For ships operating within range of a starbase, I’ve assumed there are facilities on the base to generate antimatter with which to refuel the starships. This is reinforced by the fact that we can make antimatter today in particle accelerators (though it’s currently the most expensive substance on Earth). Given a few centuries of technological advancement, it stands to reason it could be produced en masse.
For outside-the-norm situations, such as Voyager, where does their antimatter supply come from? Throughout the series, I only recall them ever being concerned with obtaining deuterium (which is, to my knowledge, both one half of the matter/anti-matter reaction material as well as feedstock for the impulse/fusion engines).
The only example I can find of harvesting antimatter is in PRO where they use the Bussard collectors to gather deuterium and use a previously-obtained supply of antimatter. There, we also learn that certain ion storms can produce antimatter.
Memory Alpha mentions the Galaxy-glass Engineering Systems Database contains a technical manual for “Antimatter Generation Replicator Programs”.
So, do 24th century starships simply replicate (or otherwise produce) antimatter using power from the impulse engines that are fueled by deuterium?
I’ve only glanced at the technical manual, but I must’ve missed the part about the tankers. Makes sense and isn’t far off from my assumption about generating it at starbases and refueling ships when they’re docked.
That part I do recall. Which is why I was thinking that, in Voyager’s case with it being a more advanced ship, that the efficiency might have possibly improved to the point it was viable as a primary source. Or maybe “stranded 75,000 light years from home” counts as a last resort and why they seem to ration their deuterium supply.
Agreed. Deuterium can be collected from just about anywhere in space (nebulae being the most useful), dilithium is mined, but antimatter is just “there” as far as on-screen explanations go.