From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Aug 21 1999 - 17:37:23 MDT
On Sun, 22 Aug 1999, Gabriele Betti wrote:
> I'd like to know why , if antimatter "exist" and since it react
> with matter releasing light or energy..why it doesn't exist an
> antimatter engine(like UFO to understand).
Well, generally speaking people don't build engines if there
is no fuel to put in them... :-)
A number of fairly serious scientists have done preliminary
designs for antimatter rockets/engines during the last 20+ years
and then do calculations on how this would impact the times for
interstellar travel [it still takes a long time!].
We can produce antiparticles (it is done every day at CERN, the
Fermi Laboratory and a few other places). The problem
currently is to take the anti-particles (which are traveling
in particle accelerators near the speed of light), slow
them down, combine the anti-protons & anti-electrons
into anti-matter and store them in a trap (e.g. a fuel
tank) for long periods without having it explode.
I believe we may be at the point where we can
store a few hundred anti-atoms currently.
We need a lot more anti-matter if we want to use it as
fuel and the problem is that the production of anti-matter
is very inefficient and therefore is very expensive.
It would probably take the entire power output of nations
for weeks to produce enough antimatter fuel for you to make a
short trip in your car.
Then there is the problem that combining anti-matter and
matter produces a lot of radiation, so we would need to
redesign your car so that you have a big lead shield
between you and the antimatter engine. At that point
the car weighs a lot more and you need even more
anti-matter fuel to make it go.
Hope that explains it.
Robert
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