A

SEMINAR REPORT
on

“ANTIMATTER – Propulsion and Rockets”

Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Award of the Degree

OF

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN

Aeronautical Engineering,

Submitted by: Under the Supervision of:

ANANYA CHATURVEDI MOHD. SHAHID sir
(14EUCAN005) (Assistant Prof.)

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

RAJASTHAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY,

KOTA (Rajasthan)
14th May, 2018
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Ms. ANANYA CHATURVEDI of VIII semester, aeronautical

engineering, has submitted the seminar report entitled “ANTIMATTER –

Propulsion and Rockets” in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of Bachelor
of Technology (Aeronautical Engineering). The report has been prepared as per the
prescribed format and is approved for submission and presentation under my guidance.

Mr. Mohd. Shahid

Seminar Guide
`

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It gives me great pleasure to present my seminar report on “ANTIMATTER – Propulsion

and Rockets”. No work, however big or small, has ever been done without the contributions
of others.

It would be a great pleasure to write a few words, which would although not suffice as the
acknowledgement of this long cherished effort, but in the absence of which this report
would necessarily be incomplete. So, these words of acknowledgement come as a small
gesture of gratitude towards all those people, without whom the successful completion of
this seminar would not have been possible.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mohd. Shahid sir, Assistant Prof. of

Aeronautical Engineering, Mechanical Department, UCE, RTU, Kota for

helping me successfully complete my seminar work under his guidance. Also, I would like
to thank all the lecturers of aeronautical department for making me use my potential to the
fullest and, my parents for showing belief in me and for their immense support because of
which I am able to see the light of this day.

I would also like to thank all the other people, directly or indirectly involved in assisting
me and who helped me gain knowledge. I have tried my level best to make report error free,
but I regret for errors, if any.

ANANYA CHATURVEDI

VIII Semester

Aeronautical Engineering

ii
 ABSTRACT

Antimatter is the opposite of normal matter. Antimatter was created along with matter after
the Big Bang, but antimatter is rare in today's universe. The superior energy density of
antimatter annihilation has often been pointed to as the ultimate source of energy for
propulsion.

Antimatter is very rare and short-lived in nature and is manufactured artificially. Today, it
can only be produced in the amount of nano grams (billionths of a gram) per year at about
$62.5 trillion dollars per gram, making it the most expensive substance on Earth. This could
be unfortunate, as dozens of kilograms would have to be made to make interplanetary
flights possible, and tons of antimatter would have to be produced for interstellar missions.
Production methods for creating and storing antimatter would have to be increased a
billionfold while its cost would have to decrease on a similar scale before antimatter
propulsion could be considered practical.

Proton-antiproton collisions (as opposed to electron-positron or hydrogen-antihydrogen

collisions) are preferred for propulsion, as the reaction produces a large percentage of
charged particles (pions) that can be contained and directed for thrust with electromagnetic
fields.

The advantage to this class of rocket is that a large fraction of the rest mass of a
matter/antimatter mixture may be converted to energy, allowing antimatter rockets to have
a far higher energy density and specific impulse than any other proposed class of rocket.

The points that are going to be discussed in this report include – composition of antimatter
and its production, particle annihilation, antimatter propulsion, types of antimatter rockets
and their propulsion system, challenges faced in its production, applications of antimatter
and its future.

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 CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE ......................................................................................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .....................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iv
CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................... v
List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1
1.1 RESEARCH HISTORY............................................................................................... 2
CHAPTER 2: ANTIMATTER PRODUCTION ................................................................... 4
2.1 ANTIMATTER PRODUCTION IN PRACTICE........................................................ 4
2.2 THE COST OF ANTIMATTER.................................................................................. 5
2.3 ANTIMATTER STORAGE ........................................................................................ 5
2.3 SOME POSSIBLE PATHWAYS OF STORAGE ...................................................... 7
CHAPTER 3: PARTICLE ANNIHILATION ....................................................................... 9
3.1 ANTIPROTON DECELARATOR ............................................................................ 10
CHAPTER 4: ANTIMATTER ROCKETS ......................................................................... 13
4.1 CLASSIFICATION OF ANTIMATTER ROCKETS ............................................... 13
4.2 TYPES OF ANTIMATTER ROCKETS ................................................................... 14
4.3 JOURNEY TIME ....................................................................................................... 20
CHAPTER 5: APPLICATIONS AND EFFECTS .............................................................. 21
5.1 PAMELA- A Particle Spectrometer ........................................................................... 21
5.2 PET Scan .................................................................................................................... 23
5.3 ADVANTAGES ........................................................................................................ 24
5.4 DISADVANTAGES .................................................................................................. 24
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 25
6.1 CHALLENGES.......................................................................................................... 25
6.2 FUTURE SCOPE ....................................................................................................... 26
6.3 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 27
APPENDIX: GLOSSARY................................................................................................... 28
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................ 30

v
 List of Figures

Figure 1-1: An example of antimatter - Antihydrogen ....................................................... 01

