Gerald P. Jackson from Hbar Technologies will present "Using Antimatter to Reach the Stars," at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 7) in 128 Jabara Hall. Using known physics principles and reasonable extrapolations of current technologies, this talk describes the use of antimatter to propel a spacecraft across the interstellar void in order to reach Proxima Centauri in less than 100 years. The leading problem with antimatter-based propulsion is the acquisition of enough antimatter to achieve the necessary spacecraft velocity change. In this talk, a factory is proposed for the production of enough antimatter to enable such missions, generating antimatter in a form that can be stored long enough to be used for deceleration, solar system maneuvering and spacecraft power for instrumentation and communications.
