USAF Seeking 'Anti-Matter' weapons

[bfp]

"The U.S. Air Force is quietly spending millions of dollars investigating ways to use a radical power source -- antimatter, the eerie 'mirror' of ordinary matter -- in future weapons," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Beyond the pointed-ear cool factor, antimatter would make a powerful weapon -- at least in theory. "If electrons or protons collide with their antimatter counterparts, they annihilate each other. In so doing, they unleash more energy than any other known energy source, even thermonuclear bombs," the Chron explains.

The energy from colliding positrons and antielectrons "is 10 billion times ... that of high explosive," Kenneth Edwards, director of the "revolutionary munitions" team at the Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, noted in an address to the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). Moreover, 1 gram of antimatter, about 1/25th of an ounce, would equal "23 space shuttle fuel tanks of energy." Thus "positron energy conversion," as he called it, would be a "revolutionary energy source" of interest to those who wage war.

It almost defies belief, the amount of explosive force available in a speck of antimatter -- even a speck that is too small to see. For example: One millionth of a gram of positrons contain as much energy as 37.8 kilograms (83 pounds) of TNT, according to Edwards' March speech. A simple calculation, then, shows that about 50-millionths of a gram could generate a blast equal to the explosion (roughly 4,000 pounds of TNT, according to the FBI) at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

Unlike regular nuclear bombs, positron bombs wouldn't eject plumes of radioactive debris. When large numbers of positrons and antielectrons collide, the primary product is an invisible but extremely dangerous burst of gamma radiation. Thus, in principle, a positron bomb could be a step toward one of the military's dreams from the early Cold War: a so-called "clean" superbomb that could kill large numbers of soldiers without ejecting radioactive contaminants over the countryside.

A copy of Edwards' speech on NIAC's Web site emphasizes this advantage of positron weapons in bright red letters: "No Nuclear Residue."

It's wet-the-bed scary, sure. But don't get out the rubber sheets, yet. Right now, only about 84 billionths of a gram of antiprotons are made worldwide, according to Los Alamos physicist Steve Howe, who is studying antimatter-driven trips to Alpha Centauri for NIAC.

"With present techniques, the price tag for 100-billionths of a gram of antimatter would be $6 billion," according to the Chron.

[Satchel]

I think that is how SG-1 stopped those pesky replicators.

[Guido]

Originally Posted by Satchel

I think that is how SG-1 stopped those pesky replicators.

Did you see the season opener? Replicators are back yo.


But it's a moot point. That's Fiction anyway.


Antimatter does exist, but trying to contain it and harness it... That's going to be nightmarish. Imagine a containment leak....

[johnny861]

Yea, but the peace-time uses of that would be wicked...

can you imagine.. matter/anti-matter reactors...

They should do that and outfit our aircraft carriers with those reactors and then get all scottish enlisted men to work the engineering rooms...

[Keith P]

Did you see the season opener? Replicators are back yo.

replicators, wraith. I'm waiting for the borg cameo.

[IrishRaver]

you honestly dont understand the implications of this do you....if its possible to make a golf-ball size amount of antimatter you could wipe out 2/3 of the country without even blinking....

[johnny861]

Originally Posted by IrishRaver

you honestly dont understand the implications of this do you....if its possible to make a golf-ball size amount of antimatter you could wipe out 2/3 of the country without even blinking....

Buwahahah, Reminds me of the movie Real Men.

Why would you want a weapon so powerful that could destroy an entire planet?

Well that's easy Bob, to defend the United States against the Russians, of course.

Yes, but if it can destroy an entire planet, wouldn't we destroy ourselves too?

(pause)

I really wish I could answer that for you Bob, but it's not my department.


(I'm sure I got the lines wrong, but that scene is a great piece of satire on bureacracy and defense)

[zerojunkie]

Imagine a containment leak....

They should do that and outfit our aircraft carriers with those reactors and then get all scottish enlisted men to work the engineering rooms...

She can't take much more captain1111!!!!~~~