ANTIMATTER ROCKETS

An AIMStar antimatter-powered probe cruises nearby interstellar space.

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ICAN Micro Fission/Fusion Propulsion 
Tech Level: 15

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AIMStar Antimatter Rocket 
Tech Level: 16

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Solid Core Antimatter Rocket 
Tech Level: 16

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Gas Core Antimatter Rocket 
Tech Level: 16

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Plasma Core Antimatter Rocket 
Tech Level: 17

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Beam Core Antimatter Rocket 
Tech Level: 18

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Antimatter particles have the same mass as normal matter particles, but opposite electrical charges. Matter and antimatter mutually annihilate each other on contact and are converted to pure, 100% energy. This energy usually takes the form of a combination of gamma rays, neutrinos, antineutrinos, and pions. This total energy conversion makes forms of antimatter very attractive as a spacecraft fuel. One gram of antimatter, annihilating with one gram of normal matter, can generate as much energy as 23 Space Shuttle external fuel tanks. Antimatter rockets are thought to be able to provide specific impulses of up to 10 million seconds.

Antimatter responds as readily to magnetic and electrical fields and bottles as normal matter, so containing and directing antimatter for use in a spaceship engine does not represent as huge a problem as many assume. No, the big problem with using antimatter as a form of propulsion is with obtaining and storing it.

Antimatter is very rare and short-lived in nature, so it must be manufactured artificially. Today, it can only be produced in the amount of nanograms (billionths of a gram) per year at about $62.5 trillion dollars per gram, making it the most expensive substance on Earth. This could be unfortunate, as dozens of kilograms would have to be made to make interplanetary flights possible, and tons of antimatter would have to be produced for interstellar missions. Production methods for creating and storing antimatter would have to be increased a billionfold while its cost would have to decrease on a similar scale before antimatter propulsion could be considered practical. The relatively high tech levels of advanced antimatter rockets covered in this article represent not only the engineering hurdles in building the rocket but also the difficulty in obtaining and storing tremendous amounts of antimatter.

Proton-antiproton collisions (as opposed to electron-positron or hydrogen-antihydrogen collisions) are preferred for propulsion, as the reaction produces a large percentage of charged particles (pions) that can be contained and directed for thrust with electromagnetic fields.

Antimatter reactions produce large amounts of radiation as their by product, including gamma rays and pions, making heavy shielding an absolute necessity on almost all missions using the technology.

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I.C.A.N. MICRO FUSION/FISSION PROPULSION Tech Level: 15

An ICAN antimatter rocket as envisioned by PSU researchers.

ICAN stands for Ion Compressed Antimatter Nuclear. Very similar in principal to the Daedalus and VISTA concepts, the ICAN engine uses fuel pellets ignited to a fusion state by crossed lasers or particle beams. The resultant explosion is partially channeled by a concave magnetic nozzle to provide thrust.

The ICAN scheme uses pellets that contain uranium fission fuel (uranium 238) as well as a deuterium-tritium fusion fuel mix in a roughly 1:9 ratio. The pellet is bombarded by compressing ion beams, and at the moment of peak compression the pellet is bombarded with a stream of antiprotons to catalyze the fission process. For comparison, ordinary uranium fission produces 2 to 3 neutrons per fission; by contrast, antiproton-induced uranium fission produces ~16 neutrons per fission. The released energy from the fission process ignites a high-efficiency fusion burn, resulting in the rapidly-expanding plasma used for thrust. Each reaction produces about as much energy as 20 tons of TNT. Pulsed at many times a second, the ICAN scheme would produce a specific impulse of up to 17,000 seconds and a maximum velocity of 166,600 meters per second.

Detail of an ICAN rocket's engine section.

ICAN is significant in that it needs only a very modest amount of antimatter (approximately 140 nanograms for a nearby interplanetary mission) in order to work, an amount that can be produced within about a year or so at significantly equipped facilities such as Fermilab.

The ICAN scheme is being studied by the Pennsylvania State University and is being considered for a manned Mars missions. The most recent engine configuration, called ICAN-II, could theoretically make a trip to the red planet and back again in only 120 days.

