WEBVTT - How Anti-matter Spacecraft Will Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.360 from House Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:22.000 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Bryant. Yeah, 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:26.320 here he goes the Flash. That's your new nickname Flash. Okay, 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.120 con I just moved. I just wouldn't got this beverage 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:32.480 and came back. You didn't even see me. It's amazing 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.760 I didn't, Chuck. Is now the Flash Charles W. The 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.720 Flash Bryant and the anti Flash. Actually, well, that's funny 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.680 that you bring that up, because that would make you 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.559 buddy Bizarro flash. Yeah did you see this? Surely you 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:54.000 saw this? Saw what bizarrow something? Yeah? Man? That was good, 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.560 Chuck really yeah. So you just teed me up for 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.279 um for my intro and then I squandered it by 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.000 complimenting you. But let me let me pick up again oversee. 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.400 Have you ever heard of a place called hit Tray? No? 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:13.240 H t r A. No is that something spelled backwards? 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.280 It is Earth spelled backwards and hit Trey Um first 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:22.200 appears in the d C Comics canon in the nineteen sixties. 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:27.280 Um it is what we know and love as Bizarro World. 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:33.920 It is cube shaped. Um. It's inhabitants include Bizarro, Superman, Bizarro, 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.240 Lois Lane and their kids. Right, and then over time, 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:43.360 DC added whenever they wanted to um more Bizarro characters. Um, 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.680 like the yellow lantern Bizarro Flash, who is you? Uh, 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.080 wonder Zaro which is wonder woman, but Bizarre is yellow. 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:53.920 On the opposite end of the spectrum is green. No, 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:58.120 here's I'm gonna get to the ground. You stop your 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.480 blowing my intro. Bat Zorow is the World's Worst Detective, 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.000 which is the opposite of Batman, who is the world's 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:10.560 greatest detective. He got to start in the detective comics 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:18.640 DC Detective Comics, okay, at any rate, the Bizarre World, 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.519 which you also know from the Seinfeld of course, and 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:26.840 Buffy the Vampire's Layer. Apparently, Yeah, it really was, um, isn't. 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:32.000 It's based on the idea the concept of anti matter. Yes, okay, 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.160 So the idea that for every for every anything there 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.359 is in this realm, and this the state of matter 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.880 that you and I occupy, there is somehow somewhere out 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.080 there a mirror image of it. The problem is with 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.080 bizarro world. Like you say, the mirror image of Earth 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.519 is not a cube. And although Batman would be the 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.920 world's worst detective in in bizarro world, there's there's some 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.520 holes in it. But again, this is DC make sure. 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.919 But the idea that it's based on is not entirely 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.320 out of the remal possibility. In fact, the idea that 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.680 there is anti matter has been proven definitively by people 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.320 way smarter than you or I. Yep. So let's talk 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.480 about anti matter before we talk about the basis of 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.880 this podcast. What what what it's really about? I guess 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.200 you could say, which is anti matter spacecraft? I have 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.040 to say I'm excited about this one. This is This 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:33.880 goes in the our g whiz folder. Okay, all right, Josh, 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:38.360 it should be a pretty quirky subject. Oh God, how 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:39.640 much do you want to hit me right now? No, 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.320 it's not that. It's more just like pain. Okay, Matter, Josh, 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:47.200 is was always typically defined as anything with mass that 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.440 occupies volume. That's still true, but it's got sort of 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:56.080 a different definition now because of anti matter. Yeah, Adams, 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:58.880 just break it down. I don't want to go sub 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.040 atomic yet, but let's go to atomic. Everyone knows, and 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.160 Adam has a central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:11.480 negatively charged electrons, the the humanist sign held there the 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.800 electrons by a magnetic field. The nucleus is a mix 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:21.159 of positively charged protons neutral neutrons, and when these atoms 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.280 get together and have a party, they form a molecule. Yes, 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.760 eventually you get enough molecules together, you're gonna have stuff, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:32.120 and you have our podcast. Yeah, doesn't matter, which kind 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.960 of helps. Right, So anti matter is the exact same thing, 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.320 but the opposite. Right, All it is is um. For 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.760 