Getting closer to antimatter propulsion :D

[Nortilus (Josh)]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...d-2293605.html

Give them time...I know they can do it... "insert Star Trek Theme"

17 minutes is alot better than 172 milliseconds...keep up the good work Cern. Make us proud to be human.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Thanks Josh.

Sounds good so far.
Will be interesting to see if they can develop it into a practical and useable product

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Nortilus

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...d-2293605.html

Give them time...I know they can do it... "insert Star Trek Theme"

17 minutes is alot better than 172 milliseconds...keep up the good work Cern. Make us proud to be human.

Yes, they'll figure out how to hold antimatter indefinitely...in time. But there's a huge difference between 300 atoms and the 7000 tons of the stuff needed to power the Enterprise

It's a matter of scale....and also of economies of scale. They'll have to come up with a way of producing the stuff relatively cheaply. Right now, it's just too expensive to produce any sort of really usable quantities of antimatter.

[Nortilus (Josh)]

Gotta start somewhere!

[ZeroID (Brent)]

I thought it was 17 seconds, not 17 minutes.
I don't think Enterprise requires 7000 tons of the stuff either, at least I hope not ......

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

ZPMs - way to go!
Bleed energy from one dimension into the next and back again for free.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by ZeroID

I thought it was 17 seconds, not 17 minutes.
I don't think Enterprise requires 7000 tons of the stuff either, at least I hope not ......

It does....7000 tons of antimatter, which lasts about 3-5 years or so, before it needs topping up. Gives it about a 10Kly range.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by jenchris

ZPMs - way to go!
Bleed energy from one dimension into the next and back again for free.

That's what I would rather them be working on....harnessing ZPE.

[scagman (John)]

Probably a silly question, in the article they say if they can hold the antimatter long enough they can study it,but if anitmatter disapears into oblivion when it comes into contact with matter (as i understand any matter), how can they study it with lasers and microwaves, dont they constist of matter? or doesn't that type of matter matter?

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by scagman

Probably a silly question, in the article they say if they can hold the antimatter long enough they can study it,but if anitmatter disapears into oblivion when it comes into contact with matter (as i understand any matter), how can they study it with lasers and microwaves, dont they constist of matter? or doesn't that type of matter matter?

No because light and microwaves, being made of photons, it doesn't matter (pardon the pun). Photons are their own antiparticles, so there's no big kaboom and flash of gamma rays if they come into contact with antimatter

[CraigS]

Here ya go .. for all you dreamers out there … looks like you may have missed the cutoff date (July 8th) .. but 150 entries seem to have made it ! …

Pentagon dreams of Star Trek interstellar travel

DARPA, the Pentagon's research agency that helped foster the Internet, wants someone to dream up a way to send people to a star.
The winner will get half a million dollars for the idea. This month 150 competitors answered the federal government's initial call for private sector cosmic ideas. Officials say some big names are among those interested. The plan is to make interstellar travel possible in about a century.

Website here.

Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

There's nothing to be a "dream" about this. If DARPA and the Pentagon put something like this out, they're serious bout it. A lot of people think this is some sort of pipe dream, but how many would actually know anything about it to even comment, let alone know what has actually gone on with regards to this.

That Steve Ellis guy from "Tax Payers for Common Sense"...that name is a bit of an oxymoron. You only have to look at the state of the world to know that very few living in it actually have any common sense and most tax payers couldn't care where their money is spent...they show no real interest in it anyway, apart from being taxed in the first place!!.

In any case, most of the members of organisations such as these seem to show no capacity for understanding these subjects and many have no imagination or drive to look beyond their own little concerns.