Antimatter Propulsion

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Antimatter Propulsion
Presented By Devon
Devadasan Antony K.M P.S.N
College of Engineering Technology
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Contents

• What is an Antimatter?
• Origin of an Antimatter
• Principle behind Antimatter Propulsion
• Different types of Antimatter Engine
• Advantages
• Disadvantages
• Conclusion
• Queries??

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What is an Antimatter?

• Antimatter has the same mass but its electrical
  charges are reversed
• it is believed that in the Big Bang equal
  quantities of matter and antimatter were created
• They are literally the mirror images of matter

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Origin of Antimatter

• In 1930 Paul Dirac discovered that the antimatter
  should exist
• In 1932 Carl Anderson discovered Positron
• In 1950 physicist at the Lawrence Radiation
  laboratory used the Bevatron accelerator to
  produce antimatter

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Principle Behind Antimatter propulsion

• Annihilation is the principle behind Antimatter
  Propulsion
• The colliding particles matter and antimatter is
  converted into radiant energy in the form of
  gamma rays
• The collision between an electron and a
  anti-electron have a combined rest mass of 1.02
  MeV
• Gamma rays have a characteristic energy of 0.511
  MeV.

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Different types of Antimatter Engine

• Matter-Antimatter Engine .
• Positron Based Engine

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Matter-Antimatter Engine

• Matter-Antimatter propulsion 100 of the mass of
  the matter and antimatter is converted into
  energy
• Matter-antimatter reactions are 1,000 times more
  powerful than the nuclear fission
• It has the potential to take us farther with less
  fuel

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Different types of antimatter rocket propulsion
system

• Solid Core Antimatter Rocket
• Plasma Core Antimatter Rocket
• Beam Core Antimatter Rocket
• Gas Core Antimatter Rocket

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Solid core Propulsion system

• The antiprotons are used to heat a sold metal
  core usually tungsten
• The tungsten absorbs the gamma rays and pions
  from the antimatter/matter annihilation and is
  heated.
• The hydrogen gas enters, the tungsten core is
  cooled while the hydrogen gas is heated and is
  then expanded through a nozzle to produce thrust .

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Plasma Core Antimatter Rocket

• Antiprotons are injected to annihilate and heat
  the plasma.
• Heat is rapidly transferred to the propellant
• Thrust released out of the vehicle at a very high
  velocity.

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Beam Core Antimatter Rocket

• In a beam core, the charged particles of the
  antiproton annihilation are directly released
  out.
• Charged particles are released out of the vehicle
  along an axial magnetic field.
• Anti-protons are released at a very high
  velocity near the speed of light

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Gas Core Antimatter Rocket

• Energy is transferred to liquid/gas propellant
  directly heated by annihilation gamma rays.
• Annihilation occurs in the hydrogen propellant.
  The charged pions are controlled in magnetic
  fields and superheat the hydrogen
• specific impulse of 2500 secs.

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Advantages

• Very high specific impulse
• large amount of energy from a small amount of
  fuel
• can able to achieve long flight in a short period

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Disadvantages

• Very high risk of gamma radiation
• Very difficult to produce antimatter
• Complicated engine designs
• High manufacturing cost

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Conclusion

• Due to the highest specific impulse of this
  propulsion we can even achieve the speed of
  light
• we need a reliable method of producing large
  amount of antimatter.

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Queries??
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Thank you