Latest simulation shows that the magnetic nozzles required for antimatter propulsion could be vastly more efficient than previously thought--and built with today's technologies.
Smash a lump of matter into antimatter and it will release a thousand times more energy than the same mass of fuel in a nuclear fission reactor and some 2 billion times more than burning the equivalent in hydrocarbons.
So it's no wonder that antimatter is the dream fuel for science fiction fans.
The problem, of course, is that antimatter is in rather short supply making the prospect of ever building a rocket based on this technology somewhat remote.
But from time to time physicists put aside these concerns and have a little fun working out how good antimatter rocket engines can be. Today it's the turn of Ronan Keane at Western Reserve Academy and Wei-Ming Zhang at Kent State University, both in Ohio, who take a new approach to the problem with some interesting results.
Such propulsion would be great for outer solar system travel. But you wouldn't want to be lighting up an anti-matter/matter annihilation engine anywhere near Earth. And it's still far too slow for interstellar travel. To read more, click here.