autoevolution
 

Antimatter-Powered Spacecraft Still in the Cards for Mission to Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri b is an exoplanet discovered in 2016 - it orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, 4.2 light-years from Earth. Using the current means of propulsion, we would need more than 6,000 years to reach it. But it might prove faster if antimatter comes into play.
Antimatter-powered spacecraft concept 3 photos
Photo: Hbar
Antimatter-powered spacecraftAntimatter-powered spacecraft
As soon as Proxima Centauri b was discovered four years ago, a trio comprising Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerberg announced the Breakthrough Starshot engineering project.

It was meant to create a fleet of miniature light sail spacecraft (a few cm each) capable of reaching the planet in just 30 years or so. That would have been possible thanks to ground-based lasers that would focus a light beam on the crafts' sails and accelerate them at up to 20 percent of the speed of light.

But the people running the Breakthrough project are not alone in their endeavor. A company called Hbar Technologies is planning to send its own variant of the Starshot to Centauri b, only this time using the energy resulting from the encounter between antimatter and matter.

Antimatter, the strange stuff that has been at the center of countless sci-fi creations over the years, is just beginning to be proven, let alone understood, but that isn’t stopping people from envisioning it as the fuel of the future.

More precisely, the sails that in Starshot’s case are hit by lasers are in this case pushed forward by the energy resulted from nuclear fission generated when antiprotons hit Uranium-238 nucleons embedded in the sail.

The initial concept came to be in 2002, when NASA provided funds to Hbar through the Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The idea was for this technology to help the spacecraft reach 5 percent of the speed of light, reach the planet in decent time, and start sending data about it back to Earth.

Hbar’s idea, which can be studied in detail at this link, is apparently still in the works, as NASA republished it in the updated NIAC list earlier this month.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Daniel Patrascu
Daniel Patrascu profile photo

Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories