Rebirth of science and technology academic master

After developing an anti-gravity device, Qin Yuanqing handed it over to his students for verification and testing. He then came to the Aero Engine Research Institute, and then more than ten people started a discussion about plasma engine technology in the conference room.

Yes, Qin Yuanqing has always believed that the use of traditional means of transportation such as rockets is not suitable for the space age. If humans really want to make a difference in the space age, they must use electric propulsion. Electric propulsion combined with controllable nuclear fusion can completely free spacecrafts from energy sources. The dilemma of inadequacy.

Why is it so difficult for humans to land on the moon, and 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, it can carry The energy source is extremely limited, and the more liquid or solid fuel there is, the more fuel will naturally 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 humans want to conquer the moon and the solar system, they must solve the problem of electric propulsion.

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

Of course, if you want to install controllable nuclear fusion into a plasma engine, you must also solve the problem of miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion. Otherwise, the current huge size of the 'Golden Crow Device' cannot be installed on the plasma engine.

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

"Commander-in-Chief, the plasma engine is still a long way from the design specifications. Some technical verifications need to be verified during this manned moon landing!" Bai Bo said solemnly.

For the Double Ring Space Station project, the Aeroengine Research Institute of Shuimu University is responsible for a core technology, which is the development of plasma engines so that the plasma engines can be installed on the spacecraft and greatly improve the safety and endurance of the spacecraft.

The plasma engine is a type of electric propulsion system, and the main medium used in its application is plasma.

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

Compared with the exposed propellant tank, the chemical rocket engine looks small, but it has a big appetite. 'Eating a lot, but not working efficiently' is a true portrayal of chemical rockets. Rocket thrusters swallow up massive amounts of energy and are only effective in providing short-term power - the stored fuel is quickly used up, and the thrusters are immediately used. Throw it away as trash. Most of the chemical rocket's fuel is used to escape the Earth's gravity, and the remaining bit is used to propel the rocket's 'space glide'. The rocket flies to its destination solely by inertia.

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

The plasma engine adopts a completely different design idea from the chemical rocket. It uses Loren magnets to accelerate charged atoms or ions through a magnetic field to reversely drive the spacecraft, which is the same as particle accelerators and rail guns.

Although plasma thrusters provide relatively little thrust for a certain period of time, once they enter space, they will gradually accelerate the spacecraft until it exceeds the speed of chemical rockets.

In fact, plasma thrusters are not a new technology. They have already appeared in many space exploration missions, such as NASA's Dawn probe to detect asteroids and Japan's Hayabusa probe to detect comets! Even in China, plasma engines have always been in the first echelon in the world. For example, the "Zhurong" probe to explore Mars, and the core module that will be launched into orbit around the moon soon, are all equipped with plasma engines.

It's just that these plasma engines are auxiliary engines, and their thrust and acceleration are very small. It will take 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 plasma engine development and improvement project, but it could 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 that chemical propellants can release. After all, years of practice have shown that the energy of general chemical propellants is 70MJ/kg, while electric propulsion It is not subject to these limitations at all and 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 and improving performance and efficiency!

Theoretically, 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, relying on solar power will have very obvious shortcomings. It will not be able to provide large thrust, nor will it be able to High continuous power!" Fang Zhan said.

Everyone knows that electric propulsion has great advantages over chemical propulsion, but why up to now, electric propulsion has always been an auxiliary function? It is because there are still big problems that have not been solved. If these problems are not solved, electric propulsion will There is no real replacement for chemical propulsion.

"Leave it to me to handle the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion!" Qin Yuanqing said calmly.

Since he can design a huge object like the 'Golden Crow Device', he can naturally also design a small 'Golden Crow Device' based on the power required by the spacecraft. The principle is the same.

If anyone in the world knows the most about controllable nuclear fusion, it must be 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 power source makes sense, because there is very abundant solar energy in space, and the efficiency of solar power generation far exceeds that of the earth. It is precisely because of this that someone has proposed an idea, that It is to generate electricity from solar energy in space and then transmit the electricity to the earth.

So just using a huge solar panel can provide a lot of energy.

Of course, this power source is not without its shortcomings. Firstly, the efficiency of the battery panels is not high enough. If you want to continue to move into the outer deep space, or transport a larger load, you must obtain more electrical energy, at least up to megawatts. Computational scale. Secondly, the huge solar panels actually increase the danger of the spacecraft, because it is not absolutely safe in space. In fact, there are many meteorites in space. These high-speed flying meteorites are very dangerous. dangerous.

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

When others heard what Qin Yuanqing said, they all felt confident. It was obvious that they did not think that the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion could stump Qin Yuanqing. After all, Qin Yuanqing was the commander-in-chief of the 'Golden Crow Project' and led the scientific researchers to truly overcome the problem. of controlled nuclear fusion. Furthermore, Qin Yuanqing can be said to be the owner and founder of the Aero Engine Research Institute. He has left countless legends here and is already a god-like man.

Everyone only has trust in him, not doubt!

Qin Yuanqing discussed with others, and slowly three types of plasma engines gradually took shape. According to Qin Yuanqing's vision, there are three main types of spacecraft in the future, one is a cargo spacecraft, the other is a large manned spacecraft, and the other is a large manned spacecraft. The first type is a small manned combat spacecraft, which is a space fighter!

Because the size and performance requirements of these three types of spacecraft are different, the size and performance of the plasma engine will also be different! Therefore, the size of the controllable nuclear fusion devices required is also different!

To be honest, in the space age, the cost of building 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 developed and have not yet been mass-produced, so the cost It will be very expensive.

For example, the cost of each of the three plasma engines currently produced is as high as 10 million yuan. This does not include controllable nuclear fusion. Once controllable nuclear fusion energy power is added, the price will be even higher.

Qin Yuanqing spent a few days to design a miniaturized 'Golden Crow Device' to ensure that the energy output by the 'Golden Crow Device' could meet the needs of its own nuclear fusion and plasma engines. As for the change in energy, it depends on the engine. Some control.

After he completes the design of the miniaturized 'Golden Crow Device', it will be manufactured by a specialized manufacturing plant and then installed on the plasma engine.

These three plasma engines will be installed on the spacecraft and various experiments will be carried out. When the construction of the double-ring space station begins in 2030, the plasma engine technology will be mature and the spacecraft will be far ahead of the current one. Spacecraft.

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

Qin Yuanqing finished the design work of the 'plasma engine' and set out for the astronaut training center to visit the astronauts who were training hard!