Reborn Tech Scholar

Chapter 541 Plasma Engine
After creating an anti-gravity device, Qin Yuanqing handed it over to his students for verification and testing. He came to the Aero Engine Research Institute, and then more than ten people started discussions on plasma engine technology in the conference room.

Yes, Qin Yuanqing has always believed that the use of rockets and other traditional delivery methods is not suitable for the space age. If human beings really want to make a difference in the space age, they must use electric propulsion. Electric propulsion combined with controllable nuclear fusion can completely make the spacecraft free of energy. Insufficient predicament.

Why is it very difficult for humans to land on the moon, and it is even more difficult to go to Mars or Venus. So far, no country has achieved manned landing on Mars or Venus. A very important reason is the limitation of energy. Whether it is a liquid device or a solid device, what can be carried The energy source of the rocket is extremely limited, and the more liquid or solid fuel is, the more fuel will be consumed during the launch process.

However, the combination of electric propulsion and controllable nuclear fusion can perfectly solve the bottleneck of liquid and solid fuels. It can be said that if human beings want to conquer the moon and the solar system, they must solve the problem of electric propulsion.

Now that Qin Yuanqing has solved the controllable nuclear fusion and untied the shackles of energy, he must also solve the electric propulsion technology in the space age.

Of course, if you want to install the controllable nuclear fusion on the plasma engine, you have to solve the miniaturization of the controllable nuclear fusion, otherwise, with the huge volume of the current "Golden Crow Device", it is impossible to install it on the plasma engine.

However, the 'Golden Crow Device' is large, and the energy it emits is also large, and the spacecraft currently does not need such a huge amount of energy, so the 'Golden Crow Device' does not need to be that big.

"Commander, the plasma engine is still a long way from the design specification, and some technical verification needs to be verified during the manned moon landing!" Bai Bo said in a deep voice.

For the double-ring space station project, the Aero Engine Research Institute of Shuimu University undertakes a major core technology, that is, the development of the plasma engine, so that the plasma engine can be installed on the spacecraft, greatly improving the safety and endurance of the spacecraft.

Plasma engine is a kind of electric propulsion system, and the main medium of its application is plasma.

In many sci-fi novels or sci-fi movies, aircraft can always provide power for the entire journey of interstellar travel.But in reality, the engine technology of rocket propulsion simply cannot achieve this.

The engine of a chemical rocket looks small compared to its exposed propellant tanks, but it has a big appetite. 'Eating a lot, but not working efficiently' is a true portrayal of chemical rockets. The rocket propeller devours a huge amount of energy and is only effective in providing short-term power—the stored fuel is quickly used up, and the propeller is immediately destroyed. Throw it away as trash.Most of the chemical rocket's fuel is used to escape Earth's gravity, with the remainder being used to propel the rocket 'space glide'.Rockets fly to their destinations only by inertia.

There is no doubt that chemical propulsion is not enough for the space age!

The plasma engine adopts a completely different design idea from the chemical rocket.It uses the Lorent of magnetism to accelerate charged atoms or ions through a magnetic field to backdrive a spacecraft, the same way particle accelerators and rail guns do.

Plasma thrusters provide relatively little thrust for a given amount of time, but once in space they gradually accelerate a spacecraft to speeds faster than chemical rockets.

In fact, plasma propulsion is not a new technology. It has already appeared in many space exploration missions, such as the "Dawn" probe of NASA to detect asteroids in the United States and the "Hayabusa" probe of Japan to detect comets!Even in China, plasma engines have always been in the top echelon in the world, such as the "Zhurong" probe that explores Mars, and the core module that will be launched into orbit around the moon soon, all of which are equipped with plasma engines.

It's just that these plasma engines are all auxiliary engines, and their thrust and acceleration are very small. It takes a long time for the spacecraft to reach the predetermined flight speed.There is no doubt that the current plasma engine is far away from the technical indicators set by Qin Yuanqing.

Even after a few years, the Aero Engine Research Institute undertook the development and improvement project of the plasma engine, but it can only achieve an acceleration of 1m per second. Such a small acceleration is undoubtedly unable to meet the requirements of the space age.

Qin Yuanqing has always insisted on investing heavily in plasma engines because electric propulsion is not limited by the chemical energy released by chemical propellants. After all, so many years of practice have shown that the energy of general chemical propellants is 70MJ/kg, while electric propulsion Without these limitations at all, it can theoretically reach any energy.Furthermore, the specific impulse of electric propulsion is much higher than that of chemical propulsion, so it will require much less propellant, thereby increasing the payload of the spacecraft, improving performance and efficiency!
In theory, once a real plasma engine is realized, the time for humans to land on Mars will be shortened from 250 days to 39 days.

"There is also a problem now, that is, how to miniaturize the controllable nuclear fusion device so that it can be installed on the plasma engine. If this problem is not solved, if it relies on solar power to generate electricity, then its shortcomings will be very obvious. It cannot provide large thrust, nor can it Gao continues to provide power!" Fang Zhan said.

Everyone knows that electric propulsion has great advantages over chemical propulsion, but why until now, electric propulsion has always been an auxiliary function, because there are still big problems that cannot be solved. If these problems are not solved, electric propulsion It cannot really replace chemical propulsion.

"Let me handle the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion!" Qin Yuanqing said calmly.

Since he was able to design such a huge object as the 'Golden Crow Device', he can naturally design a small 'Golden Crow Device' according to the power required by the spacecraft, the principle of which is the same.

To say that the person in the world who understands controllable nuclear fusion best is Qin Yuanqing!

In academia, there are actually two mainstream views on electric propulsion, one is the use of solar energy, and the other is nuclear power.

The mainstream view of solar energy as a source of power is justified, because in space, there are very abundant solar energy, and the efficiency of solar power generation is far higher than that of the earth. It is to generate electricity from solar energy in space, and then transmit electricity to the earth.

So you only need to use a huge solar panel, you can provide a lot of energy.

Of course, this kind of power source is not without its disadvantages. First, the efficiency of the solar panel is not high enough. If you want to continue to travel to the outer deep space, or transport a larger load, you must obtain more power, at least it should reach megawatts. Computational scale.Secondly, the huge solar panels actually increase the danger of the spacecraft, because in space, it is not really absolutely safe. In fact, there are many meteorites in space. These meteorites flying at high speed are very dangerous. dangerous.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Qin Yuanqing set his goal on nuclear power, and nuclear power is naturally not about nuclear fission power, but about controllable nuclear fusion, because whether it is safety, energy conversion, or fuel The source, economy, and controllable nuclear fusion far exceed nuclear fission reactors!

When other people heard what Qin Yuanqing said, they all felt full of confidence. Obviously, they didn't think that the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion could be difficult for Qin Yuanqing. of controlled nuclear fusion.Furthermore, Qin Yuanqing can be said to be the owner and founder of the Aviation Engine Research Institute. He has left countless legends here, and he is already a man who belongs to God.

Everyone has only trust in him, but no doubts!
Qin Yuanqing discussed with others, and gradually three plasma engines gradually took shape. According to Qin Yuanqing's vision, there are three main types of future spacecraft, one is a cargo spacecraft, the other is a large manned spacecraft, and the other is a The first is a small manned combat spacecraft, that is, a space fighter!

Because the size and performance requirements of these three spacecraft are different, the size and performance of the plasma engine will also be different!Therefore, the size of the controllable nuclear fusion device required is also different!
To be honest, in the space age, the cost of spacecraft will be far higher than it is now. The cost of each spacecraft will be very high, because many new materials are used. These new materials have just been researched and have not yet been mass-produced. would be very expensive.

For example, the cost of each of the three plasma engines currently produced is as high as 1000 million yuan. This is still not considered controllable nuclear fusion. Once controllable nuclear fusion energy is added, the price will be even higher.

Qin Yuanqing spared a few days to design a miniaturized "Golden Crow Device" to ensure that the energy output by the "Golden Crow Device" can meet the needs of its own nuclear fusion and the plasma engine. As for the change in energy size, it depends on the engine. some control.

After he completes the design of the miniaturized 'Golden Crow Device', a special factory will manufacture it next, and then install it on the plasma engine.

These three plasma engines will be installed on the spacecraft to conduct various experiments, and strive to achieve maturity in plasma engine technology when the construction of the double-ring space station begins in 2030, and the spacecraft will be far ahead of the current Spacecraft.

In terms of manufacturing, Qin Yuanqing did not pay much attention, because there is a special manufacturing plant. With such high-tech, both the manufacturing process and the confidentiality of manufacturing are extremely high. It is difficult to leak secrets. very huge.

After Qin Yuanqing finished the design of the 'plasma engine', he set off to the astronaut training center to visit those astronauts who are training hard!
(End of this chapter)