every particle that you just described, there is another particle 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.159 that has the exact same mass, but it has the 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:52.320 opposite electrical charge. So for electrons, there are positrons, which 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.720 are their electrons with a positive charge, which is a 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.880 cool name. It is very cool. Um protons got screwed. Yeah, 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:04.440 Well basically, yeah, protons are um what anti protons? It's 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:11.160 kind of and just like with um, atoms with positively 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.240 charged or regularly how about this, we'll call it the 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:18.880 straits the normals. With the normals, you can build them 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.040 into atoms and molecules and so on. Conceivably, you can 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:30.479 build anti atoms into anti molecules, anti whatever, anti substances, 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.320 anti stuff like you say, um, so all of this 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.680 was theoretical. There is a guy named Paul am Durrak 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:43.400 who he had the audacity to revise Einstein's theory of 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:49.520 relativity equals mc squared. Direct said it did because he 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:53.560 did it in nineteen Einstein's alive and well and he's 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:57.600 in full you know, boxing shape. It's ready to go. 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:02.560 Let's bring it um and Direct revised the equation into 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:06.200 e equals plus or minus mc squared, and then he 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.040 stuck his tongue out at Einstein, and Einstein said, well, 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.080 if you wanted to get picky, sure, yeah, I thought 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.520 I thought that was assumed. He said, which of us 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.400 wears flow length for coats? And Direct his hung his 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.640 head and say, we both just said the very poor 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:25.200 Schwartzenegger almost, which Einstein kind of was, Yeah, he's the 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.200 he was the Schortzenegger of math. So he had the 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.400 cajones to revise that he was dead on because they 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.680 actually proved this since that time, like four years later, 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.440 that anti particles do in fact exist. Have you heard 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.000 of um, Carl Anderson, Well just from this article, but 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.640 I mean, did you look into him at all. Uh no, 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.280 so we want a Nobel prize for this. I didn't 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:54.000 know that, um, but he he he found evidence of positrons. 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.240 Definitive evidence of positrons a photograph, right, Yeah, there's like 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.719 a famous photograph of it. But he used it cloud chamber, 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.839 and cloud chambers is very sophisticated piece of equipment. This 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.960 guy built his own. But a cloud chamber is basically 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.840 just like a cylinder with um filled with gas that's 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.200 saturated with water vapor, and then you shoot cosmic rays 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.560 through it and see what happens. And well, the cosmic 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.240 rays leave a trail in the water vapor. You can 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.320 measure the density of the water vapor and determine what 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.640 kind of particle just passed through. It wasn't enough for 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:30.640 Anderson to create his own um gas chamber, not gass chamber, 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:37.680 cloud chamber. Wow that too. History has not rooted that 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.120 one out yet. But yeah, we're gonna think differently of 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.320 him soon. Um. He created his own cloud chamber and 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.440 put an electromagnet around it so he could direct these 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.200 cosmic particles in a circle. And he noticed that when 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.480 he did that, when he shot a cosmic ray through 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.280 something that had the same mass as an electron was 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.440 creating an arc going in the opposite direction. He said, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.960 holy cow, that's a pow the tron. He said, what 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.160 is that? He said, hello, million bucks from the Nobel Committee. 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.240 Is that what he won? I think that's what you 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.240 win back then? Probably not, but it was like twenty 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.640 million bucks compared to today. Yeah, that's a good point. Uh. 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.400 Anti adams were discovered by CERN, our buddies at CERN 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.080 that we talked about like many many times. I know 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.280 I forgot about them, since they didn't in the world. 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.880 They created the first anti adom and by to the 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:33.400 tune of nine anti hydrogen atoms, and at first was 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:39.520 I'm sorry before night they lasted forty nana seconds, but 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.080 they were there and they had a record of it. 