Homo sapiens.

However, Karl did not open the champagne at halftime. He smiled and shook his head: "It hasn't passed 24 hours yet, so it's hard to say now."

Mikoyan thought that this prototype was a success. After all, it was the first one. Even if it didn't last for 24 hours, it could continue to improve in the future.

He touched the stubble of his chin: "This power is too powerful. If it is installed on a Qinglong-class space battleship, the speed is estimated to soar to 6000 kilometers per second."

"2% of the speed of light is no problem." Karl is very clear about the upper limit of this engine.

According to the combination of nuclear fusion power and sub-light speed plasma engine, the theoretical upper limit of the speed of this system can reach 5% of the speed of light, and there is no way to go higher.

At this time, it is not too difficult to reach 2% of the speed of light.

"Report, the reaction product can be recycled..."

Karl quickly ordered: "Start recycling immediately."

At this time, among the six Levi's rings of the prototype, the Levi's ring that was the first to inject nuclear fuel before, nuclear fusion has reacted to the lithium stage.

Therefore, the system began to automatically open the magnetic field connection device. After the magnetic field was adjusted, the lithium element that became plasma was quickly sucked into another closed spiral magnetic field device.

The high-temperature and high-speed spiral magnetic field entering the spiral magnetic field is quickly absorbed by the gold-based thermoelectric system, and then sucked into the recovery device by the electric field.

In this way, the spacecraft can continuously produce lithium carbon elements from hydrogen and helium elements through nuclear fusion reactions.

Although the lithium carbon element produced in this way also has some radioactive isotopes, the two can be separated.

This system is not very useful for spacecraft operating in the inner solar system.

But for the spacecraft flying in this interstellar space, this system is indeed crucial, because it can ensure that the spacecraft itself can obtain a steady stream of lithium carbon, thereby maintaining the neutron-absorbing layer of the nuclear fusion power generation system.

As for why the neutron absorbing layer does not use other elements, but lithium carbon nanomaterials?

The reason is very simple, not that other elements cannot produce neutron-absorbing layers, but that other elements cannot be artificially produced.

For example, metal materials such as tungsten and platinum can also be used as raw materials for the neutron absorbing layer. The problem is that tungsten and platinum are rare elements, and their content in interstellar space is very small, so it is difficult to obtain supplies by collecting stardust and asteroids.

But lithium carbon is different. Lithium carbon can be produced through controllable nuclear fusion. Its raw material is hydrogen helium beryllium boron. As long as there is hydrogen, it can be manufactured continuously.

This is why Carl's team chose lithium carbon as the material for the neutron absorbing layer.

Hydrogen is the most readily available raw material in interstellar space.

It is entirely possible to install a stardust collection pot on the head of the spacecraft, or look for watery asteroids along the way.

In this way, the spacecraft can obtain a large amount of hydrogen, and through nuclear fusion of hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, and carbon can be obtained.

Therefore, in future interplanetary spacecraft, many internal consumables should be mainly helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, and carbon.

Chapter 634 Little Problem

The prototype is still spewing horrible plasma.

During this period, Carl's team successively tested the extreme operation of the power generation system, low power operation, engine power regulation, power regulation of the power generation system and other items.

When Carl's team designed it, the initial design plan was a Levi's ring and a helical magnetic field device.

But in the simulation test, they found that a Levi's ring is not only huge in size and weight, once it fails, it means that the spacecraft loses power.

In order to solve these problems, they discussed more than 100 schemes back and forth, after supercomputing simulation tests hundreds of trillions of times.

Finally, the system was designed.

The six Levi's rings are not only convenient for maintenance, even if five of them are broken, as long as one of them is still working, the spacecraft will not lose power.

In addition, the parts of the Levi's ring device are all common. In case of an emergency, you can find some usable parts from the faulty Levi's ring. Maybe two damaged Levi's rings can also piece together a good one. of.

The power generation system composed of Levi's rings has been tested very smoothly.

In the open spiral magnetic field device, some problems appeared in the nitrogen-enriched plasma project tested.

The reason is that nitrogen does not ionize well.

"It seems that the plasma engine needs to be adjusted." Carl bit the capacitive pen and thought.

Mikoyan reminded: "I heard that there is a laboratory on Venus that has developed a highly efficient ionizing electric field. You can contact them."

"Oh? Then you can learn from it."

In fact, the engine researched by Karl’s team is prepared for generation spacecraft, so the working fluid of this engine must not be fixed on one or two elements.

