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Anti-Matter Rocket (Efficient) |
| Amat Rocket (Efficient) - Data Panel
Summary: Far more efficient than normal amat is the picotech amat drive, which uses Conversion Drive like drive core shielding to utilise the energetic gamma and neutrino radiation. The pico-amat drive is rather cheaper and more reliable than the standard amat rocket, since it works on the pico- and crude-femto-scale, rather than (as in other amat) on the macro-scale. But it still requires a fairly advanced ai and picotech components. Such a rocket can provide great fuel efficiency (a specific impulse of about 10 million). The main problem with the Amat Efficient Rocket, as with all amat propulsion, is the danger of explosion in the event of catastrophic failure of the storage bottle. For this reason, most polities forbid the nearby presence of amat rockets. This type of propulsion is still fairly popular for interplanetary travel in some more unregulated areas, as this requires less amat than the interstellar version. Basic Propulsion: Reaction Specific Impulse [sec]: 106 to 107 Fuel: amat Reaction Mass: as above Technology Required: Ultratech to Transapientech Matter Manipulation: Picoscale (precision materials) Controller required: advanced sentient ai equivalent (superturing or above) First Introduced: Age of Expansion Used by: wide range of corporations, polities, empires, etc for both civil and military use, mostly in the hinteregions and outer volumes, away from the main centers Used in: very high speed interplanetary; slow to medium speed interstellar transport Construction Costs: Fairly Expensive (or Very Expensive in isolated regions), many precision pico-components, drive component ai Running cost: depends on availability of amat (generally high, but increased isp means more efficiency and hence cheaper than the standard amat ) Advantages: excellent performance for reaction drive, (slow) interstellar capable Disadvantages: expensive, requires large quantities of amat for interstellar travel, danger of explosion, exhaust is highly radioactive, requires dedicated ai, cannot be stealthed when engine is firing Normal Acceleration: 0.5 to >3 g (5 to >10 g maximum) Normal Top/Cruising Speed 0.1 to 0.2 c, can reach velocities up to 0.5 c or more at the cost of a great deal of amat |
The immediate precursor of the Conversion drive, the pure anti-matter engine uses Matter-Antimatter annihilation to create an energetic shower of elementary particles that are then projected out the rear of the craft at relativistic velocities, generating thrust. This gives a very high Isp, potentially as much as 28,775,000, allowing a relativistic velocity of 0.94c, although these sort of figures are very rarely attained, and even subrelativistic travel requires a great deal of antimatter. The exhaust trail of such a vessel is deadly to all life as it consists primarily of hard radiation.
Beamed gamma emission from a picotech-antimatter rocket make it appear very bright to anyone aligned with the rocket's axis. This is because, unlike a conventional amat drive, a large proportion of energy is emitted as gamma photons. Conversion drives have the same problem
A more inefficient variant of this is the photon drive, which uses picotech modified amat annihilation to produce a gamma laser beam. Such rockets come close to the maximum Isp allowed by Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, 30,570,300 seconds (the exhaust velocity is the speed of light.) However, a great deal of energy in wasted in the conversion process, and - because photons have very little mass - acceleration is extremely slow (<0.01g, often <0.001g). Most vessels equipped with a photon drive are military vessels, and use auxiliary propulsion for more rapid acceleration, the photon drive being more often used as a weapon.
