Antimatter: our ticket to Mars?

Antimatter is one of those difficult subjects particle physicists are dealing with these days, but to put it shortly, antimatter is the counterpart of matter. Matter consists of particles, whereas antimatter consists of antiparticles, for example an electron is the counterpart of an anti-electron or a positron (an electron with a positive charge). Mixing matter and antimatter leads to the annihilation of both and so does mixing particles and antiparticles, but it also leads to the formation of high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle-antiparticle pairs. These high-energy photons created by the collision of matter and antimatter have a much higher kinetic energy output than today’s fission plants, the collision of 1kg of matter and 1kg of antimatter would produce 10.000 times the amount of energy produced by nuclear fission. About 50% of this kinetic energy could be used, the other 50% would be lost under a form of particles and antiparticles that travel at the speed of light and have no mass. Particle physicists are looking for a way to create antimatter and harness the energy from a collision with matter in redshift rockets for example (these allow for interplanetary or even interstellar travel), so maybe humanity can explore outer space in the (not so distant) future and even colonize Mars.