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Why it matters: Warp speeds, hyperdrives, and hyperspace jumps – sci-fi has teased us with the prospect of zipping between stars for decades now. But thanks to technological limitations, we are yet to get any closer to that reality. There might be a way, though: a new study examines the potential of harnessing antimatter as a fuel source capable of flinging spacecraft across the cosmos faster than any existing technology.
For the uninitiated, antimatter is the bizarre “evil twin” of normal matter, with opposite charges and physical properties. In the rare event the duo collides, it results in an annihilation that unleashes pure energy in an explosive event. Just a tiny amount of antimatter packs astronomical energy – millions of times more potent than conventional fuels like rocket propellant.
The study by researchers from the United Arab Emirates University crunched the numbers, and the results are incredible. A mere gram of antimatter, specifically antihydrogen, could theoretically generate enough energy to propel 23 space shuttles.
“To depict this magnitude, this energy, kilogram for kilogram, is about ten billion times more than the hydrogen-oxygen combustion that powers space shuttles’ main engines and 300 times more than the fusion reactions at the Sun’s core,” remarked the researchers in the study published in the journal Science Direct.
Moreover, the specific impulse from antimatter engines could theoretically reach a whopping 20 million meters per second, which the researchers say could make “interstellar propulsion a goal instead of a dream.”
With that kind of thrust, a crewed antimatter rocket wouldn’t just explore the solar system; it could realistically voyage to neighboring stars within a normal human lifetime. In fact, the researchers talk about traversing the solar system in just days or weeks.
All said, the numbers are pretty promising. But as is always the case with theory, there’s a big catch. Antimatter isn’t exactly a common resource and there are some major technical and economic hurdles.
For starters, antimatter instantaneously vaporizes when it touches normal matter. Isolating and storing it requires incredibly sophisticated (and expensive) containment systems using powerful electromagnetic fields. The current record is just 16 minutes before annihilation at CERN’s particle colliders.
Then there’s the astronomical cost of manufacturing antimatter. Those same CERN facilities can only produce around 10 nanograms per year at a price of millions per gram. Building enough fuel for an antimatter rocket would require stellar-sized budgets and sophisticated antimatter production that’s far beyond today’s capabilities.
However, while formidable, those obstacles aren’t necessarily permanent brick walls. The paper suggests that continuing R&D could help crack the containment and manufacturing challenges. Hopefully, it will happen in our lifetimes.
Image credit: Fandom
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