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AIMSTAR ANTIMATTER ROCKET Tech Level: 16		An AIMStar-powered rocket approaches an unnamed gas giant moon.

The AIM in AIMSTAR stands for Antimatter Initiated Microfusion. Like the ICAN scheme, the AIMStar is being developed by the Pennsylvania State University, specifically for an interstellar "precursor" mission that would carry a probe well beyond the heliopause to a distance of 10,000 AUs from the sun. Also like the ICAN scheme, the AIMStar engine tries to make use of existing or near-term antimatter technology, specifically penning traps, and apply it to space propulsion.

A penning trap is basically a powerful magnetic bottle with specific electrical fields used to hold anti-protons. Pellets of fission/fusion fuel (similar to the ICAN propellant pellets, above, but smaller) are "shot" through the trap, basically compressed onto the outer layer of the antiparticle mass in the trap as it passes through. The energy of the antimatter annihilations initiates a fission reaction, which in turn sparks a fusion burn in the compressed deuterium-tritium mix. This superheated plasma is then expelled for thrust.

After each such "burn" the antiprotons in the penning trap are allowed to reset back to their original configuration, minus about 0.5% of their original mass, which was used up in the burn cycle annihilations. After every 50 burns, new antiprotons are injected into the magnetic bottle to reload the trap. The AIMStar engine would fire at about 200 burns per second.

Fuels being considered for the AIMStar are a deuterium-tritium (DT) mix and a deuterium-helium-3 (DHe3) mix. The DT fuel provides much more energy and higher thrust, but the tritium for the DT mix is much harder to obtain than helium-3 and the reaction produces far more radiation than the DHe3 fuel.

The AIMStar engine would require about 28 micrograms of antimatter for the proposed 10,000 AU mission, and has an upper specific impulse of about 61,000 seconds.

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SOLID CORE ANTIMATTER ROCKET
Tech Level: 16

Solid Core antimatter rockets would function very similarly to NERVA solid-core nuclear rockets. Antiprotons annihilate protons, heating a tungsten or graphite heat-exchanger. The tungsten and/or the graphite would help to absorb the gamma rays and pions produced by the reaction. Hydrogen fuel is pumped through narrow channels between the heat exchangers, heating the hydrogen to a plasma state, which is then expelled for thrust. Because of the material limitations of the system, solid-core antimatter rockets would be capable of specific impulses of "only" 1000 or so seconds.

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GAS CORE ANTIMATTER ROCKET
Tech Level: 16

This scheme injects antiprotons directly into the hydrogen fuel stream. Magnetic fields are used to contain only the energetic charged pions which spiral into the hydrogen gas to heat it. The resultant plasma is then expelled through a conventional rocket nozzle. Gas core antimatter rockets are less efficient than solid core models, but because they are less constrained by the melting points of their material components, they can achieve specific impulses of up to 2500 seconds.

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PLASMA CORE ANTIMATTER ROCKET
Tech Level: 17

This scheme is similar to the Gas Dynamic Mirror Fusion Propulsion engine. The gas core system uses a relatively small amount of antimatter to heat the hydrogen; the plasma core injects a much larger amount of antimatter into the hydrogen fuel, using powerful magnetic fields to contain the high energy pions that result from the annihilation reactions to heat the resultant plasma to a superheated state. This plasma is then exhausted for thrust. This engine is not limited by the material melting points of its compnents, and thus can achieve specific impulses in excess of 100,000 seconds at significant thrust levels. It does, however, require full kilograms of antimatter to go any significant distance.

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BEAM CORE ANTIMATTER ROCKET
Tech Level: 18

The beam-core thruster employs a diverging magnetic field just upstream of the annihilation point between the antimatter and low-density hydrogen. The magnetic field then directly focuses the energetic charged pions as the exhausted propellant. Since the charged pions are traveling close to the speed of light, the specific impulse of the device could possibly range as high as 10 million seconds, but at very low thrust levels.