For example, many Hall engines can only choose xenon as the working fluid for efficiency, but in the universe, the content of xenon is not high, so enrichment and extraction are very troublesome.

Karl hopes to integrate a plasma engine whose working fluid can use elements 1 to 26 including iron.

In this way, the working fluid required by the engine does not need to be specially searched, and when encountering asteroids and planets, materials can be quickly obtained on the spot.

The generation spacecraft must not be too picky, otherwise it will not be able to persist in the long flight that started for decades.

With this prototype as the power standard, it only takes about 150 years to fly from the earth to the six-claw superstar.

It only takes about 200 years to compare neighbors.

At present, the life span of new humans is about 150 to 170 years. Using absolute zero freezing technology, the life span can be extended by hundreds of years.

In this way, Homo sapiens corporations can completely colonize their neighbors.

However, the company management has no relevant plans at present.

Instead of building spaceships for generations to cross the planetary system, it is better to continue farming in the solar system and try to break through the speed of light navigation technology.

In Li Qingye's view, it is difficult for a first-level civilization without light-speed navigation technology to colonize other planetary systems, unless the distance between the two parties is within one light-year.

But the solar system is in the spiral arm of Orion, not in the core region of the Milky Way. The distance between the planetary systems here starts at a few light-years, and there are very few two planetary systems within one light-year.

With a distance of several light years and no light-speed navigation technology, sending generations of spaceships to engage in interstellar colonization is too cost-effective, and there is still a risk of loss of control and separation.

After all, one or two generations is nothing. Once more than five generations, the human forces between the two planetary systems will inevitably be divided.

Instead of sending a spaceship for generations, it is better to launch the fire of civilization.

Of course, the Generation Spacecraft Technology Company will definitely continue to invest in research, after all, this is one of the ways out for mankind.

In case something goes wrong in the solar system, or encounters a powerful first-level civilization, at least the company can escape.

When it comes to planning for a rainy day, Homo sapiens will never let up.

Of course, the engine researched by Carl's team has also greatly improved the transportation within the solar system.

Mikoyan saw that there were no major problems in the test, so he asked Karl's team to continue their efforts, and he went to another project for investigation.

After 17 hours of trial run.

Suddenly the test system popped up an alarm.

[Local degradation of neutron-absorbing layer detected...]

Carl frowned: "Continue testing."

He then took a few colleagues to look at the degradation of the neutron-absorbing layer.

A researcher said helplessly: "The rate of deterioration is much faster than the predicted model. If this rate of degradation is followed, it is estimated that the entire neutron-absorbing layer can only last for 30 to 40 days, and it must be replaced with a new one."

"What do you think?" Carl turned his head and asked the others.

Huang Xiaoyu, a researcher in plasma fluid mechanics, looked carefully at the data. He saw that the degradation was not comprehensive, but local small spots, which indicated that the neutron flow was extremely irregular.

He entered some data again, substituted it into the plasma operation model, and soon analyzed an unexpected reason.

Huang Xiaoyu's face was full of disbelief: "The gravity of the moon? It turned out to be the gravity of the moon?"

"Gravity?" Karl was also very surprised.

In the simulation analysis of the model, it can be clearly seen that the nuclear fusion defense process in the magnetic field restraint, the high-energy neutrons ejected by it, under the interference of the moon's gravitational force, appeared chaos.

This confusion is very troublesome because it leads to a local uneven distribution of high-energy neutrons, which rapidly degrades a part of the neutron-absorbing layer.

"What shall we do?"

"We don't have current efficient gravity adjustment technology, unless we go to outer space to test."

"There is actually no way to completely avoid the interference of gravity in outer space."

A group of researchers fell into deep thought.

There are actually only two roads before them.

One is to use thicker lithium carbon nanolayers.

The other is to adjust the magnetic field to make the nuclear reaction more uniform, so that the ejected neutrons are more uniform.

Increasing the thickness of the lithium carbon nanolayer may seem like nothing, but it is actually very troublesome.

Because when Carl's team designed this scheme, it took into account the amount of lithium carbon produced during the nuclear fusion reaction, combined with the service life of the lithium carbon nanolayer.

About 70 days is an optimal value, just during the nuclear fusion reaction, the newly born lithium carbon element is just enough to make up the element of the lithium carbon nanolayer.

