mcdermot@unmvax.UUCP (John McDermott) (03/15/86)
Question: I heard on the (local) radio yesterday that Kirtland Air Force Base (actually some unit there) was due to get funding to *continue* research on an "ant-proton" rocket drive which would revolutionize space travel. The implication was that this drive system was somewhat working. Is this real or :-) ? Shades of the Enterprize?
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (03/21/86)
> Question: I heard on the (local) radio yesterday that Kirtland > Air Force Base (actually some unit there) was due to get funding > to *continue* research on an "ant-proton" rocket drive which would > revolutionize space travel. The implication was that this drive system > was somewhat working. Is this real or :-) ? This is the antimatter-rocket scheme that has been mentioned on the net of late. The Air Force takes the idea very seriously, especially since the studies done so far have showed no insurmountable obstacles or major breakthroughs needed. It's a long way from being "somewhat working", unless you count antiproton production in research accelerators, but it looks promising enough to justify further R&D work. As I recall the last time I heard Robert Forward talk about it -- he's a USAF consultant part-time -- he indicated that the biggest obstacle, apart from the need to increase the efficiency of antiproton production, was getting rid of the latent heat of freezing when condensing the antihydrogen gas to solid antihydrogen. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry