Antimatter Breakthrough Could Lead to Starships, Says Scientist

[stevedeshazer]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372994,00.asp

<snip>

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."

more: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372994,00.asp

[drm604]

1. Those startships would still be sublight

and thus impractical.

[laconicsax]

5. Only for interstellar trips.

Propelling a ship to half light speed would mean an 8-hour trip to go to Neptune and since we're dealing with such relatively small distances, the relativistic effects would be minimized.

[drm604]

6. That's not a starship.

A starship, by definition, travels between stars.

[laconicsax]

7. I think that's open to interpretation. n/t

[drm604]

8. No more so than the question of whether or not a riverboat is an ocean liner.

Right? Am I wrong here? :shrug:

[laconicsax]

9. Not a very good example.

I get what you're saying, riverboats and ocean liners are just a bad example.

A spaceship used for intrastellar use need not be radically different from one used for interstellar trips. While a trip to a nearby star system would still take years, a ship capable of making the trip would probably be well suited for exploring the inner and outer solar system, whereas an ocean liner is poorly suited for river use. Likewise, a ship used to explore the solar system would require only slight modification for use as an interstellar ship, whereas a riverboat would require more extensive modification for crossing oceans.

[drm604]

13. I disagree.

Providing a ship with the necessities for travel to other stars when that ship is intended only for travel within the solar system would be overkill, like taking an ocean liner up a wide river.

Travel within the solar system would require smaller stores of fuel and consumables.

[laconicsax]

18. Fuel and consumable stores aren't a major design difference. n/t

[DireStrike]

24. It depends on how great the difference is in the size of the stores.

With interstellar vs. intrastellar distances being what they are, you might need some hydroponic farms, enormous stores of fuel and water, more efficient recycling methods, and lots of other things.

[Kablooie]

17. It could also be one that held numerous Hollywood luminaries.

[drm604]

23. Okay.

:rofl:

That could be a starship. So could an ocean liner with Tom Cruise aboard but I think that would also be out of context.

[The Doctor.]

12. 1/2 light speed would still take an enormous amount of energy.

Even if anti-matter persisted for decades in containment, and we had one hundred times the planetary energy output we do now, it would still take over a hundred years to make enough of it to get a shuttle-sized ship up to that speed.

Now, if you wanted the crew and ship to survive the acceleration, then you might as well plan for a hundred year trip anyhow.

[sofa king]

14. 8.4 years at 1G to "fall" to Alpha Centauri.

At least, according to this guy:

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q1993.html

I think the idea would be to bring along (or acquire along the way) a lot of normal matter, "rewrite" some of it into antimatter (presumably from an external power source like maybe a laser back home?), and then torch it. If one could somehow convert interstellar hydrogen into antiprotons, it might suddenly make the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet">Bussard Ramjet feasible again, as the original design relied upon the limited (by comparison) energy release of fusion.

Even at 1G to our nearest neighbor, the craft would approach 0.5 c and special relativity would begin to rear its head, making the trip subjectively shorter than 8.4 years, though I don't imagine it would be by too much.

[The Doctor.]

20. Yes, but think in terms of 'reverse dilation' for the Pluto trip.

Acceleration would have to be very high to achieve .5 c at mid-trip. Remember the effects are reversed for the observer. The trip that only took a few hours for the crew would be decades for the rest of the solar system.

Don't have the formula on hand... I know it's around here somewhere.

[laconicsax]

19. Survivability is overrated.

:P

But seriously, if you limit the use to solar system exploration, things get a lot easier. It took the New Horizons probe about 2 years to reach Jupiter, so a craft using antimatter propulsion *should* be able to dramatically improve on that.

Interstellar exploration is a pipe dream.

[The Doctor.]

21. Agreed.

:D

Except for the part about interstellar exploration. We already know space can be bent, twisted, dilated, truncated, protracted... and likely even broken.

That alone means it's possible.

[Skink]

2. beam me up.

[stevedeshazer]

3. I'd like 38 atoms of antirepublican

On the rocks with a twist of agent orange.

[cliffordu]

4. I'd like a pint of that!!!

[txlibdem]

25. And throw in about 1,000 Billionaires' worth of Soylent Green please

That is the only logical solution to our current budget crisis: eat the rich.

[gtar100]

10. One step at a time, boys. One step at a time.

There's a lot of ground to cover between 1/10th of a second stability and interstellar space travel. But it's a good start.

[Lochloosa]

11. FIRST CONTACT!

[pokerfan]

22. Meanwhile, in the mirror universe

First Contact goes somewhat differently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkp-MI5hxVw#t=0m15s

[LongTomH]

15. "I'm workin' as fast as I can, Cap'n!"

Edited to add: The Geek shall inherit the Earth!

[Orsino]

16. "Scotty, I need 7x10^28 atoms of antimatter NOW!"

"I...I...got thirty, Cap'n."

[txlibdem]

26. Great sig line from Kim Stanley Robinson!

I define a wasted life as one spent in pursuit of material possessions or one trapped inside a Capitalist Ponzi Scheme.