The beam core scheme has a matter/antimatter annihilation ratio of nearly 1:1 and would need metric tons of reaction mass for deep space missions. However, it has the fuel efficiency to be made into a true interstellar rocket, able to obtain up to 40% lightspeed. It could reach the nearby stars with an antimatter fuel requirement of a "mere" ten metric tons.

ANTIMATTER SAIL

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Anti-Matter Sail
Tech Level: 14

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A concept related more closely to Nuclear Pulse Drives than to light sails, this project is currently being researched by Hbar Technologies with sponsorship by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), an institute of the Universities Space Research Association. The concept is being looked at as part of a proposed mission that could reach the Kuiper Belt within 10 years travel time.

A ship is constructed with a small sail coated with Uranium 235. The ship, dragged behind the sail, launches "puffs" of antimatter particles at the sail. When the antimatter hits the sail, it detonates when it comes in contact with the positive matter. The heat of this reaction also create miniature fission reactions in the U-235 coating of the sail. Both effects impell the sail forward, dragging the ship behind it for the next pulse. Using this one-two punch of matter/antimatter detonations and fission reactions, the researchers hope that the probe could reach speeds of up to 116 kilometers per second in four months.

Unlike other space sail craft, the antimatter sail probe would have a sail only 5 meters or so in diameter, as opposed to the kilometers-across sails of typical lightscale schemes. Obviously, the sail would have to be thick and ablative to handle the months-long continuous bombardment of anmtimatter, with each layer interwoven with enriched uranium.

PHOTON DRIVE

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Photon DriveTech Level: 19

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Hybrid Photon/Antimatter RocketTech Level: 19

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The photon drive was first dreamed up in 1935 by German space pioneer Eugen Saenger, and has been seen in various science fiction stories since.

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PHOTON DRIVE
Tech Level: 19

The photon drive as currently envisioned uses an advanced, concave gamma ray mirror that reflects the intense and highly energetic gamma rays created by 1:1 matter-antimatter annihilation. This gamma ray mirror would have to reflect nearly 100% on the incoming energy, and do so without significant degradation in the reflective surface. The matter-antimatter reaction would take place directly on the focal point of the concave mirror on the aft end of the spacecraft, which would act like a pusher plate similar to the ORION nuclear pulse drive scheme. Because the reaction takes place at the mirror’s focal point, all the light hitting it from the annihilation reaction is reflected in the same direction.

Exact statistics on a photon drive’s thrust capabilities or specific impulse are unavailable, probably because no one has ever done a serious theoretical analysis of the idea. However, it is reasonable to assume its capabilities would be similar to that of interstellar lightsails, except that the photon drive ship in essence carries its own light source with it, making it far more compact, efficient, and maneuverable. Also, as gamma rays are significantly more energetic than visible light, the photon drive would probably be capable of greater thrust than a lightsail, maybe capable of sustaining significant fractions of standard gravity (.1g or so) as opposed to a lightsail’s projected 0.0007 g. Also like an interstellar lightsail, it would be capable of eventually achieving significant fractions of lightspeed, perhaps 50% C or more.

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HYBRID PHOTON/ANTIMATTER ROCKET
Tech Level: 19

Matter/antimatter annihilations produce a large percentage of gamma rays as a byproduct. In conventional antimatter rockets, these gamma rays are ignored, treated primarily as a hazardous waste product of the reaction. Adding a gamma ray mirror to the drive would increase the amount of usable energy from the reaction by as much as 40%, greatly improving its performance and power.

IMPULSE DRIVES

Images of the Impulse Drive exhaust vents on various models of the Enterprise. Images (c) & (TM) Paramount Pictures.

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Gravity Wave Impulse Drive 
Tech Level: 19

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Space/Time Driver Coil Impulse Drive 
Tech Level: 21

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Impulse drives come from the Star Trek Universe, and like most Star Trek tech it is based on fairly exotic physics concepts. Source material from Star Trek, which now spans over 35 years, is sometimes notoriously inconsistent, and the exact nature of the Impulse Drive often changes on a scriptwriter’s whim. However, I’ve run across two "official" (i.e., approved by owning company Paramount) explanations, listed below.

