Society and Technology

Matter-Antimatter Engine

NASA maybe a few years away from developing a matter-antimatter engine.  A matter-antimatter engine would be the most efficient engine ever to be created because it turns 100% of the matter and antimatter and turns it into energy by colliding matter and antimatter.  The energy released by their annihilation releases about 10 billion times the energy that chemical energy in a combustion engine.  Matter-antimatter reactions are 1,000 times more powerful than nuclear fission and it is 300 times more powerful than nuclear fusion energy.  This means if a space shuttle was built with a matter-antimatter engine then it could travel farther and faster in space because not only do you need less fuel with a matter-antimatter engine but also the engine produces more energy than a combustion engine would thus giving you more power and speed.

The basic design of a matter-antimatter engine would be that it features a magnetic ring that will store and keep the antimatter moving until it is needed.   Then it would need some time of feeding system so that it can take fuel when need.  Finally it needs to have some kind of particle collider so that it can collide matter and antimatter and releasing the energy.  In conclusion, A matter-antimatter engine could be the engine for the future but for now we have to stick to our combustion engines.

Posted at 10:19AM Dec 12, 2008 by Robert Earle in General  |  Comments[2]