EFFICIENT PRODUCTION OF ANTIHYDROGEN BY LASER FOR SPACE PROPULSION

If relativistic interstellar missions are to be considered at all for the future, an antihydrogen annihilation drive will be required. Efficient production of the antimatter propellant has been discussed for spacecraft propulsion on extremely long-distant (e. g. interstellar) missions. More recently, the figures from these computations have been updated and advantage taken of the use of the 'trident mechanism' (showing the lowest thresholds for antihydrogen production) and of the actual achievements with very short-pulse and high-energetic carbon dioxide lasers. A system of 200 large solar-thermal power satellites on low Sun orbits is proposed for this purpose. The annihilation propulsion system and the basic design of an interstellar spacecraft is also discussed. The sums necessary for such an interstellar project are found to be of the order of 2 multiplied by 10**1**2 , even for a technologically very optimistic estimation. It is shown that the proposed high efficiency laser production of hydrogen is a feasible propulsion possibility.