Figure 2-1: Atom Smasher ................................................................................................ 04
Figure 2-2: Antimatter lab at CERN .................................................................................. 05
Figure 2-3: Antihydrogen synthesis and trapping region of the ALPHA apparatus .......... 06
Figure 2-4: A Penning Trap ............................................................................................... 07
Figure 3-1: Particle Annihilation ....................................................................................... 09
Figure 3-2: Antiproton Decelerator at CERN .................................................................... 11
Figure 4-1: Different Types of Antimatter Rockets ........................................................... 15
Figure 4-2: Beamed Core Antimatter Rocket .................................................................... 16
Figure 4-3: An ICAN antimatter rocket as envisioned by PSU researchers ...................... 17
Figure 4-4: Detail of an ICAN rocket's engine section ...................................................... 18
Figure 4-5: An AIMSTAR Rocket.................................................................................... 19
Figure 5-1: Sketch of the PAMELA apparatus .................................................................. 22
Figure 5-2: PET Scan ......................................................................................................... 23

vi
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Antimatter is the opposite of normal matter, which the majority of our universe is made of.
The presence of antimatter in our universe was considered to be only theoretical. In 1928,
British physicist Paul A.M. Dirac revised Einstein's famous equation E=mc2. Dirac said
that Einstein didn't consider that the "m" in the equation ‘mass’ could have negative
properties as well as positive. Dirac's equation (E = + mc2) allowed for the existence of
anti-particles in our universe. Scientists have proven that several anti-particles exist.

These anti-particles are mirror images of normal matter. Each anti-particle has the same
mass as its corresponding particle, but the electrical charges are reversed.

Some antimatter discoveries of the 20th century are:

• Positrons - Electrons with positive instead of negative charge. Discovered by Carl

Anderson in 1932, positrons were the first evidence that antimatter existed.

• Anti-protons - Protons that have a negative instead of the usual positive charge. In
1955, researchers at the Berkeley Bevatron produced an antiproton.

• Anti-atoms - Pairing together positrons and antiprotons, scientists at CERN, the

European Organization for Nuclear Research, created the first anti-atom. Nine anti-
hydrogen atoms were created, each lasting only 40 nanoseconds. As of 1998, CERN
researchers were pushing the production of anti-hydrogen atoms to 2,000 per hour.

Figure 1-1: An example of antimatter - Antihydrogen

1
The reason it is so attractive for propulsion is the energy density that it possesses.
Considering that the ideal energy density for chemical reactions is 1 x 107 J/kg, for nuclear
fission it is 8 x 1013 J/kg and for nuclear fusion it is 3 x 1014 J/kg, but for the matter-antimatter
annihilation it is 9 x 1016 J/kg. This is 1010 (10 billion) times that of conventional chemical
propellants.

This represents the highest energy release per unit mass of any known reaction in physics.
The reason for this is that the annihilation is the complete conversion of matter into energy
governed by Einstein's famous equation E=mc2, rather than just the part conversion that
occurs in fission and fusion.

1.1 RESEARCH HISTORY

In 1905 Albert Einstein proposed the theory of Special Relativity and Werner Heisenberg
invented the theory of Quantum Mechanics, but this last theory was not relativistic.

In 1928 the British physicist Paul Dirac solved this problem by proposing an equation that
combined Quantum Mechanics with special relativity. But this equation seemed to have a
problem: it foresaw one electron with positive energy and one with negative energy. But in
classical theories the energy of a particle has to be always positive. Then Dirac
hypothesized that all states with negative energy were occupied, and that the transition of
one particle with negative energy to positive energy lead to the "creation" of a pair of
particles: the particle with positive energy and the hole left in the states with negative
energies, which he referred to as an antiparticle.

Later Dirac asked himself what the antiparticle of the electron could be and he slowly came
up with the idea that to any particle that corresponded to an antiparticle, with the same
mass, but opposite electric charge. In particular, the partner of the electron is the
antielectron, identical to the electron but with a positive charge. In his Nobel Lecture Dirac
speculated on the possible existence of a new Universe, made of antimatter.

In 1932 the American physicist Carl David Anderson observed in Cosmic Rays a particle
which behaved like an electron, but which had a positive charge: he had discovered the first
antiparticle, the antielectron, also called a positron.

In order to discover the antiproton, scientists had to wait for the new powerful particle
accelerators, which could accelerate protons or electrons to very high energies. In the 50's

2
a new accelerator in Berkeley, California reached energies sufficient to produce antiprotons
and antineutrons, which were observed with sophisticated equipment. In the following
years new accelerators at CERN, Geneva and Brookhaven (USA), made possible the
production and observation of the antideuteron. Later, even higher energy accelerators at
Serpukhov, Soviet Union and at CERN allowed scientists to produce and observe
antihelium and antitritium.

Recently, anti-atoms of anti-hydrogen (anti-H= anti-p + e+) were produced at CERN

decelerating antiprotons and antielectrons kept trapped in a vacuum via magnetic fields. It
is more difficult to trap anti-hydrogen atoms because they are neutral: most of them hit the
walls of the trapping chamber where they annihilate with the ordinary atoms of normal
matter.

3
 CHAPTER 2: ANTIMATTER PRODUCTION
Antimatter is very rare and short-lived in nature, so it must be manufactured artificially.
Today, it can only be produced in the amount of nanograms (billionths of a gram) per year
at about $62.5 trillion dollars per gram, making it the most expensive substance on Earth.
This could be unfortunate, as dozens of kilograms would have to be made to make
interplanetary flights possible, and tons of antimatter would have to be produced for
interstellar missions. Production methods for creating and storing antimatter would have to
be increased a billionfold while its cost would have to decrease on a similar scale before
antimatter propulsion could be considered practical.

