By Muhan Sun

Space exploration has captured the attention of nations worldwide, and for space-thirsty countries like the US, there is never “going too far”. Sci-fi novels constantly refer to the amazing properties of antimatter propulsion or the so-called process of matter-antimatter annihilation. This concept has influenced individuals and companies around the world and changed their perspectives on interstellar travel.

So, how do spaceships like the U.S.S Enterprise from Star Trek actually work?

What is antimatter?

Simply put, antimatter is just normal matter but with the opposite charge. Discovered by Paul Direc in 1928, it opened a new dimension in the world of physics. Taking a look at the inside of a normal atom (atoms make up pretty much everything in the universe), we have protons and electrons inside, with a positive and a negative charge respectively. So, in that case, the antiproton would have a negative charge and the antielectron (also called positron) would have a positive charge since they have the opposite charge. With these basic components, we can make antimatter. For example, hydrogen is made up of one proton and one electron, so antihydrogen is made up of one antiproton and one positron. That’s good and all, but how does this help us? Well, a curious phenomenon occurs when matter and antimatter meet. They annihilate, which means that the entire mass of both is instantly converted to energy. Without going into the complex detail, the energy released is quite substantial, even more than nuclear fusion.

How do we acquire it?

Technically, we do not lack antimatter in the universe. Matter, along with antimatter was created in the big bang. Physicists assume that the reason we don’t see any around us is that there is an imbalance in the amount of matter and the amount of antimatter created, resulting in more matter than antimatter. In fact, the universe as we know it wouldn’t exist if the amount of both was the same, as all the antimatter in the universe would have just annihilated with all the matter, resulting in nothing except energy. All of this means that we are unlikely to procure antimatter by collecting it somewhere. This means that we have to make it ourselves and therein lies the rub. While it is possible to produce it, as was proven by CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), it is extremely costly, at the whopping price of 90 Trillion USD per gram. Another factor is the insane amount of energy necessary to make it. Currently, making and storing the antimatter uses up much more energy than the antimatter itself would provide.

How do we store and use it?

Let’s assume that we have figured out how to produce antimatter at a large enough scale and at a reasonable price. How do we actually store it? As we now know, antimatter instantly annihilates when it comes into contact with matter. Since everything we have is made of matter (even air) we cannot actually store antimatter in… anything at all. This seemingly impossible riddle can be solved by placing the antimatter in a container with a vacuum inside, then using a magnetic field to control it (since antimatter also has magnetic properties). As long as the antimatter doesn’t come into contact with the sides of the container and stays in the middle of the vacuum, you could hypothetically store antimatter this way. Once you have figured out how to store it, you use it as you would any energy source, releasing the energy whenever you wish, in order to propel your spacecraft.

Conclusion

While it is impractical and economically unfeasible to mass-produce antimatter at the current point in time, if we could solve the problems facing us, antimatter could present itself as an extremely viable energy source in the future.