How To Make This Scifi Rocket Work With Max Efficiency

[Spacescifi]

I read a scifi comic where the main scifi race depicted had propulsion that was explained as this:

1. Uses a scifi fuel that can be converted into energy...at antimatter annihilation energy transfer rates! Without the hassle of handling and using antimatter but with the same energy density.

2. They mix the superfuel with with greater amounts of propellant for thrust.

The author did not get into the specifics since the story was not about that, but it had me thinking about how such a drive could be made to work.

Question: How could one make a rocket using this?

My guesses: The superfuel likely reacts with some real world element to release the massive amounts of AM energy.

For the sake of discussion, let's say that the superfuel releases the AM level energies by touching the heaviest known element found in nature...uranium.

We still need propellant to mix with the reaction.

So how do we go about it?

Hmmm...would it be safe to use water propellant mixed with uranium salts while pumping in discrete amounts of superfuel that combust out the nozzle?

That would work right?

Or is there a safer way?

You can apply science, as though the superfuel is fiction, the rocketry is not.

Second question: I well know if too much superfuel is ignited at once the engine will melt or even explode.

The atomic bomb dropped on Japan converted about a paper clip's mass into energy I read.

The space vessel we are using?

Has a kilogram of superfuel...which is equivalent to a kilogram of antimatter for energy density and will also release gamma rays just like it when energy is released.

So the second question is, what is the max amount of superfuel mass we can convert into thrust and still use it in a rocket engine without destroying it? Obviously not a whole kilogram, that would wipe out a small country.

Objective? A sea launched/landing SSTO.

Thanks.
 

[kerbiloid]

31 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

Question: How could one make a rocket using this?

1. Make a rocket.
2. Make a superfuel (if it's legal).
3. Buy propellant.
4. Mix the fluids.
5. Fill the rocket.
6. Call the taxi and write your address fr the bartender
7. Launch!!!
... _{no memories here}
9. Profit!!!  _{for the bar and the taxi}

31 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

let's say that the superfuel releases the AM level energies

And even several molecules of it stop any chemical reaction by splashing the ingredient across a whole county.

31 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

heaviest known element found in nature...uranium.

Who needs uranium where AM is in the glass.

31 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

The atomic bomb dropped on Japan converted about a paper clip's mass into energy I read.

12 kt ~= 600 g of U.

The Paperclip was the covert action of stealing the nuke secrets from pedants.

32 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

Has a kilogram of superfuel...which is equivalent to a kilogram of antimatter

I.e. twice more than mc²?

Edited May 25, 2021 by kerbiloid

[Shpaget]

21 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

12 kt ~= 600 g of U.

That's how much of U underwent fission. As for mass to energy conversion, less that one gram is correct. Since OP is talking about anihilation, the latter number is what we care about.

As for how much anihilation can be going on, Rocketdyne F-1 is the most powerful single combustion chamber engine ever flown. You could use that for ballpark comparison and calculation. Keep in mind that F-1 had regenerative cooling of the combustion chamber.