TL9 Antimatter pion rockets

[thrash]

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27847/
http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2281

Beamed Core Antimatter Propulsion: Engine Design and Optimization
Ronan Keane, Wei-Ming Zhang

A conceptual design for beamed core antimatter propulsion is reported, where electrically charged annihilation products directly generate thrust after being deflected and collimated by a magnetic nozzle... The main finding is that effective exhaust speeds Ve ~ 0.69c (where c is the speed of light) are feasible for charged pions in beamed core propulsion, a major improvement over the Ve ~ 0.33c estimate based on prior simulations... Moreover, this improved performance is realized using a magnetic field on the order of 10 T at the location of its highest magnitude. Such a field could be produced with today's technology, whereas prior nozzle designs anticipated and required major advances in this area. The paper also briefly reviews prospects for production of the fuel needed for a beamed core engine.

This paper seems to suggest that non-superscience antimatter pion rockets are possible at TL9. Would David Pulver or one of the original playtesters be able to comment on whether the Isp would improve as well?

Of course, antimatter production is always the most difficult part of this technology. Even so, this points to the possibility of hard sf interstellar missions much sooner than previously thought.