The Reference Mission spacecraft would take astronauts to Mars in about 180 days. An ordinary large chemically-powered rocket has a danger zone of about the same size, due to the big fireball that would result from its explosion," said Smith.Īnother significant advantage is speed. The danger zone would be about a kilometer (about a half-mile) around the spacecraft. The flash would also be confined to a relatively small area. There would be no radioactive particles to drift on the wind. "Our positron spacecraft would release a flash of gamma-rays if it exploded, but the gamma rays would be gone in an instant. If a rocket carrying a nuclear reactor explodes, it could release radioactive particles into the atmosphere. However, there is no leftover radiation in a positron reactor after the fuel is used up, so there is no safety concern if the spent positron reactor should accidentally re-enter Earth's atmosphere, according to the team. After the ship arrives at Mars, Reference Mission plans are to direct the reactor into an orbit that will not encounter Earth for at least a million years, when the residual radiation will be reduced to safe levels. "However, the positron reactor offers the same advantages but is relatively simple," said Smith, lead researcher for the NIAC study.Īlso, nuclear reactors are radioactive even after their fuel is used up. But nuclear reactors are complex, so more things could potentially go wrong during the mission. The reactor also provides ample power for the three-year mission. Also, a chemically-powered spacecraft weighs much more and costs a lot more to launch. This is desirable because nuclear propulsion reduces travel time to Mars, increasing safety for the crew by reducing their exposure to cosmic rays. The current Reference Mission calls for a nuclear reactor to propel the spaceship to Mars. Gerald Smith of Positronics Research, LLC, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "The most significant advantage is more safety," said Dr. Print-resolution copy Credit: Positronics Research, LLC The hydrogen then flows to the nozzle exit (bell-shaped area in yellow and blue), where it expands into space, producing thrust. Liquid hydrogen (H2) circulates through the attenuating matrix and picks up the heat. Positrons are directed from the storage unit to the attenuating matrix, where they interact with the material and release heat. Image left: A diagram of a rocket powered by a positron reactor. If it looks promising, and funds are available to successfully develop the technology, a positron-powered spaceship would have a couple advantages over the existing plans for a human mission to Mars, called the Mars Reference Mission. The NIAC research is a preliminary study to see if the idea is feasible. The new design will use positrons, which make gamma rays with about 400 times less energy. Previous antimatter-powered spaceship designs employed antiprotons, which produce high-energy gamma rays when they annihilate. Even the nuclear reactions that power atomic bombs come in a distant second, with only about three percent of their mass converted to energy. This complete conversion to energy is what makes antimatter so powerful. When antimatter meets matter, both annihilate in a flash of energy. Anti-electrons have a positive charge, so scientists dubbed them "positrons". For example, normal electrons, the familiar particles that carry electric current in everything from cell phones to plasma TVs, have a negative electric charge. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is funding a team of researchers working on a new design for an antimatter-powered spaceship that avoids this nasty side effect by producing gamma rays with much lower energy.Īntimatter is sometimes called the mirror image of normal matter because while it looks just like ordinary matter, some properties are reversed. High-energy gamma rays can also make the engines radioactive by fragmenting atoms of the engine material. They penetrate matter and break apart molecules in cells, so they are not healthy to be around. Some antimatter reactions produce blasts of high energy gamma rays. However, in reality this power comes with a price. Image right: A spacecraft powered by a positron reactor would resemble this artist's concept of the Mars Reference Mission spacecraft. While tons of chemical fuel are needed to propel a human mission to Mars, just tens of milligrams of antimatter will do (a milligram is about one-thousandth the weight of a piece of the original M&M candy). Most self-respecting starships in science fiction stories use antimatter as fuel for a good reason – it’s the most potent fuel known.
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