Thursday, August 4, 2011

Next Big Future: Confirmation of geomagnetically trapped antiprotons which can be trapped with superconductors enable antimatter enabled space applications

This Letter reports the discovery of an antiproton radiation belt around the Earth.
This is one heavy duty post.  What it means is that this antimatter may be collectible using technology we now have or will have in the near future.  In addition, the applications for the antimatter include high performance propulsion systems that may have interstellar capability.  Wow!

One gets accustomed to be skeptical of all new claims.  But I have read about stuff similar to this before. What makes this different is the amount of antimatter that may be available in our own cosmic backyard.  That may make it accessible to us, if we so choose.

From the pdf file source link in the Next Big Future post:
Antiprotons trapped in Earth’s inner radiation belt have been observed for the first time by the PAMELA satellite-borne experiment 

also
PAMELA was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 2006 June 15 on board the “Resurs-DK1” satellite.

and
Since launch, PAMELA has collected an unprecedented number of antiprotons
and positrons, as reported in recent publications 

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