Conceptual designs for antiproton space propulsion systems

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5649264

Cassenti, B N

Five conceptual designs for antimatter space propulsion systems were compared in terms of their performance characteristics. The systems examined included solid-core liquid-propellant rockets; magnetically confined gaseous-core rockets using liquid or solid propellants; plasma-core rockets; pion rockets, which are driven directly by the mass annihilation products; and ram-augmented rockets, in which antiproton annihilation is used to heat hydrogen collected in interstellar space. It was found that, in general, as the specific impulse of the propulsion system increases, the thrust decreases. The comparison between designs showed that only fusion rockets have the capability to compete in performance with mass annihilation rockets. For very-high-speed interstellar missions, pion rockets, which can have a specific impulse of 20 million sec (although with a thrust-to-engine mass ratios of only 0.01 G) will offer best performance. 36 refs.

• OSTI ID: 5649264
• Report Number(s): AIAA-Paper-89-2333; CONF-8907118-
• Resource Relation: Conference: 25. American Society of Mechanical Engineers joint propulsion conference, Monterey, CA (USA), 10-13 Jul 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
DESIGN
SPACE VEHICLES
ANNIHILATION
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPROTONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
HYDROGEN
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
PERFORMANCE
PIONS
PLASMA
PROPELLANTS
RAMJET ENGINES
ROCKET ENGINES
ANTIBARYONS
ANTINUCLEI
ANTINUCLEONS
ANTIPARTICLES
BARYONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BOSONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENGINES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HEAT ENGINES
INTERACTIONS
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
MESONS
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
PSEUDOSCALAR MESONS
SPACE
VEHICLES
420200* - Engineering- Facilities
Equipment
& Techniques