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Old 08-02-2009, 06:33 AM   #32
Langy
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: CA
Default Re: [Spaceships] TL10^ exploration frigate

Quote:
Yep. That would be great. Replace a fuel tank with a cargo compartment and call it antimatter storage. All we need is a canonical figure for how much antimatter you can store in a 150-ton container.
Unfortunately, the cannonical figure is extremely low. Ultra-Tech page 81 has the Antimatter Trap, and even if you assume a non-portable version is ten times lighter than the portable version you can still only carry one hundred fifty thousand micrograms of antimatter in a TL10, 150-ton container. That's not even a single gram.

According to Ultra-Tech, you need forcefields, artificial gravity, or similar super-science to get decent amounts of antimatter packed in. With the same assumption as earlier, (10x storage for the same mass as a portable system) you'd be able to carry 150 kilograms of antimatter in a 150-ton container.

The non-superscience version would cost three hundred million bucks and the superscience version would cost six hundred million bucks, and that's all before adding any antimatter to the mix.
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