Help me conceive an Anti-Matter Reactor

[Neckromacr]

I've been spinning a sci-fi universe up for sometime. So naturally I'll be tapping the power of the Matter-AntiMatter reaction for its massive power. I'd like to know if the mechanical concept of how I've envisioned it would seem plausible.

 

Matter and Anti-matter are injected into a reaction chamber. The matter entering the chamber far out numbers the antimatter. The purpose is two fold, the reactor generates electrical power from "energy collectors" in the main reaction chamber. What matter isn't immediately annihilated is put into a high energy plasma state. The plasma can be ducted to engines and used for directional thrust.

 

The reaction can be leaned or enriched depending on how much plasma is needed at a given moment for thrust. The plasma thrusters are not the primary mode of conveyance. The ships utilize bias drives which require a large electrical load, which is the main reason for using something as potent as an antimatter reactor.

 

The reactor is always using an asymmetric ratio of fuel and thus always creating some plasma.

 

Now what I'd like to know is how eye roll is any of this worthy of? Would there be a better way of creating electrical output, or even the thrust for the ship.

[Greg H.]

Peter F. Hamilton used anti-matter drives in his ships in the The Night's Dawn trilogy, especially for ships that needed high thrust, like combat ships. You might take a gander at those books, if you have the time, as I don't remember the details of how they worked.

 

From your proposal, I would suggest either dumping the plasma completely and venting the antimatter annihilation by-products directly as thrust (through a magnetic nozzle type arrangement) or using it produce electricity that is then tied into some kind of drive system (an ion drive, or something similar).

 

You can see some proposed types of anti-matter rockets on wikipedia: Antimatter Rocket

[Neckromacr]

Thanks for the useful links.

 

I think I might not have been describing the reaction correctly.

 

The imbalance more matter fuel than antimatter fuel, it would react more like a nuclear thermal rocket. The plasma ducting I envisioned did in fact have one main conduit that could be opened when forward thrust was needed. Otherwise it was ducted to smaller tubes for directional thrusters.

 

I see now a constant need for constant need plasma to absorb some of the gamma radiation, in that perhaps gas turbines can be used to generate even more electricity in addition to the energy collectors inside the reactor core.

 

The reason I don't use the annihilation byproduct is that these conventional thrust engines are supposed to be used for local maneuvering. A spaceport would be a very radioactive place with venting all the by-products to the local area.

 

The main propulsion system for covering interplanetary systems is the bias drive which is all electric, so in the area where it'd be ok to spray by-product everywhere the ships don't need to do so.

 

But now that I'm thinking of it perhaps a mix of a center plasma thruster and secondary ion thrustors could be used in conjunction with each other.