Antimatter Breakthrough Could Lead to Starships

[OilFinder2]

My technocopia meter is jittering toward the max!

LINK

Antimatter Breakthrough Could Lead to Starships, Says Scientist
By: Peter Pachal
11.18.2010

Scientists at CERN, the research facility that's home to the Large Hadron Collider, claim to have successfully created and stored antimatter in greater quantities and for longer times than ever before.

Researchers created 38 atoms of antihydrogen – more than ever has been produced at one time before and were able to keep the atoms stable enough to last one tenth of a second before they annihilated themselves (antimatter and matter destroy each other the moment they come into contact with each other). Since those first experiments, the team claims to have held antiatoms for even longer, though they weren't specific of the duration.

While scientists have been able to create particles of antimatter for decades, they had previously only been able to produce a few particles that would almost instantly destroy themselves.

"This is the first major step in a long journey," Michio Kaku, physicist and author of Physics of the Impossible, told PCMag. "Eventually, we may go to the stars."

[...]

[ian807]

38 anti-hydrogen atoms wouldn't make a detectable difference in the warmth of a cup of coffee.

But lets say we learn to make buckets of the stuff and even store it in quantity and move it in a practical way (We couldn't even begin to do either at the moment). This isn't star trek. Our technology for space travel is still laughably primitive. There are no stargates. No transporters. No wormholes. Even if we had the stuff, we wouldn't know what to do with it other than use it like an excessively large H-Bomb. Good enough for our solar system, but that's about all.

We *could* use it for power if we had enough of it, but I'm going to be very surprised if it doesn't take way more power to make than you'd ever get out of it. There's a reason we were only able to make a few atoms.

[OilFinder2]

We *could* use it for power if we had enough of it, but I'm going to be very surprised if it doesn't take way more power to make than you'd ever get out of it.

From the article:

Further into the future, Kaku believes we may be able to use antimatter as the "ultimate rocket fuel," since it's 100 percent efficient – all of the mass is converted to energy. By contrast, thermonuclear bombs only use about 1 percent.

[Sixstrings]

I think Oilfinder just jumped the shark.

[Plantagenet]

The way to preserve anti-matter until you need it to power your starship is to put it into dilithium crystals.

Everybody knows that!

[americandream]

We *could* use it for power if we had enough of it, but I'm going to be very surprised if it doesn't take way more power to make than you'd ever get out of it.

From the article:

Further into the future, Kaku believes we may be able to use antimatter as the "ultimate rocket fuel," since it's 100 percent efficient – all of the mass is converted to energy. By contrast, thermonuclear bombs only use about 1 percent.

Wasn't it some Japanese fellow who proclaimed that we had arrived at the end of history whren the Soviet Union collapsed. Wonder what he has to say about the sub-prime scam.

[EnergyUnlimited]

Specific impulse of perfect matter-antimatter annihilation based propulsion system is in range of 10 millions seconds, eg it means that acceleration of 1g would be available for 10 millions seconds.
Would bring you to something like 10% of c at the point when mass of craft is equal m0/e, where m0 is a takeoff mass and e is Euler's constant (base of natural logarithm).
Helpful but not very impressive...

[Plantagenet]

Helpful but not very impressive...

A spaceship travelling at 1/10th the speed of light could travel from Earth to Mars in about 45 minutes ..... that seems pretty impressive to me.

[Fiddlerdave]

Can we put it in an empty oil barrel and have it fusion to keep the jobless and homeless warm?

Because that is about all the resources we will have to research containment technologies.

[Pops]

I think Oilfinder just jumped the shark.

Yeah his needle started jittering so hard he couldn't finish the article:

Krauss isn't as bullish as Kaku on the long-term applications of antimatter. Even though he is the author of The Physics of Star Trek, Krauss had just one thing to say when asked about antimatter-powered starships.

"Don't hold your breath."

[eastbay]

How big is the machine that makes the antimatter? Will it fit in a gas tank?

[vision-master]

Maybe we will rediscover our ancient past.....

[steam_cannon]

This is so stupid. I expect better then this from peakoil.com



Magic space travel?
This is the stupid part. Antimatter is not any magic key to star ships or space flight. This won't magically levitate a spacecraft. And this isn't even a good way to store energy.

Regarding this as a weapon or for producing energy?
You put in x amount of energy creating your antimatter. At most you might get 2X in energy reacting with matter. However this isn't likely since you have likely spent an aircraft carrier in momentum to create your first atom. On reaction your atom makes a little pop. Ultimately it is more efficient to throw aircraft carriers at enemies with catapults. Regarding using this in a reactor, it's got a long way to go to get a positive EROEI.

But what if antimatter could be produced efficiently and this had a positive EROEI?
Then it would not be used for space travel.

1. First it would be orders of magnitude less safe as an energy source then a nuclear reactor strapped to a tank of liquid hydrogen propellant.

2. The only way antimatter could be useful for space travel is if the antimatter could be produced on the fly and reacted with matter and sufficient energy captured to continue the reaction and production of antimatter, which is very unlikely to be possible without rewriting the laws of thermodynamics.

3. If it was possible to produce antimatter for less energy then was consumed in the production, then it is likely countries could use this produce nuclear bombs without having to refine uranium or other isotopes. An antimatter nuclear bomb alternative would be very dangerous for the world. Such an energy source might be used to send people into space; with mushroom clouds. If antimatter production was easy and efficient, it would not be a good thing. Luckily we live in a universe where it is neither easy or efficient to produce.

What is good about this research?
Understanding different forms of energy will help our understanding of the universe we live in. Being able to observe this energy form for a full "one tenth of a second" will probably make possible many new and interesting physics tests for understanding energy. I'm sure it's good research, but it's not "Antimatter Breakthrough Could Lead to Starships".

[diemos]

But what if antimatter could be produced efficiently and this had a positive EROEI?

Then we would be living in a different universe than the one we do live in. In this universe antimatter production will never have a positive EROEI.

Every time I see the title of this post I die a little inside.

[vision-master]

TR-3B

Sandia and Livermore laboratories developed the reverse engineered MFD technology. The government will go to any lengths to protect this technology. The plasma, mercury based, is pressurized at 250,000 atmospheres at a temperature of 150 degrees Kelvin and accelerated to 50,000 rpm to create a super-conductive plasma with the resulting gravity disruption. The MFD generates a magnetic vortex field, which disrupts or neutralizes the effects of gravity on mass within proximity, by 89 percent. Do not misunderstand. This is not antigravity. Anti-gravity provides a repulsive force that can be used for propulsion. The MFD creates a disruption of the Earth's gravitational field upon the mass within the circular accelerator. The mass of the circular accelerator and all mass within the accelerator, such as the crew capsule, avionics, MFD systems, fuels, crew environmental systems, and the nuclear reactor, are reduced by 89%. This causes the effect of making the vehicle extremely light and able to outperform and outmaneuver any craft yet constructed--except, of course, those UFOs we did not build.


The TR-3B is a high altitude, stealth, reconnaissance platform with an indefinite loiter time. Once you get it up there at speed, it doesnt take much propulsion to maintain altitude. At Groom Lake their have been whispered rumours of a new element that acts as a catalyst to the plasma. With the vehicle mass reduced by 89%, the craft can travel at Mach 9, vertically or horizontally. My sources say the performance is limited only the stresses that the human pilots can endure. Which is a lot, really, considering along with the 89% reduction in mass, the G forces are also reduced by 89%.

link

[Repent]

We just got 'That much' closer to importing methane from Titan, or free Hydrogen from Jupiter.

Got to be a good thing!

[vision-master]

Don't forget the 'Nazi bell'



Replicating the German NAZI Bell Antigravity Device
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWg42jPU ... re=related

[steam_cannon]

I think Oilfinder just jumped the shark.

Or I guess you could say he... Nuked the Fridge! Yeah!

[pstarr]

This is an important day in Oilfinder's personal therapeutic vision-quest.

This is from the Kübler-Ross model and the five stages of grief. Link

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining: Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made with a higher power in exchange for a reformed lifestyle.
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

He has finally given up on "finding" more oil and is now asking the higher power for cold fusion. Or is it the Singularity?

[vision-master]

Oily's new pumping station.

Friday's Child