civilization. It does seem like both Anti-matter and Ion Engines would be possible for a future advanced race, I guess what I have to figure out now is... Which makes the most since. That may be a question that you guys can't help me with as at this point, I am sure opinions will very on this matter.

Slightly offtopic...
No matter what engines you install on your spaceship, you won't be able to go faster than light, so you'll have to figure out another way of getting to distant stars since actually traveling all that distance conventionally will take too long, no matter how fast you go (remember, you can't go FTL).
Wormholes, subspace, warp, jump-drive... come to mind when I consider FTL for a SF story.

yes, I have already thought of that and have an answer for it in my story

 

[emudude]

Anti-matter is the most efficient option physically speaking...interestingly (forgot to mention this in my previous post), if you are using charged antimatter for, say, a trip to mars, you would only require a "pellet sized" quantity of antimatter...the significance of this is that the power requirements for the fuel tank's magnetic containment field wouldn't be very high. Also, another interesting link on relativistic speeds:

http://www.1728.com/reltivty.htm

As you can theoretically accelerate to the speed of light and get infinitely close, depending on your acceleration time, your perceived trip time to even another galaxy could be on the order of a few days to a week; the limiting factor is the human body's tolerance to acceleration (you can't just jump to 99.999999999% of the speed of light instantly!!). An ion drive is based on constant (albeit small) acceleration, whereas an annihilation engine gives you more force per unit time for propulsion, and potentially lethal acceleration if not controlled.

 

[michaelmozina]

Again, if you use more enrgy to create the antimatter than you gain out of using it, what's the point?

I've talked to you many times here over the years Wayne and 'm really surprised to hear you say that frankly. The point could be a lot of things. It takes a lot more energy for instance to create an F-22 fighter jet than we get back out of it too, but who cares?

The interesting thing about the use of matter/antimatter technology is that it could get us from here to there in record time, not that it's the most energy efficient way to travel.

No matter how efficient, it will never have more energy stored than that required to create it (that's basic physics), and the energy required to store it is a constant loss.

And if you have enough energy to spare, an ion engine, given enough time, can get as close to the speed of light as any other unlimited energy method.

It's the unalterable question... where does all that energy come from?

As with all spacecraft that have been built to date, the answer is "Earth". I suppose a Ramjet type of approach could use particles in space as "fuel" in the acceleration process, but the energy to accelerate the particles would still need to be on the spacecraft.

 

[michaelmozina]

Anti-matter is the most efficient option physically speaking...interestingly (forgot to mention this in my previous post), if you are using charged antimatter for, say, a trip to mars, you would only require a "pellet sized" quantity of antimatter...the significance of this is that the power requirements for the fuel tank's magnetic containment field wouldn't be very high. Also, another interesting link on relativistic speeds:

http://www.1728.com/reltivty.htm

As you can theoretically accelerate to the speed of light and get infinitely close, depending on your acceleration time, your perceived trip time to even another galaxy could be on the order of a few days to a week; the limiting factor is the human body's tolerance to acceleration (you can't just jump to 99.999999999% of the speed of light instantly!!). An ion drive is based on constant (albeit small) acceleration, whereas an annihilation engine gives you more force per unit time for propulsion, and potentially lethal acceleration if not controlled.

Ya, getting squished like a bug on a windshield is a serious potential downside of an annihilation engine, but then space travel has always been a risky business.

 

[Shpaget]

...

MW's post was in response to the idea of producing antimatter on board the space ship as it travels. It is not practical and doesn't make sense since to produce certain amount of energy in form of antimatter you need to invest much more energy.
If you had that kind of energy source on board the vessel why would you bother with antimatter, why not just use that energy directly?
Of course, if you produce antimatter on planets/moons/in space and refuel ships at pumping stations using antimatter engines could make sense, but our current technology can contain only a tiny fraction of necessary amount of charged particles for a trip to Mars.

 

[Space_Goose]

Well upon reading up on some of this, I found a website which claimed that an Ion Engine needs a vacuum to work property. I am not sure if this is true but if it is, then an Ion Engine could not certainly not be used to leave the earth, you have to launch the ship into orbit some other way in order to use the Ion Engines.

The only thing about Anti-Matter Engines is, everything I have read says consistantly that an Anti-Matter Engine woudl produce a large amount of Radiation. If that is true, would it be safe to use an Anti-Matter Engine to leave Earth?

 

[origin]

The only thing about Anti-Matter Engines is, everything I have read says consistantly that an Anti-Matter Engine woudl produce a large amount of Radiation. If that is true, would it be safe to use an Anti-Matter Engine to leave Earth?

Oh yeah, there would be a butt load of high energy gama rays coming out of that engine. Anything that was in the path of that stream of radiation would be killed.

 

[Shpaget]

Well upon reading up on some of this, I found a website which claimed that an Ion Engine needs a vacuum to work property. I am not sure if this is true but if it is, then an Ion Engine could not certainly not be used to leave the earth, you have to launch the ship into orbit some other way in order to use the Ion Engines.

There are several very different working designs, so I wouldn't go as far as saying it's absolutely necessary for every design, but some do require vacuum.
At this point of development ion engines are far to weak to lift off from the surface of Earth.

 

[Fallingstar1971]

Isnt antimatter also created in the solar atmosphere? By the prominences? Is so. perhaps a harvesting system would be quicker than manufacture. Just stop at a star and juice up

Star

 

[Space_Goose]

Isnt antimatter also created in the solar atmosphere? By the prominences? Is so. perhaps a harvesting system would be quicker than manufacture. Just stop at a star and juice up

Star

I have thought about harvesting anti-matter for my story since by this time, humans are traveling amongst the stars. The only problem I see with what you said is, how would you get close enough to star to harvest the anti-matter with out your ship or instruments melting?

 

[MeteorWayne]

I think it's time to move this thread to sci-fi, since the stated intent is to flesh out a sci-fi story, and while there was some good science early on, it's deteriorating.

We'll see...

MW

 

[Space_Goose]

Your right MeteorWayne and I apologize.

It wasn't my intention when I started the topic to drag it into the sci-fi realm. all my topics and questions I have posted so far have been to help me with my story but I have always tried to leave the fiction out of the questions and just get down to the science. That is easier said than done sometimes.

I think this topic is starting to peter out anyway