There is technology available to create antimatter through the use of high-energy particle
colliders, also called "atom smashers." Atom smashers, like CERN, are large tunnels lined
with powerful super magnets that circle around to propel atoms at near-light speeds. When
an atom is sent through this accelerator, it slams into a target, creating particles. Some of
these particles are antiparticles that are separated out by the magnetic field. These high-
energy particle accelerators only produce one or two picograms of antiprotons each year.
A picogram is a trillionth of a gram. All of the antiprotons produced at CERN in one year
would be enough to light a 100-watt electric light bulb for three seconds.

Figure 2-1: Atom Smasher. [12]

2.1 ANTIMATTER PRODUCTION IN PRACTICE

At CERN, protons with an energy of 26 GeV (about 30 times their mass at rest) collide
with nuclei inside a metal cylinder called a target. About four proton-antiproton pairs are
produced in every million collisions. The antiprotons are separated from other particles

4
using magnetic fields and are guided to the Antiproton Decelerator, where they are slowed
down from 96% to 10% of the speed of light. They are ejected and run through beam pipes
into experiments to be trapped and stored.

The total amount of antimatter produced in CERN’s history is less than 10 nanograms -
containing only enough energy to power a 60 W light bulb for 4 hours.

Figure 2-2: Antimatter lab at CERN. [11]

2.2 THE COST OF ANTIMATTER

The efficiency of antimatter production and storage is very low. About 1 billion times more
energy is required to make antimatter than is finally contained in its mass. Using E= mc2,
we find that 1 gram of antimatter contains:

0.001 kg x (300,000,000 m/s)2= 90,000 GJ

= 25 million kWh

Taking into account the low production efficiency, it would need 25 million billion kWh to
make one single gram! Even at a discount price for electric power, this would cost more
than a million billion Euros.

2.3 ANTIMATTER STORAGE

Charged particles of antimatter can be trapped in a high-vacuum environment in Penning–

Malmberg traps, which use axial electric fields generated by hollow cylindrical electrodes

5
and a solenoidal magnetic field to provide confinement. The ALPHA apparatus, located at
the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN, uses several such traps to accumulate, cool and mix
charged plasmas of antiprotons and positrons to synthesize antihydrogen atoms at
cryogenic temperatures.

ALPHA setup demonstrated production and detection of cold antihydrogen at CERN in

2002. In addition to the charged particle traps necessary to produce antihydrogen, ALPHA
features a novel, superconducting magnetic trap designed to confine neutral antihydrogen
atoms through interaction with their magnetic moments.

Figure 2-3: Antihydrogen synthesis and trapping region of the ALPHA apparatus. [8]

Antihydrogen atoms that are formed with low enough kinetic energy can remain confined
in the magnetic trap, rather than annihilating on the Penning electrodes. The ALPHA trap
can confine ground-state antihydrogen atoms with a kinetic energy, in temperature units,
of less than about 0.5 K. The extreme experimental challenges are to synthesize such cold
atoms from plasmas of charged particles whose electrostatic potential energies can be of
order 10 eV— or 105K—and to unequivocally identify rare occurrences of trapped
antihydrogen against background processes.

The ALPHA apparatus is designed to demonstrate antihydrogen trapping by releasing the

magnetically trapped anti-atoms and detecting their annihilations. A key feature of the
device is the ability to turn off the magnetic trapping fields with a time constant of about
9 ms, which is a response several orders of magnitude faster than in typical superconducting
systems.

6
Another essential component of ALPHA is an imaging, three-layer, silicon vertex detector,
which is used to identify and locate antiproton annihilations from released antihydrogen
atoms and to reject background from cosmic rays that happen to arrive during the time
window of interest, when the trap is being de-energized. The magnets have a unique, low-
density construction to minimize scattering of annihilation products (pions) so that the
positions ‘vertices’ of antiproton annihilations can be accurately determined.

2.3 SOME POSSIBLE PATHWAYS OF STORAGE

2.3.1 Penning traps

Penning trap designs are currently the most successful containment method developed. The
method is well understood and is primarily limited by the electrostatic repulsion that builds
as more single-species charged particles are added. The energy cost to overcome the
electrostatic repulsion will grow to the point that it takes more energy to contain the charged
particles than energy resulting from matter–antimatter annihilation. There is more potential
energy from containment than from the rest mass stored. It should be noted that this estimate
is in free space and will vary depending on the design of any practical device. Future
Penning trap designs will have to overcome the problem of electrostatic repulsion.

Figure 2-4: A Penning Trap. [7]

2.3.2 Magnetic levitation

If solid or liquid antimatter is produced, one possible containment method is magnetic

levitation. Diamagnetic materials experience repulsive forces in suitable magnetic field

7
gradients. These affects have been shown to be large enough to levitate solid hydrogen
(Paine and Seidel, 1991). The same diamagnetic properties should be found for
antihydrogen and antilithium. There are several challenges that have to be overcome before
such a containment design could be used. Among them are production of liquid and solid-
state antimatter, material loss, stability and safety. In addition, a method for placing the
liquid or solid into the containment vessel would have to be developed.

2.3.3 Dynamic fields

Containment designs based on dynamic equilibrium using time varying external electric
and magnetic fields may be possible. A prediction that positronium may be stabilized with
the use of crossed magnetic and electric fields has been published (Ackermann et al., 1997).
The methods based on this approach would maintain sufficient separation between
electrons and positrons by placing the positrons in a dynamic equilibrium state away from
the electrons. Some of the challenges associated with this method include verifying that
stable configurations of the electric and magnetic fields in fact do exist, understanding how
the dynamics will change as higher particle densities are achieved, and determining and
minimizing the field strengths needed to maintain containment. In addition, electric field
stabilized positronium has a drift velocity, and so is not directly confined by the electric
field. Therefore, another challenge would be suppressing the drift of the stable positronium.

