New Mars Forums

Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Announcement: As a reader of NewMars forum, we have opportunities for you to assist with technical discussions in several initiatives underway. NewMars needs volunteers with appropriate education, skills, talent, motivation and generosity of spirit as a highly valued member. Write to newmarsmember * gmail.com to tell us about your ability's to help contribute to NewMars and become a registered member.

#1 2014-04-07 19:23:59

Tom Kalbfus
Banned
Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

A proposed rocket fuel proton-antineutron deuterium

Imagine a form of deuterium, normally hydrogen with a proton and neutron in its nucleus. What if we created a form of deuterium with a proton and an antineutron in its nucleus? There is some discussion of what happens when a proton collides with an antineutron. http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=427545
Basically nothing happens until the antineutron decays into an antiproton and a positron, the antiproton will combine with the proton to produce pions which decay into gamma rays. But it seems to me that one can store antineutrons within the atomic nucleus of a deuterium atom. What do you think of this idea? The chemical properties of this form of deuterium would be identical to that of hydrogen and deuterium. Suppose we had a rocket ship with a tank full of liquefied antineutron deuterium, and another tank of normal deuterium and when a neutron and antineutron collide they convert to energy in the form of gamma rays, so one way to combine these two would be to fuse an atom of deuterium with an atom of antineutron deuterium, and about 50% of the mass of this gas mixture would be converted into energy in the form of gamma rays and high energy protons which could be channeled by a magnetic nossil as rocket exhaust, much easier to store than antihydrogen, as antineutron deuterium can come in contact with normal matter without annihilating. What do you think? Would this be a feasible form or rocket propulsion?
___________________________________________________________________________
humsafar: I'm asking whether a proton-antineutron annihilation or antiproton-neutron annihilation is possible? if so then what is the result of these annihilations...

Dadface: Annihilation can occur only between a particle and its antiparticle such as a proton with an antiproton and a neutron with an antineutron.An encounter between a proton and antineutron can result in annihilation but this would be a two stage process where first the antineutron decays by beta plus emission to form an antiproton plus a positron and neutrino.With the neutron antiproton reaction the neutron would first have to undergo beta minus emission to form a proton,electron and antineutron

Last edited by Tom Kalbfus (2014-04-07 19:27:33)

Offline

#2 2014-04-08 06:44:19

Quaoar
Member
Registered: 2013-12-13
Posts: 652

Re: A proposed rocket fuel proton-antineutron deuterium

According with this guy, it's impossible

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/20 … .Ph.r.html

Offline

#3 2014-04-08 10:45:06

Tom Kalbfus
Banned
Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: A proposed rocket fuel proton-antineutron deuterium

Too bad, I thought it was a clever idea to contain antimatter within an atom. Still wouldn't have solved to problem of producing it. With antineutrons you could make anti-atoms with a higher atomic number than 1, which you could build containers out of. For instance lithium is a solid, if you could make anti-lithium, you could make a tank which could store antihydrogen.

Offline

#4 2014-04-08 17:48:28

Terraformer
Member
From: Ceres
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,800
Website

Re: A proposed rocket fuel proton-antineutron deuterium

Or, you could store it as antilithium, kept charged and away from normal matter...


"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - If this forum was a Mars Colony

Offline

#5 2021-10-31 11:25:21

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: A proposed rocket fuel proton-antineutron deuterium

This topic contained the word deuterium, and it is as good a place as any to store this reference:

https://deutramed.com/heavy-hydrogen-deuterium-gas/

I was surprised to see that Deuterium has value in production of optical fiber, and in selected semi-conductor manufacture, due to the presence of the second neutron in the nucleus.

(th)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB