182
PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
the walls, it would explode. So how does one handle antimatter if it is
so volatile? One way would be first to ionize the antimatter into a gas
of ions, and then to safely confine it in a "magnetic bottle." The magnetic field would prevent the antimatter from touching the walls of the
chamber.
To build an antimatter engine, a steady stream of antimatter would
need to be fed into a reaction chamber, where it would be carefully
combined with ordinary matter, creating a controlled explosion, similar to the explosion created by chemical rockets. The ions created by
this explosion would then be shot out one end of the antimatter rocket,
creating propulsion. Because of the antimatter engine's efficiency in
converting matter into energy, in theory it is one of the most appealing
engine designs for future starships. In the Star Trek series, antimatter
is the source of the Enterprises energy; its engines are energized by the
controlled collision of matter and antimatter.
AN ANTIMATTER ROCKET
One of the main proponents of the antimatter rocket is physicist Gerald Smith of Pennsylvania State University. He believes that in the short
term as little as 4 milligrams of positrons would be sufficient to take an
antimatter rocket to Mars in just several weeks. He notes that the energy packed into antimatter is about a billion times greater than the
energy packed into ordinary rocket fuel.
The first step in creating this fuel would be to create beams of antiprotons, via a particle accelerator, and then store them in a "Penning
trap," which Smith is constructing. When built, the Penning trap would
weigh 220 pounds (much of it being liquid nitrogen and liquid helium)
and would store about a trillion antiprotons in a magnetic field. (At
very low temperatures, the wavelength of the antiprotons is several
times longer than the wavelength of the atoms in the container walls,
so the antiprotons would mainly reflect off the walls without annihilating themselves.) He states that this Penning trap should be able to store
the antiprotons for about five days (until they finally are annihilated
PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
the walls, it would explode. So how does one handle antimatter if it is
so volatile? One way would be first to ionize the antimatter into a gas
of ions, and then to safely confine it in a "magnetic bottle." The magnetic field would prevent the antimatter from touching the walls of the
chamber.
To build an antimatter engine, a steady stream of antimatter would
need to be fed into a reaction chamber, where it would be carefully
combined with ordinary matter, creating a controlled explosion, similar to the explosion created by chemical rockets. The ions created by
this explosion would then be shot out one end of the antimatter rocket,
creating propulsion. Because of the antimatter engine's efficiency in
converting matter into energy, in theory it is one of the most appealing
engine designs for future starships. In the Star Trek series, antimatter
is the source of the Enterprises energy; its engines are energized by the
controlled collision of matter and antimatter.
AN ANTIMATTER ROCKET
One of the main proponents of the antimatter rocket is physicist Gerald Smith of Pennsylvania State University. He believes that in the short
term as little as 4 milligrams of positrons would be sufficient to take an
antimatter rocket to Mars in just several weeks. He notes that the energy packed into antimatter is about a billion times greater than the
energy packed into ordinary rocket fuel.
The first step in creating this fuel would be to create beams of antiprotons, via a particle accelerator, and then store them in a "Penning
trap," which Smith is constructing. When built, the Penning trap would
weigh 220 pounds (much of it being liquid nitrogen and liquid helium)
and would store about a trillion antiprotons in a magnetic field. (At
very low temperatures, the wavelength of the antiprotons is several
times longer than the wavelength of the atoms in the container walls,
so the antiprotons would mainly reflect off the walls without annihilating themselves.) He states that this Penning trap should be able to store
the antiprotons for about five days (until they finally are annihilated