2.3.4. Stabilized Molecular Bound States

There have been studies reported in the literature (Sauge et al., 2001; Surko et al., 1988)
considering the possibility of positron-molecule bound states. It has been suggested that
molecular vibrational modes may play a role in the creation of these bound states and that
positron lifetimes are affected by these modes. All positron lifetimes measured in these
studies were on the order of nanoseconds in duration. One could speculate that there may
exist very long-lived states based on molecular dynamics that could be created or
discovered. These might suggest a method for long-term molecular storage. It may then be
possible to accumulate such molecules for mass storage of antimatter. The challenge is to
show that such long-lived bound states are possible, stable and experimentally producible.

8
 CHAPTER 3: PARTICLE ANNIHILATION
When antimatter comes into contact with normal matter, these equal but opposite particles
collide to produce an explosion emitting pure radiation, which travels out of the point of
the explosion at the speed of light. Both particles that created the explosion are completely
annihilated, leaving behind other subatomic particles. The explosion that occurs when
antimatter and matter interact transfers the entire mass of both objects into energy.

The annihilation of subatomic particles with their antimatter counterparts has the highest
energy per unit mass of any reaction known in physics. The energy released from proton -
antiproton annihilation (4.3 x 1013 cal per gram of antiprotons) is 1010 times greater than
oxygen - hydrogen combustion and 100 times more energetic than fission or fusion. That
is, one gram of antihydrogen i.e., a “mirror” atom composed of an antiproton and positron
(antielectron) reacted with the same amount of normal hydrogen produces a total energy
equivalent to that delivered by 23 Shuttle External Tanks (ET).

Figure 3-1: Particle Annihilation. [6]

During annihilation when particle and antiparticle meet: they disappear and their kinetic
plus rest-mass energy is converted into other particles (E = mc2). When an electron and a
positron annihilate at rest, two gamma rays, each with energy 511 keV are produced.

These gamma rays go off in opposite directions because both energy and momentum must
be conserved. The annihilation of positrons and electrons is the basis of Positron Emission
Tomography (PET). When a proton and an antiproton annihilate at rest, other

9
particles are usually produced, but the total kinetic plus rest mass energies of these products
adds up to twice the rest mass energy of the proton (2 x 938 MeV).

3.1 ANTIPROTON DECELARATOR

The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) is a unique machine that produces low-energy antiprotons
for studies of antimatter, and “creates” antiatoms. The Decelerator produces antiproton
beams and sends them to the different experiments.

The AD ring is an approximate circle with a circumference of 188 m. It consists of a vacuum

pipe surrounded by a long sequence of vacuum pumps, magnets, radio-frequency cavities,
high voltage instruments and electronic circuits. Each of these pieces has its specific
function:

- Antiprotons circulate inside the vacuum pipe in order to avoid contact with normal
matter (like air molecules) and annihilate. The vacuum must be optimal, therefore
several vacuum pumps, which extract air, are placed around the pipe.

- Magnets as well are placed all around. There are two types of magnets: the dipoles
serve to change the direction of movement and make sure the particles stay within
their circular track. They are also called "bending magnets". Quadrupoles are used as
'lenses'. These "focusing magnets" make sure that the size of the beam is smaller than
the size of the vacuum pipe.

- Magnetic fields can change the direction and size of the beam, but not its energy. To
do this electric field is needed: this is provided by radio-frequency cavities that
produce high voltages in synchronicity with the rotation of particles around the ring.

- Several other instruments are needed to perform more specific tasks: two cooling
systems "squeeze" the beam in size and energy; one injection and one ejection system
let the beam in and out of the machine.

The newly created antiprotons behave like a bunch of wild kids; they are produced almost
at the speed of light, but not all of them have exactly the same energy (this is called "energy
spread"). Moreover, they run randomly in all directions, also trying to break out 'sideways'
(transverse oscillations).

10
Bending and focusing magnets make sure they stay on the right track, in the middle of the
vacuum pipe, while they begin to race around in the ring.

At each turn, the strong electric fields inside the radio-frequency cavities begin to decelerate
the antiprotons. Unfortunately, this deceleration increases the size of their transverse
oscillations: if nothing is done to cure that, all antiprotons are lost when they eventually
collide with the vacuum pipe. To avoid that, two methods have been invented: 'stochastic'
and 'electron cooling'. Their goal is to decrease energy spread and transverse oscillations
of the antiproton beam.

Finally, when the antiparticles speed is down to about 10% of the speed of light, the
antiprotons squeezed group (called a "bunch") is ready to be ejected. One "deceleration
cycle" is over: it has lasted about one minute.

A strong 'kicker' magnet is fired in less than a millionth of a second, and at the next turn,
all antiprotons are following a new path, which leads them into the beam pipes of the
extraction line.

There, additional dipole and quadrupole magnets steer the beam into one of the three
experiments. Three experiments are installed in the Antiproton Decelerator's experimental
hall:

Figure 3-2: Antiproton Decelerator at CERN. [11]

11
ASACUSA: Atomic Spectroscopy and Collisions using Slow Antiprotons

ATHENA: Antihydrogen Production and Precision Experiments and

ATRAP: Cold Antihydrogen for Precise Laser Spectroscopy.

ATHENA and ATRAP's goal is to produce antihydrogen in traps, by combining

antiprotons delivered by the AD with positrons emitted by a radioactive source.