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.240 But then they're like poof gone. Yeah, but still quite 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:50.480 an achievement. UM. Anti protons were discovered in ninety at 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:56.959 the Berkeley Bevetron Adam Smasher particle accelerator. UM. What CERN's doing, 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.560 uh is something that's been aroun them for a while, 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.440 which is basically you can we figured out and not 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.080 we meaning you and me, We have no idea UM, 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.640 but other people have figured out that you can using magnets, 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:15.840 vacuum tubes, um and beams of light, you can shoot 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:21.760 particles at one another and smash them together exactly. That's 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.280 what that's another name for a particle accelerator. And when 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.280 you smash them together like they do, it certain because 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.439 they get the atoms going almost to the speed of 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.439 light and then they smash them together. And when they do, 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.080 um all these particles are created, very exotic ones that 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.679 like you said, the anti atoms lasted for uh forty 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.520 nanoseconds well back then. And what they think is that 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.719 this is this is what the Big Bang looked a 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:49.520 lot like, right, So um, yeah, which is step one. 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.440 It is step one toward building an anti matter engine. 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.680 But the the I guess the question is, well, let's 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:58.720 talk a little bit about anti matter and what happens 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.280 when antimatter comes and intact with regular matter. It's pretty awesome. 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.920 What happens is they collide and it becomes nothing but 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:12.800 pure energy. It explodes, they both are annihilated, and it's efficient, 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.120 creating pure energy at the speed of light. It's the 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.160 it's the only um reaction as far as we know 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.760 that is on efficient. Like you said, where the mass 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:28.640 of both the matter and the animatter particles are transferred 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.840 entirely to this explosion. Yeah, you get some sub atomic 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.800 left over, but it's nothing like you know, car exhaust right, 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.559 you know what I'm saying. It's not even like nuclear 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:43.920 um reactions like nuclear fusion. Apparently only three percent of 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.200 the mass of the atoms um is transferred is lost. 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:52.240 Is like heat that is not efficient. No light is 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:58.559 created UM by this the um particle matter and antimatter interaction. 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.840 I don't think he'd is. It's more like the radiation 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.440 that's created is where you get all your heat though actually, 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:06.840 because I know that one of the first things you 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:10.120 have to do is cool it down if they're storing it. Okay, 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.960 it's just a guess. So UM. The problem is is 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.280 that this doesn't just happen when you smash atoms together. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.120 This happens anytime an antimatter particle comes in contact with 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:27.199 this it's normal particle UM. They annihilate one another. So 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.600 there's this thing. There's this aspect of the standard theory 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:35.679 UM which includes gravity. Uh no, it doesn't include gravity. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.840 It's everything else but gravity, electromagnetism, weak, nuclear force, strong 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.840 nuclear force, and it doesn't include gravity, which is like 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:47.040 the that's the Holy Grail. Right. So the standard theory says, 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.360 at the beginning of creation the Big Bank, there were 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:56.960 an equal part of particles and antiparticles. The problem is 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:01.000 is within about two seconds, since anti particles anti matter 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:06.120 of matter cancel each other out through these violent explosions um, 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:08.720 there should be nothing in the universe except light left 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.480 over from that the first two seconds when all matter 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:17.559 canceled itself out. Right. The fact that we're here proves 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.720 that that can't be right, and that there's matter but 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.760 not antimatter. Right. So there's a couple of explanations for this, 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.520 and one is that there is simply there was and 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.319 it maybe still is or isn't um less anti matter 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:39.120 than matter, right. So the idea is that over time 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.600 there was way more matter than we have now, but 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:43.600 that canceled out all the anti matter, and there is 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.280 none anymore. We can produce it now, but it doesn't 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.280 exist naturally. The second explanations that it does exist, right, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.840 it's just kind of sequestered off elsewhere in the universe. Yeah, 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:56.760 And there's sort of an addendum to the first one 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.960 that it's not necessarily that there was more matter than 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:05.640 anti matter, but there is a slight asymmetry between them, UM. 