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?

  • kieron115@startrek.websiteEnglish
    2·
    14 hours ago

    I always assumed that ships would be outfitted with enough concentrated anti-matter to last the expected lifespan of the ship, or at very least the mission they’re on, then deuterium could be pumped in as needed to activate the warp core. I’m more curious how they store the antimatter. Do they keep it in a transporter buffer? Or some sort of magnetic/tractor containment system like holograms use? They couldn’t just keep tanks made of anti-matter or else the whole question starts again (how do you keep the anti-matter from touching the matter the ship is made of.)

    • Iced Raktajino@startrek.websiteOPEnglish
      2·
      14 hours ago

      I always assumed that ships would be outfitted with enough concentrated anti-matter to last the expected lifespan of the ship, or at very least the mission they’re on

      I was thinking something like that, too. Kind of like how nuclear submarines are outfitted today.

      I’m more curious how they store the antimatter

      That one we do have answer for. There are antimatter pods that have built-in containment fields to prevent it from reacting with normal matter. In today’s tech, it would basically have the antimatter inside a magnetic field in a vacuum chamber.