Star trek technology, How much is possible?

[swansont]

I don't think its possible for a long long time. On a related note something similar to teleportation is quantum entanlgement and this will be making its application debut in computers sometime in the next 15-30 years

 

Quantum entanglement and teleportation is a transfer of information only. Not matter.

[CPL.Luke]

yeah, but its sort of similar

[ldavidcooke]

I remember reading about Irene Curie and her husband performing experiments

with Radium and an aluminum target. The indication was that the proximity

of the aluminum caused a radiant energy release. The odd character of this reaction was that after the alpha source was removed that the reaction persisted. Later this radiant energy was determined to have been caused by alpha particle emissions striking aluminum electrons causing the formation of a positron and the subsequent annihilation of the positron by an electron collision.

 

I have been mulling over a similar idea recently. The idea is to create a

sufficient mass of radium in a plate and using a magnetic field to focus the

alpha emissions into a beam. The intention is to scan a high density, high

temperature metal that has been doped with a material that will absorb the

wide band photonic energy and re-emit it at a lower frequency. (For instance

some form of sintered high carbon ferric oxide plated with a copper heat sink.) Then using an attached heat exchanger carry out the released energy for driving some form of electro-mechanical converter.

 

At issue is getting sufficient alpha particle generation. I have heard rumors

of small nuclear generators using a similar technique. (Matter of fact there

was a description of one on these very pages.) Instead of using a massive

alpha emitter my idea was to simply scan the target with the alpha source instead. I do not know the speed of the scan required to insure enough exposure of the target material to get the positron emission to occur. And I do not know if the energy would be sufficient to obtain remarkable power; however, they have been performing experiments at the CERN facility for some time and there should be sufficient resources to ascertain the validity of this postulate.

 

The only thing I am confused about is earlier in this blog there was a statement that the positrons were difficult to obtain. Where it required a greater amount of energy to convert an electron to a positron. If that were true why was there no issue in the Curie Lab? I wonder if the difficulty was in the extraction of the positron for the collision and not for the generation of the positron.

 

Oh well, in answer to your question. I believe it may be possible to develop an IR source using "anti-matter". The question is can enough energy be generated to be useful. I suspect that it will require the alpha or beta decay material to be some form of high energy fissionable source to get enough photonic energy to be useful. And as many in this section will tell you the idea presented is not an efficient use of the materials required. The only benefit would be the waste products should have a half life measurable in months and not tens of thousands of years.

 

Dave Cooke

[CPL.Luke]

a positron and electron pair are created when a 1.022mev photon or greater strikes a metal target. The result will be a pair of positrons and electrons with the positron immediatly annihalating with anouther electron within something like 10^-8 seconds. the released energy will be of 2 512kev photons. (more if the original photon had more than 1.022 Mev of energy)

 

I think you might have better off using the energy from the alpha source directly

[ldavidcooke]

That makes sense as to why it is not reasonable to pursue. I just thought with

all the waste products available capable of generating beta decay and alpha

sources sitting idle in the nuclear waste piles near current plants that this might have been a reasonable way to extract extra energy and actually not generate more long half life waste. With a net loss in the 90% range is as you say not reasonable.

 

So what you are saying is we should be able to extract additional energy in the current waste stockpiles more efficiently. My question is how can we extract the energy? If the thermal generation from the waste by itself is not great enough to obtain water vaporization, would the idea of extracting the radiant energy from positron annihiliation not be better then simply letting the waste sit? At least we would be able to recover some of the energy we would lose naturally. Getting additional energy from old stockpiles in a less efficient manner should not be a waste.

 

If you have a better Idea I would like to hear it. I have been interested in

extending the usefulness of old stockpiles since the late 60's. And I do not

remember anyone going in this direction before. Though I do remember something about the "Nuclear Batteries" used on the Apollo missions. I imagine these worked based on the thermal difference of old U238/5 and

the cold vaccum of space.

 

Dave Cooke

[CPL.Luke]

yeah they make thermoelectric generators (at least I'm pretty sure thats what there called) with the waste, these are used extensively on deep space probes, and I believe for some minor power generation in russia. basicly its a nuclear isotope suspended in water, the alpha particles eat the water up and then the water is used to power a turbine. I think theres a basic procedure in a thread somewhere around here as well.

 

However the energy gained from the decay of radioactive materials is pretty low and not economicly feasible as a means of power generation.

[x__heavenly__x]

Oh rayam you are a GOD..and you to Luke(I do grok at the fullness), Its been years since I have been looking for some who are interested in making the starship a posibility!

With common sence in mind, we know its not possible now but I got sooooooo many ideas and proper analysis of them that in a year or so it maybe possible to just visualize the dream and then take steps to do the basic requirements, like material transfer to space(cuz this thing is not possible to make on earth and take it up, i prefer to build it up there).

 

Well and if its ok we can discuss the possibilities and ways to achive this here on this post

[reyam200]

sure,

 

luke, didn't NASA recent'y launch Deep space 1, powered by an ion drive?

 

in the future do you think we could use a black hole for power?

(defantely a far out idea)i think the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy puts out either x or gamma rays.

 

is there such thing as theta radiation? theta is in the greek alphabet. they have alpha, beta , and gamma.

 

x__heavenly__x, luke knows more about physics than i do. my knowledge is in animal psycology, and anything about the paranormal and mystisisim.