Antimatter is a most potent and efficient fuel known so far. While tons of chemical fuel are needed to propel a human mission to Mars, just tens of milligrams of antimatter can do the same thing. Only 1kg of antimatter can release the useful energy in equivalent of 20 megatons of TNT, which is nearly half of energy released by a hundreds of kilograms of fissile material in the Tsar Bomba (50 megatons of TNT), the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated. About 5 tones of antimatter would theoretically be enough to fuel all of the world’s energy consumption for a single year.
Concepts for using the benefits of antimatter already exists and they are technically achievable. However, 2 difficult problems must be overcome before antimatter can be put to use as a fuel source. The first is the cheaper creation of antimatter in sufficient quantities and the second is the storage of antimatter. As soon as these problems become solved, antimatter is going to be used in space missions and military as a fuel for engines and weapons.
