[EA-3167]

A different process for extracting metal from ore is hardly a new idea, it just took implementing the technology for bauxite. Producing antimatter without spending a ton of energy doing it is much more baked into the fundamental nature of the physics we understand today, and which has been very well tested. We already know what produces antimatter, and in ultra-lay terms it's "Pack so much energy into such a small space that pair production occurs."

The only really conceivable shortcut for antimatter would be the discovery of large quantities of it somewhere close enough for us to essentially mine it. We've looked for the gamma signature of matter-antimatter annihilation in space, and we don't see it anywhere.

So it isn't IMPOSSIBLE for antimatter to become affordable, but it's extraordinarily unlikely. If we want some sort of superior rocket, it's probably going to have to involve either some unforeseen tech, or our ability to spend planetary energy budgets on rocket fuel.