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GRAVITY WAVE IMPULSE DRIVE
Tech Level: 19

The gravity wave scheme is probably the neatest (in every sense of the word) explanation for how the Impulse Drive works. It seems likely that it was created by the show’s science advisors and then promptly ignored and/or dumbed down by numerous scriptwriters. It is, however, the best fit in describing the capabilities of the drive as seen on the various shows through the years.

First of all, an impulse drive is NOT a conventional fusion or ion reaction drive as many people (and even some older source material) assume; those are reserved for a Federation ship’s "maneuvering thrusters." In fact, its proper name is the Inertial Magnetronic Pulse Drive--or more simply the I.M.Pulse, or impulse, Drive.

The drive works as follows: a pellet of deuterium-deuterium fusion fuel is fused in a high-energy reaction (perhaps by a Daedalus-like system with crossed high-energy particle beams) that is contained and modulated in a "magnetronic" field. What exactly a magnetronic field is, and how it differs from a plain ol’ magnetic field, is not explained. Judging from how its used, though, it may be a magnetic containment field merged with a strong nuclear force or gravitic force field. (Not a "force field" in the Star Trek sense, but a small region of space where the strong nuclear force or the gravitic force is enhanced on a quantum level.)

Basically, the magnetronic field contains and focuses the fusion implosion to such a degree that it generates a substantial amount of gravitic as well as electromagnetic energy. These powerful but short-lived gravity waves are used to push or pull the ship in various directions. By "pulsing" the drive thousands or even millions of times a second, a Federation ship can achieve the insane accelerations we often see on the show.

The "focusing" of a high-energy fusion reaction to produce gravity waves may sound odd, but it is actually based on solid theory. Certain types of black holes called kugelblitzes (German for "ball lightning") can be created solely by extreme energy densities, just as conventional singularities can be created by extremes of matter density. Kugelblitzes are thought to have been formed in the wake of the Big Bang. The impulse drive may, in fact, be constantly creating extremely short-lived, or "virtual," microscopic kugelblitzes that evaporate after a few microseconds, living just long enough for the ship to use their gravitational influence.

According to Star Trek’s canon, Impulse Drives operating all-out at peak efficiency ("full impulse") can achieve 25% of lightspeed, often within a few seconds. It is possible to go even faster, but at an ever-increasing cost to engine efficiency. Ninety percent lightspeed or so is supposedly the theoretical maximum, and the ship would have to be pouring all its power for hours into the drive to sustain ever-tinier increases in acceleration.

Needless to say, a gravity wave Impulse Drive is an extremely powerful and versatile form of sublight propulsion. Since the gravity waves produced can be either attractive or repulsive (like anti-matter, anti-gravity --theoretically-- exists, but is not generally found in nature) a ship equipped with an impulse drive can accelerate or decelerate without changing it orientation.

The Impulse Drive exhaust ports shown on the Enterprise are not used in the same way conventional rockets exhausts are; they are used solely to vent the plasma the fusion pulses generate, and only add relatively small amounts of acceleration to the ship compared to that generated by the Impulse Drive proper. It should be noted, however, that even this ‘waste’ exhaust would still be dozens of times more powerful than any conventional rocket that exists today.

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SPACE/TIME DRIVER COIL IMPULSE DRIVE
Tech Level: 21

An alternative explanation for the Impulse Drive (also "canon") is that the fusion reactors power "space/time driver coils" which "generates a sub-warp cochrane field around the vessel, reducing its effective mass to boost acceleration." So, basically, it uses a ‘low-power’ warp bubble (aka cochrane field) to alter its mass relative to the rest of the universe.

From what I understand of the physics involved, this feat would actually be much more difficult than warp speed. How exactly could you fine-tune a warp bubble so precisely that it just alters mass? And if you could, why not reduce the mass to near zero and hit near-lightspeed every time? And could you use such a system to increase mass, creating an anti-Impulse missile weapon that could slow a ship down to a relative sublight crawl?

These properties would actually make the driver coil Impulse Drive a derivative technology of the Warp Drive, accounting for its higher tech level than its gravity-wave cousin.