Re: starship-design: ACMF & µCF

[Timothy van der Linden <Shealiak@XS4ALL.nl>]

Nels,

>Five questions.

Of which 4  have the same answer: Supply energy

>Do the p-bars ever get used up?

Yes.

>Is the catalyzation similar for muons and p-bars?

A p-bar, which means anti-proton, annihilates with a normal proton and thus
releases energy.
A muon won't directly annihilate (since normal matter doesn't contain
anti-muons) but it will decay and release energy.

Energy to heat up the plasma to maintain fusion temperatures, that is the
goal. An advanced fusion reactor wouldn't need such artificial energy
injection, but keeping the temperature high is not an easy task, since
heat/energy likes to get away. Of course you could also find another way to
heat up the fusion reactor/engine, but a container with antiprotons or
muons isn't heavy an inserting particles is relatively easy.

Timothy