The Asgard Nuetrino Ion engines just got served....

[smartquin]

That's what I thought... They hardly interact with matter in any way.

I think they just stuck the neutrino in for the cool factor.

But Neutrino Ion just screams out β radiation. I can't think of any way to provide large amounts of thrust through that though (but I guess I don't have a degree in anything).

I rekon you're right. Neutrinos are just left overs of particle interactions, and there are hard to pick up. Nothing to get too excited about. Other than anti-matter we could use electrogravitics for thrust .... if only.... <sighs>

[Tarrifist]

In time I think we will be able to use M/AM populsion systems.
Someone said that it costs millions to produce small amounts of AM. That is true that it is espensive for our current means of production. To produce enough AM to get to the nearest star would cost about 60 trillion US dollars. (According to a report I read on NASA site. That was a few months ago. Im sure if ya did a search on their site you might find it.)

Ion technology was created in the 1950s (if i remember correctly) but was never used cause the technology of that era wasnt good enough. Also, the establishment was more intertested in rocket engines. By the 1990s NASA used one on a space-craft. Now they are really created some more powerful Ion systems.

Give us time, Im sure will find a way.

Now as for the Asgard not using M/AM engines. Well remember they were at war with the Goauld and Replicators. Their engines were already more powerful than the Goauld so no need for a changed. And as for the Replicators why would you give them such a technology boost?

[general ben]

could anyone tell me where i can look this stuff up at is there a certain website u all go to or do u just google it.

[smartquin]

could anyone tell me where i can look this stuff up at is there a certain website u all go to or do u just google it.

Its just stuff I learned from courses at college and some stuff on the net. Googling is ok, but be careful of some sites. They promise all sorts of wierd and wonderful things, but there is no scientific proof.

[Brigadier General Pants]

A controlled reaction would have to emit and radiate (assuming a focused beam) an incredible small amount of energy from a matter/antimatter reaction per second, otherwise it would surely irradiate/disintegrate your starship

Whack the whole thing inside a time-dilation field. That will slow the reaction down enough. And that way you can regulate the amount of energy produced by increasing/decreasing the intensity of the field.

Pants.

[lethalfang]

I once calulated using the kinetic theory of gases that a mixture of hydrogen/antihydrogen would need to be very hot to be a powerful energy source. At room temperatures and pressures not enough reactions occured for the mixture to be particularly dangerous. Sorry!

You are wrong.
You are thinking about nuclear fusion, i.e. two hydrogens turning into a helium.

[CZA]

You are wrong.
You are thinking about nuclear fusion, i.e. two hydrogens turning into a helium.

Indeed. Storing anti-matter is quite a feat, because of how readily it reacts with normal matter. Penning traps cool it down substantially and trap it with magnets if I recall correctly.

[Three PhDs]

Well for one, it's difficult to contain anti matter because if it merely touches matter, they both react and are annihilated and pure energy in the form of gamma ray radiation is produced. Thus the only way to contain them (That we know of) is creating an electromagnetic field to contain them, but this requires immense power. Also there is no way to really control how much matter/anti matter reacts with each other at any specific time, i.e you can't use a tea spoon to get a certain amount of anti matter and mix it with matter . The reason for the former, is that anti matter and matter react so vigorously and produce IMMENSE amounts of energy as stated before. There is also the cost of producing anti matter, at the moment producing anti matter uses up more energy than it creates, thus it is inefficient and pointless to create it and why humans use potential energy sources like fuel where all you have to do is light a match and the potential fuel will keep it burning

Hope that helped. There is of course complex physics and mathematical equations behind it, but that is a basic overview.

Erm, no offence mate but I knew all that and more, and in far greater detail than you've explained here, but I still don't see why matter/antimatter is considered too unstable to be workable.

[TheObiJuan]

could anyone tell me where i can look this stuff up at is there a certain website u all go to or do u just google it.

google particle physics or theoretical particle physics.

[TheObiJuan]

Well for one, it's difficult to contain anti matter because if it merely touches matter, they both react and are annihilated and pure energy in the form of gamma ray radiation is produced. Thus the only way to contain them (That we know of) is creating an electromagnetic field to contain them, but this requires immense power. Also there is no way to really control how much matter/anti matter reacts with each other at any specific time, i.e you can't use a tea spoon to get a certain amount of anti matter and mix it with matter . The reason for the former, is that anti matter and matter react so vigorously and produce IMMENSE amounts of energy as stated before. There is also the cost of producing anti matter, at the moment producing anti matter uses up more energy than it creates, thus it is inefficient and pointless to create it and why humans use potential energy sources like fuel where all you have to do is light a match and the potential fuel will keep it burning

Hope that helped. There is of course complex physics and mathematical equations behind it, but that is a basic overview.

In sci-fi world, especially sg world, I would assume the way to control the matter/anti-matter mixture they would regulate the strength of the electromagnetic field. This would take great precision and control.

[Three PhDs]

In sci-fi world, especially sg world, I would assume the way to control the matter/anti-matter mixture they would regulate the strength of the electromagnetic field. This would take great precision and control.

If your containment field is strong enough, nah not really. It's pretty simple stuff.

[lethalfang]

What would be required is a more efficient means of forming antimatter. Even if you had to create it directly from energy (I'm way out on a hypothetical limb right now, because that really IS science fiction), so long as that process was more than 50% efficient, you'd still come out ahead on the reaction.

Matter + Antimatter converts the ENTIRE mass to energy, equal parts of both, so you could come out ahead that way.

As to controlling the reaction rate of how much reacts at any given time, I think you've made a mountain out of a molehill. If you have an excess of antimatter, you most assuredly CAN add matter by the teaspoonfull. Remember, we MUST have a means of containing the reaction a priori, so that wouldn't be in question once you get to the question of rate. Do it one electron at a time. Or one hydrogen atom at a time. That's one hell of a rate control as far as I am concerned.

Clever thinking, but there is one problem.
From what we know, the total quantum number in the universe is conserved, i.e. matter and anti-matter always come and go in pairs. That means if you want to spend X amount of energy to produce Y amount of anti-matter, what you really need is 2X amount of energy to produce Y amount of anti-matter and Y amount of matter.

[smartquin]

Clever thinking, but there is one problem.
From what we know, the total quantum number in the universe is conserved, i.e. matter and anti-matter always come and go in pairs. That means if you want to spend X amount of energy to produce Y amount of anti-matter, what you really need is 2X amount of energy to produce Y amount of anti-matter and Y amount of matter.

I was just thinking, if there is the same ammount of matter and anti-matter, why does matter seem to be more prominent? Is our galaxy made of matter, and some other galaxy made of anti-matter? If it is concerved, then the anti-matter must be somewhere, but it isnt in any of the heavenly bodies that we have physically studied (via probes etc.) otherwise they would have reacted to some extent, and been destroyed right?

If the quantum number is not conserved, then there must be a process by which only matter can be made, and if that is the case, there may be a process to make anti-matter only.

[SmallTimePerson]

Through my digging into the world of particles and astronomy..I have found the energy output that just plain kills the Asgards engines.

The Antimatter Output:

1 kg of antimatter with 1 kg of matter =

180 quadrillion Joules....

Asgards...got....served....

um, let me see. 180 quadrillion joules, doubt it. Remember the thing called the A bomb, scientists working on it thought they had something that could destroy the whole world, but it only devastated a city, which due to its planning destroyed itself. ZPE is a hell of alot easier to create. Also remember the laws of physics: energy can niether be created nor destroyed

[CZA]

Also remember the laws of physics: energy can niether be created nor destroyed

The law of conservation of energy. Energy can neither be created or destroyed, but can be changed from one form to another.