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A lot of Antimatter and scooping up interstellar matter for reaction mass would enable interstellar starships with top-speed of 0.999999996 c with…
Nextbigfuture has covered the theoretical possibility that there could be millions of tons of antimatter hidden inside fast rotating asteroids.
Vixra – Quark Matter in the Solar System : Evidence for a Game-Changing Space Resource
What if we use something else for reaction mass and use antimatter to energise that? And, instead of using it in a rocket, we use a magnetic scoop to draw in reaction mass from the interstellar medium? This is the Ram-Augmented Interstellar ‘Rocket’ – though technically a rocket carries all its reaction mass – and it promises high performance without all the disadvantages of exponentially rising mass-ratios. Mixing 1% antimatter into the matter flow could, in theory, produce an exhaust velocity of ~0.2 c. Scooping and energising the equivalent mass of ~100 times the mass of the starship would allow a top-speed of 0.999999996 c to be achieved, before braking to a halt using half that mass. This would allow, at 1 gee acceleration, a journey of ~20,000 light-years. The nearby stars would be accessible at a much lower antimatter budget.
Artwork of a Bussard ramjet in flight. Credit and ©: Adrian Mann
Source: http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/02/a-lot-of-antimatter-and-scooping-up.html
