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Antimatter moves mass not space. Its a no-go because of all of the issues--time dilation? You need to move space, but we still haven't found a way to fully cre
by aimonster2 2y ago
Antimatter moves mass not space. Its a no-go because of all of the issues--time dilation? You need to move space, but we still haven't found a way to fully create negative energy.
- Simon_ORourke 2y agoI thought antimatter efficiently turns mass into energy?
- hermitcrab 2y ago>Antimatter moves mass not space. I have no idea what that means. Care to clarify?
- ncallaway 2y agoI believe they’re saying that antimatter functions, essentially, as a normal fuel (although an amazingly dense one, far surpassing the energy density of anything else we’ve ever used as a fuel). But it, ultimately, has all the drawbacks that are inherent to “normal” fuels. But there have been proposals for other ways of traveling through space, that involve manipulating space itself, so the distance between point A and point B are smaller. Think of wormholes, or similar. One such proposal is the Alcubierre drive, which warps space around it to cause the total distance traveled to get from point A to point B to be much smaller. But such exotic drives require exotic forms of matter that we have no evidence of
- hermitcrab 2y agoThat makes sense, thanks. IIRC The Alcubierre drive would require a significant fraction of the mass-energy of the entire universe to work. We need a Douglas Adams-style infinite improbability drive!
- aoeusnth1 2y agoIt’s a no-go because it’s not a fantasy impossible drive?
- tsimionescu 2y agoTime dilation is not necessarily a problem, it can even be a boon - depending on exactly what you want to obtain. In particular, time dilation means that you can have a crew that actually lives for the duration of a journey that takes hundreds or even thousands of years from our point of view (e.g. in an accelerated space-ship).