12
 CHAPTER 4: ANTIMATTER ROCKETS
After antimatter is produced and stored it can be used in propulsion by releasing it into a
chamber and allowing it to annihilate with normal matter which produces its tremendous
energy in the form of energetic sub-atomic particles. There are two choices for propulsion.
The electron-positron annihilation produces high energy gamma rays which are impossible
to control, hence useless for propulsion, and on top of this, they are potentially very
dangerous. Whereas the proton-antiproton annihilation produces charged particles (mostly
pions moving at velocities close to that of light) that can be directed with magnetic fields,
maximizing propellant mass.

This energy, however, still far exceeds any other method and the resulting particles allow
this energy to be harnessed by directing it with magnetic forces. In other words, the perfect
reaction does not produce perfect propulsive result. Another important advantage for
antimatter rockets over nuclear rockets is that heavy reactors are not required, the reaction
is spontaneous.

4.1 CLASSIFICATION OF ANTIMATTER ROCKETS

Antimatter rockets can be divided into three types: those that directly use the products of
antimatter annihilation for propulsion, those that heat a working fluid which is then used
for propulsion, and those that heat a working fluid to generate electricity for some form of
electric spacecraft propulsion system.

4.1.1 Direct use of reaction products

Antiproton annihilation reactions produce charged and uncharged mesons in addition to

gamma rays. The charged mesons can be channeled by a magnetic nozzle, producing thrust.
This type of antimatter rocket is a beamed core configuration. It is not perfectly efficient;
energy is lost as the rest mass of the charged and uncharged mesons, lost as the kinetic
energy of the uncharged mesons (which can't be deflected for thrust), and lost as gamma
rays.

4.1.2 Antimatter heating of an exhaust fluid

Several methods for heating an exhaust fluid using the gamma rays produced by positron
annihilation have been proposed. These methods resemble those proposed for nuclear

13
thermal rockets. One proposed method is to use positron annihilation gamma rays to heat a
solid engine core. Hydrogen gas is ducted through this core, heated, and expelled from a
rocket nozzle. A second proposed engine type uses positron annihilation within a solid lead
pellet or within compressed xenon gas to produce a cloud of hot gas, which heats a
surrounding layer of gaseous hydrogen.

Direct heating of the hydrogen by gamma rays was considered impractical, due to the
difficulty of compressing enough of it within an engine of reasonable size to absorb the
gamma rays. A third proposed engine type uses annihilation gamma rays to heat an ablative
sail, with the ablated material providing thrust. As with nuclear thermal rockets, the specific
impulse achievable by these methods is limited by materials considerations, typically being
in the range of 1000–2000 seconds.

4.1.3 Antimatter power generation

The idea of using antimatter to power an electric space drive has also been proposed. These
proposed designs are typically similar to those suggested for nuclear electric rockets.
Antimatter annihilations are used to directly or indirectly heat a working fluid, as in a
nuclear thermal rocket, but the fluid is used to generate electricity, which is then used to
power some form of electric space propulsion system. The resulting system shares many of
the characteristics of other electric propulsion proposals (typically high specific impulse
and low thrust).

4.2 TYPES OF ANTIMATTER ROCKETS

There are a few rocket types that attempt to harness antimatter for spacecraft propulsion.

4.2.1 Solid Core Antimatter

This is the antimatter version of a solid core nuclear rocket. Inside the core, a tungsten
target is sprayed with antiprotons (about 13 micrograms per second). The gamma rays and
pions are captured by the target, heating it.

The hydrogen propellant is sprayed through the tungsten, which heats the propellant. The
propellant then jets out the exhaust bell in the usual way. As with solid core nuclear, the
maximum temperature is the point where the tungsten core melts. This limits the specific
impulse.

14
4.2.2 Gas Core Antimatter

Microscopic amounts of antimatter are injected into large amounts of water or hydrogen
propellant. The energy release turns the propellant into high temperature gas just short of
plasma, which shoots out the exhaust bell.

The idea is to calibrate the amount of antimatter injected so that the material turned into
near-plasma includes most of the propellant but does not quite reach far enough to turn the
walls of the rocket into plasma as well. This is not as efficient as a solid core, but it has a
higher specific impulse (since there is no tungsten core to limit the maximum temperature).
Magnetic fields are used to constrain the charged pions in the chamber so they do work
heating the propellant.

Figure 4-1: Different Types of Antimatter Rockets. [2]

4.2.3 Plasma Core Antimatter

Similar to Gas Core Antimatter, but more antimatter is used so the propellant actually does
become plasma. The reaction chamber has to be a magnetic bottle since there is no way to
prevent a solid walled reaction chamber from exploding.

The drawback is that a magnetic bottle drastically reduces the propellant mass flow, which
drastically reduces the amount of thrust. The advantage is the specific impulse is much
higher.

15
4.2.4 Beam Core Antimatter

Equal amounts of matter and antimatter are used, but no propellant. The (usable) antimatter
reaction products are used as propellant, which boils down to just the charged pions. Those
are channeled with a magnetic bottle. The advantage is that the specific impulse is huge.
The disadvantage is very low thrust and copious amounts of deadly gamma rays.

Figure 4-2: Beamed Core Antimatter Rocket. [10]

4.2.5 Positron Ablative

The nozzle is a huge slab of solid propellant shaped like a hemisphere. The fuel pellets are
tiny antimatter containment vessels holding a charge of positrons. The containment unit has
a lead shell. The pellet is shot to the focus of the hemisphere. The containment vessels is
rigged to fail, allowing the positrons to undergo antimatter annihilation with electrons in
the vessel. Because this is using only positrons and no antiprotons, the only reaction product
is gamma rays.

16
The lead shell converts the gamma rays into x-rays. The x-rays strike the propellant shell,
vaporizing a layer which then shoots out the rear, providing thrust. Specific impulse is
between gas core and plasma core. Drawback include the low power density of positrons
(1 antiproton = 1836 positrons) and the fact that 50% of the gamma rays do not hit the
propellant slab.

4.2.6 ICAN

ICAN stands for Ion Compressed Antimatter Nuclear. The ICAN engine uses fuel pellets
ignited to a fusion state by crossed lasers or particle beams. The resultant explosion is
partially channeled by a concave magnetic nozzle to provide thrust.

[13]
Figure 4-3: An ICAN antimatter rocket as envisioned by PSU researchers.

The ICAN scheme uses pellets that contain uranium fission fuel (uranium 238) as well as
a deuterium-tritium fusion fuel mix in a roughly 1:9 ratio. The pellet is bombarded by
compressing ion beams, and at the moment of peak compression the pellet is bombarded
with a stream of antiprotons to catalyze the fission process.

For comparison, ordinary uranium fission produces 2 to 3 neutrons per fission; by contrast,
antiproton-induced uranium fission produces ~16 neutrons per fission. The

17
released energy from the fission process ignites a high-efficiency fusion burn, resulting in
the rapidly-expanding plasma used for thrust. Each reaction produces about as much energy
as 20 tons of TNT. Pulsed at many times a second, the ICAN scheme would produce a
specific impulse of up to 17,000 seconds and a maximum velocity of 166,600 meters per
second.

ICAN is significant in that it needs only a very modest amount of antimatter (approximately
140 nanograms for a nearby interplanetary mission) in order to work, an amount that can
be produced within about a year or so at significantly equipped facilities such as Fermi lab.

Figure 4-4: Detail of an ICAN rocket's engine section.[10]

The ICAN scheme is being studied by the Pennsylvania State University and is being
considered for a manned Mars missions. The most recent engine configuration, called
ICAN-II, could theoretically make a trip to the red planet and back again in only 120 days.

4.2.7 AIMStar

The AIM in AIMSTAR stands for Antimatter Initiated Micro fusion. Like the ICAN
scheme, the AIMStar is being developed by the Pennsylvania State University, specifically
for an interstellar "precursor" mission that would carry a probe well beyond the heliopause
to a distance of 10,000 AUs from the sun.

Also like the ICAN scheme, the AIMStar engine tries to make use of existing or near-

18
term antimatter technology, specifically penning traps, and apply it to space propulsion.

It is basically a powerful magnetic bottle with specific electrical fields used to hold anti-
protons. Pellets of fission/fusion fuel (similar to the ICAN propellant pellets, above, but
smaller) are "shot" through the trap, basically compressed onto the outer layer of the
antiparticle mass in the trap as it passes through.

Figure 4-5: An AIMSTAR Rocket. [13]

The energy of the antimatter annihilations initiates a fission reaction, which in turn sparks
a fusion burn in the compressed deuterium-tritium mix. This superheated plasma is then
expelled for thrust.

After each such "burn" the antiprotons in the penning trap are allowed to reset back to their
original configuration, minus about 0.5% of their original mass, which was used up in the
burn cycle annihilations. After every 50 burns, new antiprotons are injected into the
magnetic bottle to reload the trap. The AIMStar engine would fire at about 200 burns per
second.

Fuels being considered for the AIMStar are a deuterium-tritium (DT) mix and a deuterium-
helium-3 (DHe3) mix. The DT fuel provides much more energy and higher thrust, but the
tritium for the DT mix is much harder to obtain than helium-3 and the

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reaction produces far more radiation than the DHe3 fuel.

The AIMStar engine would require about 28 micrograms of antimatter for the proposed
10,000 AU mission,and has an upper specific impulse of about 61,000 seconds.

4.3 JOURNEY TIME

The main reason why antimatter propulsion is being considered as a future fuel is
the reduction is time taken for interstellar missions in comparison to the
conventional rocket fuels.

Estimates for travel time to Mars for an advanced antimatter rocket using the beam
core approach are anywhere from 24 hours to 2 weeks, it is probable that it will be
somewhere in between. Comparing this to the space shuttle using its conventional
chemical propulsion when a trip to Mars would take between 1 and 2 years.

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 CHAPTER 5: APPLICATIONS AND EFFECTS
As the research is going on in the field of antimatter study, it’s multifunctional applications
are being evolved which will enhance the future scenario of astrophysics, transportation as
well as medical science.

5.1 PAMELA- A Particle Spectrometer

The PAMELA (a Payload for Antimatter-Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei

Astrophysics) space mission has been launched on-board the Resurs-DK1 satellite on June
15th 2006 from the Baikonur Cosmo drome, in Kazakhstan.

PAMELA is a particle spectrometer designed to study charged particles in the cosmic

radiation with special focus on the investigation of the nature of dark matter, by mean of
the measure of the cosmic-ray antiproton and positron spectra over the largest energy range
ever achieved.

PAMELA has been designed to measure in detail the spectra of primary and secondary
components of the cosmic radiation. Its major scientific goal is the indirect detection of
dark matter by means of the precise measurement of antiprotons and positrons spectra in
cosmic rays, over the largest energy range ever achieved. The long-term period of data
taking provides unprecedented statistics with no atmospheric overburden reducing the
systematic uncertainties of previous measurements obtained by means of balloon-borne
experiments.

The PAMELA apparatus is composed of the following sub-detectors stacked, from top to
bottom: a time of flight system (ToF) (S1,S2,S3), a magnetic spectrometer, an
anticoincidence system (CARD, CAT, CAS), an electromagnetic imaging calorimeter, a
shower tail catcher scintillator (S4), and a neutron detector.

The ToF is made out of 3 double–layer plastic scintillator paddles. It provides the first–
level trigger and helps in particle identification, for rigidity (R) <1GV, and in rejecting
albedo particles by measuring particle β and dE/dx.

Particle rigidity and charge sign are determined by the spectrometer. Six layers of double–
side silicon sensors are stacked in between five permanent magnet modules.

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A plastic scintillator anticoincidence system shields the spectrometer, covering the magnet
top (CAT), lateral sides (CAS), and the upper part of the detector (CARD).

Figure 5-1: Sketch of the PAMELA apparatus. [1]

The electromagnetic imaging calorimeter comprises 44 single – sided silicon sensor planes,
orthogonally arranged, interleaved with 22 plates of tungsten absorber. With a total depth
of 16.3 X 10 and 0.6 nuclear interaction lengths, combines the topological information of
the two views with the dE/dx , achieving proton rejection factor of at least 105 above 10
GeV while maintaining an electron selection efficiency of ∼90%.

The neutron detector consists of 36 3He counters, inserted into a polyethylene moderator.
It helps in hadrons and leptons discrimination in the high energy events along with the
shower tail catcher scintillator, that is attached at the calorimeter bottom above the neutron
detector.

PAMELA overall size is about 130×70×70 cm3, corresponding to a geometric factor of

21.5 cm2 sr (for R>1GV), for a total mass of ∼470 kg, and a maximum power consumption
of 360 W.

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5.2 PET Scan

Antimatter is used practically in medical imaging. A PET scan stands for Positron
Emission Tomography, and as we know now that a positron is a particle of antimatter.
During a PET scan, a molecule very much like glucose (sugar) called FDG
or Fludeoxyglucose (18F) is put into the body. This molecule is like glucose, so it goes
where ever glucose would go. However, it has a fluorine-18 isotope in it, which emits
positrons.

Figure 5-2: PET Scan. [13]

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So positrons leave the FDG, but positrons are antimatter and annihilate anytime they
encounter an electron (which is matter). This happens, and gamma photons are produced.
These gamma photons can be detected outside the body. So, the annihilation event between
matter and antimatter can be used to map where the FDG goes and how much of it there is.

5.3 ADVANTAGES
Some of the advantages of antimatter are -

1. Antimatter is hundred percent efficient. When Antimatter comes in contact with Matter
it annihilates and the whole mass is converted into Energy.

2. For propulsion of spacecraft the amount of Antimatter required will be very less. A ten-
gram of Antimatter would be enough to send manned spacecraft to Mars.

3. Specific impulse of Antimatter is very high. The specific impulse could be greater than
10,000,000secs.

4. Speed of Antimatter particles is about 94% that of speed of light. The spacecrafts with
fuel as Antimatter will almost travel at the speed of light.

5.4 DISADVANTAGES
The main disadvantages of antimatter are -

1. Problem with developing Antimatter is that it does not exists naturally.

2. Production of Antimatter is a problem. A few gram of Antimatter will take many years.
Large-scale production techniques are not yet developed.

3. Storing Antimatter is very difficult. It requires special containments to store.

4. Time of existence of Antimatter is very less. When scientist made Antiatoms, each of
which lasted for about 40 billionths of second.

5. Energy from matter-antimatter reaction is released in the form of particles moving

about one third speed of light. Speed is very high.

6. Antimatter is the most expensive substance on Earth about $62.5 trillion a gram.

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 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
The study of antimatter can be concluded in three parts: challenges, future scope and
conclusion.

6.1 CHALLENGES

The chief practical difficulties with antimatter rockets are the problems of creating
antimatter and storing it. Creating antimatter requires input of vast amounts of energy, at
least equivalent to the rest energy of the created particle/antiparticle pairs, and typically
(for antiproton production) tens of thousands to millions of times more.

Most proposed antimatter rocket designs require a large amount of antimatter (around 10
grams to reach Mars in one month).Most storage schemes proposed for interstellar craft
require the production of frozen pellets of antihydrogen. This requires cooling of
antiprotons, binding to positrons, and capture of the resulting antihydrogen atoms - tasks
which have, as of 2010, been performed only for small numbers of individual atoms.
Storage of antimatter is typically done by trapping electrically charged frozen anti-
hydrogen pellets in Penning or Paul traps. There is no theoretical barrier to these tasks being
performed on the scale required to fuel an antimatter rocket. However, they are expected to
be extremely (and perhaps prohibitively) expensive due to current production abilities
being only able to produce small numbers of atoms, a scale approximately 1023 times
smaller than needed for a 10-gram trip to mars.

A secondary problem is the extraction of useful energy or momentum from the products of
antimatter annihilation, which are primarily in the form of extremely energetic ionizing
radiation.

One technical challenge to making a positron spacecraft a reality is the cost to produce the
positrons. In space, it is created in collisions of high-speed particles called cosmic rays. On
Earth, it has to be created in particle accelerators, immense machines that smash atoms
together. The machines are normally used to discover how the universe works on a deep,
fundamental level, but they can be harnessed as antimatter factories.

