Can we use antimatter to propel a car or a spaceship?
October 25th, 2007
In principle, yes, but in practice it is very difficult. Everyone knows that the Star Trek Spaceship Enterprise flies around powered by antimatter. But in reality, making antimatter is so difficult that it is hard to foresee it ever being used as a propellant fuel. In order to propel a matter spacecraft weighing several tonnes up to the speed of light, you would need an equal amount of antimatter and, using the present technology, it would take millions and millions of years to produce a sufficient amount.
However, if you had a gram of antimatter, you could drive your car for about 100 000 years!
Source: http://public.web.cern.ch
Entry Filed under: Web, Tech & Science
2 Comments Add your own
1. Alberto Molina-Martinez | October 25th, 2007 at 11:03 am
It might not be that complicated, if there is someone willing to listen. Check my website to start with. http://www.givetheplanetachance.com/
2. Alcari | October 31st, 2007 at 4:35 am
call me stupid, but to generate one electron/positron pair, wouldn’t you still need 2*0.510 MeV worth of energy?
Even at 100% efficiency, it totals out on zero.
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