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.800 And they've actually proven that that was the inn A 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:12.240 forty eight experiment that Sern did and the k T 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.760 e V experiment at firm A Lab, And those are 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.400 the two big daddies this kind of research, and that 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.480 the not the Berkeley bever tron. I don't know about 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:24.679 them anymore, UM, but they directly measured this asymmetry and 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.120 proved it like there is an asymmetry, and that could 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.080 have been just that little bit could have been enough 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.839 that matter one out essentially, right, And when you're talking 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.319 about asymmetry, it's almost like a coin toss, right, where 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.080 when you toss, when you create a particle UM, say 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:42.920 seven times out of ten it creates a um an electron, 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.040 and then the other three times that created a positron. 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.520 That's the asymmetry. So there is evidence of that. But 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.200 there's also evidence that there is a store of anti 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.680 matter towards the center of the cosmos. I couldn't find 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.559 much about that. They think they discovered it in nineteen 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.640 seventy seven, but I haven't seen want to follow up. Okay, 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.560 So let's say it is there, but have they done 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.680 follow up? I don't know, but I have seen recent 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.640 reference to that idea. Also that year Star Wars came out. 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.440 No coincidence. If there, if there um, if there is 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.960 a I guess a deposit of anti matter, then it 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.720 is conceivable that there is an anti world there. There's 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.920 anti stuff there. Wouldn't that mean there's no matter there though, 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.440 because it would be colliding right, No, there's matter, it's 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.920 just the opposite of what we have. There's more antimatter 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.960 than because that's about it. Like they at Certain, they 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:40.080 created anti Adams, So maybe there is no matter there. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.160 It's just anti matter and everything. There's us, but it's 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.760 the opposite of us. Bizarro Josh and Chuck. I mean 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.840 two guys who are really talented at their jobs, right exactly, 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.800 who have the adoration of people, not the score right. Um, 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:59.560 So okay for the time being, until we find out 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.920 if they're really is a store of antimatter at the 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:03.720 center of the cosmos and figure out how to go 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.280 get it. And when they're open, we had we had 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:08.920 to create our own, which is what Cern is doing. 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.320 Now we can do it, but Certain is doing They're 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.080 they're just not up to snuff. They're they're creating two 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.000 to three pike a grams a year. Yeah, I've got 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:22.080 a couple of realities for you here. UM. Since the 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:28.080 discovery of the anti proton, the total amount from Lear 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.320 Sern and firm A lab that they've created amounts to 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.680 less than one millionth of a gram. Okay, and at 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.600 the current rate, and it's picking up, the rate is 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.640 and that's what we're counting on here. But at the 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.560 current rate, it would take a hundred hundreds of millions 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.120 of years and over one thousand trillion dollars to produce 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.240 one gram of anti matter. So they got to pick 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:51.400 up the pace. Yeah, not only do they need to 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.200 pick up the pace if we UM are going to 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:59.320 use antimatter as a propulsion device, the ultimate propulsion, because 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:01.520 like we said, I mean, this thing is thousands of 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:06.720 times more produces thousands of times more energy than oxygen 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.640 or hydrogen combustion, which is what we use now to 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:14.080 power rockets outer space, inner planetary rockets like the Mars 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:19.680 rover that was hydrogen oxygen combustion. Right, this is thousands 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.760 of times more more potent, more powerful than those engines. 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.320 If we're going to use that. We need to figure 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.920 out how to make these engines more efficient. I got 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.240 stats on that too. If you want, let's hear, one 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:36.560 kilogram of antimatter a kilogram annihilating ordinary like colliding with 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.560 the ordinary matter can produce ten billion times the amount 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:44.800 of energy released with a kilogram of TNT in a 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.720 single gram of antimatter, the one that you know is 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:52.000 going to take hundreds of millions of years to produce, uh, 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.840 would get you as much energy as uh the fuel 0:16:55.880 --> 0:17:00.800 tanks of two dozen space shuttles a single gram US. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.879 It is nuts. The problem is we're gonna need tons 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.400 of the stuff to make it to another star, which 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:08.879 you know we're gonna want to do. It will be like, 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.800 oh yeah, Mars, who cares about ten grahams They think 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:17.080 could get you to Mars in one month, where right 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.320 now it takes about eleven months to get there with 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:24.920 regular fuel, right exactly. So finally we have at our 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.560 at our fingertips, the way to get from one place 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:33.800 to another very quickly throughout the universe without having to 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.000 take theoretical wormholes or use warp drive or anything that 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.000 that hasn't be improven. This is this is possible if 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.080 we can figure out how to how to store it 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.679 and how to harness it correctly, create it, store it, 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.440 use it, use it. Right, So, there's three three big 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:53.159 components to an antimatter matter antimatter engine is what we 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.320 should call it, UM the magnetic storage rings. Remember you 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:00.080 can basically tell um particles to do what you on 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:02.520 and that's just travel around in a searching circle by 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:06.320 using electromagnets. Sure, so you need to store the antimatter 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.919 that you create until you're ready to use it. You 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.480 need to be able to feed it efficiently. So basically 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.280 you need like a a particle accelerator, and then you 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:22.840 need the magnetic rocket nozzle thruster which which takes that 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.240 energy and and uses it efficiently to through a thruster 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.480 the spacecraft forward right or backward? I guess if you 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.800 want to go backward really fast. Um there are some 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.960 problems with it right well, yeah, notably the fact that 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.640 they can't create very much of it right now, even 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:43.960 then the speeding up, uh they have as a June 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:47.280 of this year, I'm sorry, may have this year um 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:53.360 CERN has stored three nine anti hydrogen atoms for one 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.800 thousand seconds about sixteen and a half minutes, and which 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.000 is huge. And I think they said, like four years 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.000 ago it was like nothing, So it's it's not growing exponentially, 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.399 but they're really gaining steam with storing it, and pretty 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.280 soon they hope to be able to store these anti 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:14.800 hydrogen atoms long enough to see how it reacts to gravity, 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.600 like do these things fall up or down? Which would 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.560 be pretty amazing, especially if they fall up. Robert Hume 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.240 would be very pleased. But that's still only three nine 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.280 antry anti hydrogen havens, which is nothing. No, but you 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.240 said four years ago, like this is all this is theoretical. 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.760 You know, seventy years ago. Four years ago, we were 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.520 just starting out. So I mean, I I imagine we're 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.680 gonna have some sort of breakthrough. This is why we 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.439 need a population boom. The more people there are, the 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.200 more geniuses there are. Uh. They did think about they 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:50.920 could storm in magnetic bottles, but because like charges repel though, 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.320 that's a problem. So you can't just say, let's load 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.760 this thing full of positrons because they repel each other 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.960 and it's gonna start leaking or something, So they can't 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.240 store a ton of it at a time. And did 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.640 you have the Steve Hawe guy. He's not Steve half 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.879 from Yes or or Asia. I think he was in 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.760 Asia too. Wow, he was in Yes and Asia I 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.760 guess like a prog rock god. And GTR I think 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.520 too terrible Now the terrible band called g t R. 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.280 What does it stand for guitar? It's like three incredible 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.199 guitarists in one band and they had one album and 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.439 some cheesy lead singer. Anyway, different Steve Howe, but he 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.479 has an idea for a fission based anti matter sale, 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:39.720 So like a fifteen foot diameter sale codd of with 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.560 uranium and basically he said, the key is to store 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.359 anti hydrogen in the form of a frozen pellet that 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.960 will evaporate slowly and create this reaction that hits the 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:55.000 sale to propel it forward. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Who 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.720 knows if that's gonna work. Um. Another big problem is 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.080 that anti proton ones um release high energy gamma rays, 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.800 which can penetrate you and your entire family and dissolve 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.440 your molecules back into atoms. Isn't that kind of the 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.800 key though to the propulsion or now, Yeah, the radiation. 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:17.600 The problem is is like, unless we figure out how 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:19.879 to protect the astronauts they're going to be exposed to 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.400 it too. Well. And my question too, which I didn't 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:24.760 see anywhere in any of my research, was can a 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.280 human go that fast? That was my next question. To 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.160 remember Colonel John Paul Staff from the Murphy's Murphy's Law 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:37.560 episode and other things. Um, he survived up to forty 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.800 six gets that was the peak, but he also suffered 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:46.880 red outs and um, lifelong trauma. Um. Apparently right now, 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:48.840 if you're on a rocket and you're being shot up 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:52.960 into space on a hydrogen oxygen combustion rocket, you experienced 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.600 four g s, which is substantial, but it's certainly not 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.800 life threatening or anything like that. But if this produces 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:04.640 ten times the out of thrust, this is my own 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.320 like backpulation. Yeah, because remember you can get there ten 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:12.480 times faster, you can maybe it produces ten times more thrust. Um, 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.600 it's still forty gs that you have to endure the 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:20.960 whole time. So that's a month of forty g s 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:23.840 of the of just under the most any humans ever 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.240 ever survived. So why are they even wasting their time 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:28.320 with this? Because they could like a robot or something. 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:33.480 But the thing is that canna space shut Even withstand 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:38.520 that we have, we have no idea. That's another whole 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:40.680 aspect of this that's gonna need to be worked out. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:42.960 Maybe we need to be stored in some sort of 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:47.240 liquid for a month. Who else. That's why this one's 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:50.440 in the g whiz folder. I need to pretty cool. 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:52.480 So I guess the point is is you can look 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:57.760 for anti matter space spacecraft in the next couple of years. 0:22:58.000 --> 0:22:59.679 That'll be cool. I can't wait to go see one 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:04.160 of those launches that didn't They say that like possibly 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:07.639 in the next few decades, so they must be ramping 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.040 it up here soon. It's true. Good for them. Uh. 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.800 If you want to know more about the promise of spaceflight, 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:20.120 the dream of man and bird alike, UM, you can 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:24.840 type in anti matter spacecraft pretty cool stuff UM in 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:27.360 the search bar at how stuff works dot com. That's right. 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:32.960 And Star Trek fans, we know, we know, we know. Uh. 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:35.320 I think I said search bar at how stuff works 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:41.880 dot com. Right. Well, that brings up then listener mail Josh, 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:45.800 You're gonna be pretty excited because we get periodic updates 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:48.400 from our amazing fans. Sarah, the eleven year old who 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.280 was now fourteen. Yes, we've watched her grow up before 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:55.040 very eyes. She's awesome. She acts now, I believe in 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:58.399 plays at school. Yeah, she's become a very cool person 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:01.040 in my opinion. This is from Sarah the amazing fourteen 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:07.920 year old man. Dear guys, really another letter from Sarah. 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:14.920 Well that's not you boring. I didn't not expect this, Hi, guys, 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:16.760 this means John Hodgen. I'm surprised you didn't see me 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:18.920 sitting here the entire podcast. Well, it was weird. You 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:22.479 literally materialized in front of our eyes. Yeah. Well I 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.560 was wearing my cloaking mechanism. Okay, well done. Yeah you've 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:28.760 been here the whole time. Yeah, yeah, what did you think? 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:31.399 You know? It was? It was good, I was. I 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:37.879 was satisfying. It wasn't long. It's long and getting longer. Yeah, 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:40.280 you know, know when to stop talking these days, joints. Well, 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:42.800 you know, it was an extremely interesting topic. But I 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:46.080 feel like you guys went off into some weird pop 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:48.920 cultural rattles and stopped talking about the topic for a while, 0:24:48.960 --> 0:24:51.959 and then you came back to it and they mostly 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:54.880