A rough estimate to produce the 10 milligrams of positrons needed for a human Mars
mission is about 250 million dollars using technology that is currently under development.
This cost might seem high, but it has to be considered against the extra cost

25
to launch a heavier chemical rocket (current launch costs are about $10,000 per pound) or
the cost to fuel and make safe a nuclear reactor. Based on the experience with nuclear
technology, it seems reasonable to expect positron production cost to go down with more
research.

Another challenge is storing enough positrons in a small space. Because they annihilate
normal matter, you can't just stuff them in a bottle. Instead, they have to be contained with
electric and magnetic fields.

Though the antimatter rocket seems to be a very prospective way of space travelling the
reality is somewhat different. According to some experts it is not possible to use antimatter
for the space travel until the next few decades or so.

6.2 FUTURE SCOPE

The main use for antimatter is in research. There are two main streams of interest, the first
being high energy physics. This involves building bigger and stronger colliders in order to
ascertain the properties of fundamental particles. This is a rapidly booming field, and
antimatter is present both as a part of the beam and sometimes as part of the debris.

The other field of low energy antimatter is when stochastic cooling is applied to give a
controllable beam. This can then be used in other experiments looking at the nature of
antimatter, or in other fields such as spectroscopy.

The popular future uses of antimatter are generally unfeasible. Some include; weapons,
power, propulsion; however, these are generally science fiction stories rather than new
century weapons. The main problem lies in the production of antimatter. The net energy of
all the antimatter produced to date would be enough to light a standard light globe for three
seconds. However, if this obstacle could be overcome and suitable storage technologies
acquired, there is little preventing the production of antimatter weapons at the very least.

Because antiproton propulsion promises a major advance in Space propulsion capability,

the recently completed Air Force Systems Command Project Forecast II study
recommended that their Force start a new program in antimatter propulsion. As a direct
result of the Project Forecast II recommendations, the Air Force Astronautics Laboratory
at Edwards AFB in California has reorganized its advanced propulsion activities and

26
formed a new project called ARIES (Applied Research in Energy Storage).

The project has two major thrusts - chemically bound excited states and antimatter. The Air
Force Office of Scientific Research has initiated a new program on antimatter research in
the Physical and Geophysical Sciences Branch under Col. Hugo Weichel. The Program
Manager for Antimatter is Maj. John Prince, who evaluates unsolicited proposals for
research on antimatter sciences. In Europe, an Antimatter Research Team (ART) has been
formed at Telespazio, SpA per I.e. Communication Spaziali in Italy. Their research work
will cover antiproton and positron production and storage, and engine simulations, leading
ultimately to technology demonstrations.

6.3 CONCLUSION
After analyzing the whole topic, it can be concluded that the Antimatter propulsion even
though it is under development, but it will certainly bring revolutionary change in
conventional propulsion systems. Now mankind can think about the journey beyond the
Galaxy. Scientist believe that the speed of an Matter-Antimatter powered spacecrafts would
allow man to go where no man has gone before in space.

With the use of an antimatter engine, it is foreseeable that in the mid-to-distant future,
relativistic manned interplanetary and interstellar travel is technically feasible. One of the
major hurdles to overcome will be the technology required to produce and store large
masses of charged antimatter. While this has been accomplished for small quantities of
antimatter, any near-term solutions will require breakthrough technologies that are capable
of storing many kilograms of positrons or antiprotons.

27
 APPENDIX: GLOSSARY
Cooling: By analogy with the kinetic theory of gases where heat is equivalent to disorder,
the term “cooling” designates the reduction of beam’s transverse dimensions and energy
spread. Different techniques can be used to this effect.

Electron cooling, more effective at low energy, uses an electron beam merged with the
antiproton beam, and acts as a heat exchanger between the two beams. In the case of
stochastic cooling, an error signal generated in a monitor is fed back, via a collector, to the
beam sample which created it, eventually centering the sample’s characteristics towards the
average value, after a large number of passages through the apparatus.

Muon: an elementary particle having a mass 209 times that of the electron, a negative
electric charge, and mean lifetime of 2.210-6 seconds.

Neutrino: An electrically neutral particle that is often emitted in the process of radioactive
decay of nuclei. Neutrinos are difficult to detect, and their existence was postulated twenty
years before the first one was actually discovered in the laboratory. Millions of neutrinos
produced by nuclear reactions in the sun pass through your body every second without
disturbing any atom.

Pion: it is produced either in a neutral form with a mass 264 times that of an electron and a
mean lifetime of 8.410-7 seconds or in a positively or negatively charged form with a mass
273 times that of an electron and a mean life time of 2.610-8 seconds.

Quarks: Subatomic particles which possess a fractional electric charge, and of which
protons, neutrons etc. are believed to be composed.

Radio-Frequency or RF: The alternating voltage that provide (or takes) energy to (or
from) the beam to accelerate (or decelerate) it.

Specific impulse: It is an important parameter in spacecraft propulsion. It is the thrust

produced per unit weight flow rate of the propellant. The unit is in seconds.

Synchrotron: Modern circular accelerator, where the particles are guided by dipole
magnets, focused by quadrupole magnets, and accelerated by RF electric fields.

eV: The electron-Volt (eV) is the energy unit which corresponds to the acceleration of a

28
particle having the charge of the electron through a voltage difference of one volt.

LEAR: CERN’s Low Energy Antiproton Ring, where the first nine atoms of anti-
hydrogen were observed.

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