It is not that the lithium carbon elements in the lithium carbon nanolayers have disappeared, but that a large part of these elements have been transformed into radioactive isotopes.

The radioactive isotope lithium carbon cannot be used as a neutron absorbing layer material.

Therefore, the best solution now is actually to adjust the confinement magnetic field and accelerate the wake field so that it can make the nuclear fusion reaction more uniform. This is the solution to the root cause.

Otherwise, when it comes to interstellar voyages across planetary systems, this problem will be rapidly magnified due to the resource-poor environment.

Just to adjust the magnetic field confinement model and the wake field acceleration model, it needs to be adjusted according to local conditions, because in the universe, there are slight differences in the gravitational force of each point.

Chapter 635 The troubles brought by speed

Although the new aerospace engine of the Mendeleev base city on the moon has not yet reached the level envisioned.

But it is more than enough for use in the inner solar system.

After all, the service life of lithium carbon nanolayers is actually only a problem in a specific environment.

Navigating inside the solar system can completely increase the thickness of the lithium carbon nanolayer, so as to prolong the service life of the lithium carbon nanolayer.

Therefore, after 37 days of trouble-free operation of this engine, the Space Business Department, the Space Defense Department, the Space Colonization Department, and the Earth Defense Department have joined forces to replace the engines and propellers for all current spacecraft.

Since the moon belongs to the defense zone of the Ministry of Defense of the Earth, Maungu directly dispatched 5 space battleships and handed them over to Mendeleev Base City, allowing them to install new nuclear fusion engines and plasma thrusters on them.

For the Qinglong-class space battleship weighing 12 tons, only one "Carl 1B" is needed.

Carl 1B is a nuclear fusion power system specially used in the solar system. The lithium carbon nano-layer is three times thicker, which is enough to ensure the trouble-free operation of the nuclear fusion power system for 3 to 90 days.

The spaceship will also be equipped with a spare lithium carbon nanolayer, which can be quickly replaced at any time.

In addition, according to the simulation test, the spacecraft sailing in the inner solar system does not need to use a speed of 6000 kilometers per second at all. This speed is too cost-effective to use in the inner solar system.

According to the results of the simulation test, the limit speed of 200-1000 kilometers per second is the best limit speed of a spacecraft equipped with a nuclear fusion power system.

For example, from the earth to Venus, Mars, and Mercury, the speed of 200 kilometers per second is the most cost-effective, and the voyage only takes about 3 to 15 days.

Although the speed of 1000 kilometers per second can be used, the price/performance ratio of this speed is too low. The flight process is completely accelerating and decelerating. For a manned spacecraft, the continuous violent acceleration and deceleration will make the riding experience very bad.

The speeds to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are respectively 400 kilometers per second, 500 kilometers per second, 600 kilometers per second, and 700 kilometers per second.

To Pluto and the Kuiper belt, it is 800-1000 kilometers per second.

This is a limit value specially calculated based on the distance between the two planets.

Normally, these limit values ​​are constantly adjusted according to the distance between the two planets to ensure the most cost-effective voyage.

The spaceships sailing in the inner solar system, equipped with Carl 1B, will not run at full power. Under normal circumstances, only 2 to 4 nuclear fusions of Levi's rings will be turned on.

This can save fuel on the one hand, and on the other hand can extend the overall service life of the lithium carbon nanolayer of the power system.

In less than half a month, one of the Qinglong-class space battleships was upgraded.

This is the terrifying productivity of Homo sapiens. As long as the product design plan is determined, the transformation of the production line can be completed soon.

At present, the production line of the Karl-1B nuclear fusion power system in Mendeleev Base City on the Moon can produce 50 Karl-1Bs per month if it runs at full capacity.

After the Qinglong-class space battleship completed the upgrade of its power system, it was quickly pulled to the spaceport on the side of the base.

Considering the plasma thruster of the Karl 1B type, the plasma tail flame ejected by it is very terrifying, basically no different from a particle cannon.

Therefore, this improved version of the Qinglong class must pay attention to the direction of the nozzle of the propeller during take-off. If the nozzle is aimed at the equipment and facilities of the spaceport, it is very likely to cause unnecessary losses.

The management personnel in charge of the spaceport arranged a special inclined runway for the Qinglong class.

Captain Yin Siyong looked at the star chart.

At this time, the back of the moon is facing the orbit of Mars, and he immediately ordered: "Everyone is there, target Mars, and move forward at full speed!"

"receive."