Antimatter Spacecraft: The Future of Interstellar Travel
Antimatter spacecraft are currently in development, and once they’re used, several boundaries we thought were impossible will be broken.
Spacecrafts in dozens of sci-fi movies like Star Trek use antimatter propulsion systems to travel at unimaginably high speeds by warping spacetime. By using them, traveling to different planets and stars is significantly more efficient and quick. However, is it possible to make this sci-fi idea a reality? If so, how and when will we be able to use them? Let’s take a closer look.
What are Antimatter Spacecraft?
Before we discuss what antimatter spacecraft are, let’s first take a look at what antimatter is. Antimatter is the opposite of normal matter. More specifically, the subatomic particles of antimatter have properties opposite to those of normal matter. The electrical charge of those particles is reversed. Meaning, once they collide with “regular” matter or the matter we know today, they react and cause an explosion in an instant. Due to this, antimatter is extremely rare since it gets obliterated with nearly everything made of matter.
An antimatter rocket is a proposed class of rockets that use antimatter as their main power source. The advantage to this class of rocket is that a large portion of the rest mass of a matter-antimatter mixture may be converted to energy, allowing antimatter rockets to have a far greater energy density than any other rocket that uses regular fuel.
The reason why using antimatter as a source of fuel is far better than using regular rocket fuel is because all of the mass in matter-antimatter collisions is converted into pure energy. Matter-antimatter reactions produce roughly 10 million times the energy produced by chemical reactions such as the hydrogen and oxygen combustion used to fuel space shuttles. With these explosions occurring, this could launch spacecraft at a speed higher than any rocket has ever traveled before, breaking several speed records that we once considered impossible.
How Would We Construct It?
The idea of having an antimatter-powered engine may seem great, but antimatter is one of the rarest and most expensive substances known to mankind. Why? It obliterates the moment it comes in contact with matter. Producing it is also extremely difficult, and only a few laboratories, including CERN, can produce it successfully, but only in trace amounts. The total amount of antimatter produced in CERN’s history is less than 10 nanograms — containing only enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for 4 hours. In total, we have produced roughly 18 nanograms, which is nothing compared to the amount we need to power a rocket.
The amount of antimatter needed to supply a rocket engine for a one-year trip to Mars could be as little as a millionth of a gram (10^-6 grams), according to a report in the October 2000 issue of the Journal of Propulsion and Power. However, to transport the antimatter and implement it into the engine, that would take some time, as most of the antimatter we have created has exploded since it can’t be kept in a container for a long time. Additionally, building a system that would use the antimatter without making it react and explode would also be hard to create.
However, this doesn’t mean it is impossible. Studies suggest that NASA is possibly only a few decades away from developing an antimatter spacecraft that would cut fuel costs to a fraction of what they are today. In October 2000, NASA scientists announced early designs for an antimatter engine that could generate enormous thrust with only small amounts of antimatter fueling it.
How Fast Can the Antimatter Rocket Go?
To show how incredibly fast and agile the rocket’s antimatter thruster can make it, let’s compare it to the fastest rocket we have made so far: NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The Juno spacecraft is a rocket designed by NASA that approached Jupiter at roughly 365,000 km/h (165,000 mph). The fastest launch velocity belongs to New Horizons, which went 58,000 km/h (36,000 mph).
NASA spacecraft are currently powered by ion thrusters, which have top speeds of 200,000 mph. With the antimatter propulsion systems, the antimatter rocket could hit speeds of 72 million mph. The long-term goal is interstellar travel, but before that, there are more practical, lower-orbit applications for Positron Dynamics’ engine. Matter-antimatter propulsion will be the most efficient propulsion ever developed, as 100 percent of the mass of the matter and antimatter is converted into energy.
With speeds of 72 million mph, going to other planets would be much easier, and expanding the human civilization would be much more efficient. Asteroid mining would also be possible, as traveling to certain asteroids that we are currently incapable of going to would become possible. Humankind could potentially become a type 2 civilization if we master the control of antimatter and implement it into technology.
Our galaxy, a deep abyss, is full of things that humankind will never witness or experience. We’ve barely explored 1% of our galaxy, the Milky Way, which means that we’re not even close to exploring the entire universe. That’s because we don’t have sufficient technology, energy, or fuel to go through the universe and explore new things. If we were to implement antimatter into rocket engines, interstellar travel would be easier and more efficient. Using antimatter could help us colonize Mars and do other things that we once thought were impossible. Until this occurs, we’ll have to keep pondering.
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