Anti-matter collection equipment

[rancke]

I'm working on an adventure set in the Shionthy system, and I need help figuring out the size, cost, and nature of the equipment the locals use to collect contra-terrene matter (CTM).

As I interpret (and expand upon) the scanty canonical information about the Shionthy system, I have the native population living in the Shionthy Belt, a naturally occuring planetoid belt in orbit 4 around the sun (3.21 AU). Some of them fly spaceships to the belt where the CTM is concentrated and collect it. This is a belt occupying orbit 3 (2.01 AU) in the life zone. A world used to be here, but 300,000 years ago, during the Final War, it was blown to pieces by a sizable amount of CTM.

The local TL is 8, but the equipment can be of higher TL (the company that buys the CTM can import it and sell it to the locals).

What the CTM hunters need is

a) A way to protect their ship from being blown up by stray specks of CTM.

b) A way to detect CTM.

c) A way to collect (and store) the CTM.

Any suggestions? I need both technobabble ideas (gravity manipulation?) and hard numbers.


Hans

 

[Lycanorukke]

a) A way to protect their ship from being blown up by stray specks of CTM.

b) A way to detect CTM.

c) A way to collect (and store) the CTM.

Will chew over some numbers later, but covering the basic ideas (no pint conjuring numbers if I am barking up the wrong tree).

Stage C: Collecting is the easier bit. Find an old bussard ramjet, strap an engine to it and fly it around scooping things up in the magnetic scoop. It also provides the bonus of providing a shield from stray anti-particles. The catch though is that the magnetic scoop wont work unless the material is ionized. So a big chunky laser would be needed to ionize the material for scooping - In other words dont fly your trader in front of one of these things.

Storage is very easy with gravitic technology. Simply have the CT matter levitating in the centre of a sphere of anti-grav generators. If grav tech is out, then a larger version of current day Penning traps could be used.

Stage A: Shielding. A hefty magnetic/gravitic field would work. As a backup system use a Wiffle shield arrangement. So if anti-micometors do hit they damage the shield while leaving the primary hull alone. Of course get hit by a bigger chunk of CT and KYAGB.

Stage B: This is the tricky bit. With ordinary EM scan detection its almost impossible to tell the difference between CT and matter, ditto with densitometers and neutrino sensors. However with a bit of cleverness it can be done indirectly (the same way as the ESA Integral satellite does). Scan an area for EM spikes and watch.

The local star is blasing out material which flys through the system. When the ejected material reaches the CT belt, a small amount of anhillation will occur between the solar wind particles and the CT. When you get spikes in the 511 keV (gamma ray) range on your scanner you know there is positron/electron annihalation going on and rush your ship over there to scoop up what you can. So you have your belters sitting there watching their scanners, and then someone yells '511. We have a 511!' and they all take off, trying to scoop first. Of course all those ionization lasers and magnetic scoops in a small area would make life interesting to say the least.

During a coronal mass ejection, a lot more material is thrown out so a lot more CT would 'light up' making CMEs prime scooping time. Of course CME's have the small problem of wrecking electronics and making you glow in the dark...

 

[Icosahedron]

This sounds like another Traveller TL anomaly.
I'm not overly familiar with the OTU and its associated canon, but I would imagine that a starsystem with an empire-wide reputation as a source of CTM (at least for those people who matter), it's TL of 8 wouldn't last long. There would be massive imports of people and technology to take advantage of the resource. Like certain nations today, there may be deprivation outside the 'uplifted zone', but those working in the CTM business would enjoy a much higher effective TL.
I would imagine that this region would be a testing ground for frontier technology of TL16, with various Megacorps fighting each other to develop Repulsors and Tractors both of a focussed type and a field type working as shields and collectors, to develop nuclear damper/disintegrator devices to reduce (anti) matter to detectable ionised particles, to develop meson detectors to analyse emissions from material, and perhaps even to attempt to harness all that antimatter as a viable power source.

 

[rancke]

This sounds like another Traveller TL anomaly.
I'm not overly familiar with the OTU and its associated canon, but I would imagine that a starsystem with an empire-wide reputation as a source of CTM (at least for those people who matter), it's TL of 8 wouldn't last long. There would be massive imports of people and technology to take advantage of the resource. Like certain nations today, there may be deprivation outside the 'uplifted zone', but those working in the CTM business would enjoy a much higher effective TL.

I would imagine that this region would be a testing ground for frontier technology of TL16, with various Megacorps fighting each other to develop Repulsors and Tractors both of a focussed type and a field type working as shields and collectors, to develop nuclear damper/disintegrator devices to reduce (anti) matter to detectable ionised particles, to develop meson detectors to analyse emissions from material, and perhaps even to attempt to harness all that antimatter as a viable power source.

Here's the existing canon:

Library Data, 1105: Red Zone. Asteroid belt interdicted by the Navy because of its extreme danger to navigation. [The Traveller Book]

----------

Shionthy is settled after 300 and is a member of the Imperium by 400. [Traveller Adventure, p. 15]

----------

SHIONTY/REGINA X000742-8
System interdicted because of the presense in the asteroid belt of contra-terrene matter, a considerable hazard to astrogation. [Kinunir] When interdicted, Shionty had a population of belters searching for fragments of anti-matter. Imperial law allows established populations to remain in a system after interdiction and the population has grown. [Beltstrike]

----------

2306 Shinothy (Imperial) Red Zone

Starport: Class 0.

Asteroid Field. Atmosphere: None. Surface Water: None. Population: 70,000,000. Government: Athenian-style democracy. Control Rating: 1. TL: 8.

The belt is thought to be he remains of a world destroyed by the Ancients in their final war, as it contains significant quantities of anti-matter. It is the danger of contacting free-floating antimatter particles that gives this system its red classification.

The system's population is made up of Ancients-studying researchers, a group of very optimistic anti-matter miners and a larger number of belters (and their dependents) who work the 30 moons of the system's four gas giants. [BtC]

​

I can't find my copy of MGT:The Spinward Marches, so I can't quote what it has to say about Shionthy. Maybe someone else can oblige?​

(The sun is supposed to be an M4 V, but Shionthy system is also supposed to be the site of the Droyne homeworld Eskaloyt (prior to it being rotated into its own pocket universe by Grandfather [and a substitute blown up]), which means that the star should be somewhere from an F2 V to an F7 V [AM5:3]. So I've made it an F6 V.)

My take on the situation is that collecting CTM is quite risky, so the Imperium has licensed a company to trade with the interdicted system, allowing them to press the price they pay.


Hans

 

[Lycanorukke]

Thinking a bit more on a lower tech detection method..

Prehaps use 'Duster' ships to replace the solar wind in detection. Small pilot ships spray a could of 'dust' in front of themselves as they travel and monitor for the 511 spike. The same ships could be used to keep travel corridors clear by 'cleaning out' any drifting CTM matter in the spacelane. Of course having sprays of space dust in the corridor would be bad, so careful management between dustings and how quickly CTM can drift back in would be needed.

Not to mention it would make a useful device for industrial espionage - especially given the apparent price of CTM. "Whoops! We dusted your scoop ship and fouled the intake? Soooo sorry. Dont worry we got the Contra so you should be safe to leave"

 

[robject]

This very short blurb from Marc.

In general, the classic (more-or-less TL-8) way to interact with ContraTerrene matter is magnetic. T5 would also allow using Gravitic.