up of particles almost exactly like regular matter but with opposite electric charge. That means when antimatter contacts regular matter, they both annihilate and can produce enormous amounts of energy.
Even within our own solar system, an antimatter-powered spacecraft could reach Pluto in 3.5 weeks compared to the 9.5 years it took He said it would take US$8 billion to build a solar power plant for the enormous energy needs of antimatter production and cost $670 million per year to operate.However, there are other ways to produce antimatter. That's where Weed focused his work.A different kind of antimatter engine
While positrons may be less expensive to obtain than more powerful forms of antimatter, they are difficult to harness because they are highly energetic and need to be slowed down, or"moderated." So building a prototype to test in space is still beyond reach, cost-wise, Weed said.For example, in 1953, Austrian physicist Eugen Sänger proposed a"photon rocket" that would run on positron annihilation energy.