As I understand, the kinetic energy of the proton beam in a hadron collider is quite large. Can you build a space propulsion system that is based on accelerating a proton bean to relativistic speeds and then using the resulting kinetic energy to propel a space vehicle?
Edit: In the large hadron collider, the kinetic energy of a proton reaches 7 Tev, which translate to about 6.71E+20 joules of kinetic energy per kg of accelerated protons.
If the Collider can accelerate 1 kg of proton every hour and point it downwards, then the resulting thrust could launch into orbit the entire collider structure.
Of course, the LHC cant accelerate 1 kg of protons in an hour, but maybe a derivative of it could and would be the basis of space propulsion system.
This is basically the idea. I know that it is enormously hard to build, but can it be done, in theory?
Best Answer
It would be an extremely cumbersome and inefficient way to do it.
Already one uses the acceleration of ions in ion propulsion systems in space:
Reply to the edit:
Contemplate the LHC system, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LHC . The large circle is 27kimometers diameter. Thousands of magnets and cryogenic support give us a few horsepower in energy. How can this be amplified to the science fiction numbers you propose? Scientists are not crazy to use kilometers of land and enormous power were they able to get the same energy result in miniature.
The technology yes, as the link shows, is usable, but multiplying the energies by enormous factors does not belong to the present technology or available energies. In addition how would one produce megawatts in space? If one can, one does not need an intermediate wasteful step of such magnitude.