Solar-Powered Laser To Turn Quantum Vacuum Into Antimatter Spacecraft Fuel
To send a spacecraft to another star in like a generation people would need new ways of propelling those spaceships, like using solar-powered lasers to obtain antimatter fuel out of the quantum vacuum in space. Sounds pretty nuts. However, the similar experiment has been done in a lab before. This is possible as on the quantum (very very small) level, a vacuum isn’t really a vacuum, as it is filled with “virtual” particles constantly going back and forth from existing to not existing. With enough energy, it’s possible to fixate those particles to exist permanently and create, for example, an antimatter fuel for the VARIES starship (“Vacuum to Antimatter-Rocket Interstellar Explorer System”). VARIES is to park near a star and use its gigantic solar panels to power a super laser that smashes the vacuum of space and generates enough matter and antimatter to get it to a destination. The question is where to get such a monstrous laser from?
Via: dvice.com
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