| タイトル | Antimatter Production for Near-Term Propulsion Applications |
| 著者（英） | Smith, G. A.; Schmidt, G. R.; Martin, J. J.; Gerrish, H. P.; Meyer, K. J. |
| 著者所属（英） | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |
| 発行日 | 1999-01-01 |
| 言語 | eng |
| 内容記述 | The superior energy density of antimatter annihilation has often been pointed to as the ultimate source of energy for propulsion. However, the limited capacity and very low efficiency of present-day antiproton production methods suggest that antimatter may be too costly to consider for near-term propulsion applications. We address this issue by assessing the antimatter requirements for six different types of propulsion concepts, including two in which antiprotons are used to drive energy release from combined fission/fusion. These requirements are compared against the capacity of both the current antimatter production infrastructure and the improved capabilities which could exist within the early part of next century. Results show that although it may be impractical to consider systems which rely on antimatter as the sole source of propulsive energy, the requirements for propulsion based on antimatter-assisted fission/fusion do fall within projected near-ten-n production capabilities. In fact, such systems could feasibly support interstellar precursor missions and omniplanetary spaceflight with antimatter costs ranging up to $60 million per mission. |
| NASA分類 | Nuclear and High-Energy Physics |
| 権利 | No Copyright |
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