Chapter 999 Expedition to Barnard’s Star?
Expansion abroad!
In the office, when they heard these four words, a trace of surprise flashed in the eyes of the old man sitting opposite and Chang Huaxiang beside him.
“You mean to learn the way of the United States?”
The old man looked over, looked at Xu Chuan and asked.
If one thinks of external expansion, there is no doubt that the most easily thought of is the hegemonic method used by the United States to plunder resources and land around the world.
To put it simply, it means external expansion to plunder the resources and economies of other countries to maintain its rapid development and strength.
Laomi has a long history of external expansion, with a complete set of methods and sufficient experience.
From the western expansion in the 19th century, the occupation of Hawaii and the Philippines, to intervention during the Cold War, there are often resource acquisition motives behind these actions.
Since the end of the Revolutionary War, territorial expansion and resource collection have made the United States a superpower.
Including the Cold War between the red and blue parties in the 20th century, the United States incorporated its motivation for external expansion into the larger framework of anti-Sovietism to defend the idea of a free world.
During this period, the United States expanded its political, military and economic influence around the world, aiming to curb the expansion of Red Soviet Union.
But in essence it is also to strengthen the United States' global influence and expansion.
To put it simply, there are many ways to expand overseas, including military means, as well as economic and cultural penetration.
Military intervention has always been a prominent feature of foreign expansion.
If they want to take the path of external expansion, this may greatly modify the original direction of the country.
After all, this was not the path they took originally.
Across the sofa, Xu Chuan gently shook his head and said: "What I mean by external expansion is not to follow the path of the United States, but"
As he said that, he pointed top of head.
"Space?" The old man reacted quickly and asked.
Xu Chuan nodded and said: "Well, space."
"Our situation is different from that of the United States. I believe you are in a better situation than me."
"Throw aside For other reasons, the huge gap in population alone makes it difficult for us to go through the process of U.S. foreign expansion again. path."
"And the current development of military weapons technology is difficult to support us in following the path of the United States as it was in the 19th century."
After a pause, he organized some words. He continued: "Say something outside your personal realm."
"In my opinion, the United States' external expansion is actually caused by the problems caused by the distribution mechanism, which makes it have to do so."
"Its own resources are actually enough to maintain the high welfare of all people in their country. benefits, but the problem of the distribution mechanism means that not everyone can get the corresponding benefits.”
“For example, if there are 100 resources and 100 people, if everyone If people just get one resource, then everyone can live well.”
“But the reality is obviously not like this. Among these 100 resources, there may be 50, 60 or even more. It was taken away by a powerful few people, such as 10 or 20 people. "The remaining few resources are obviously not enough to feed the majority of people."
"This also means that the United States must expand externally and obtain 200 or even more resources so that most people can have a resource."
"I believe this problem also exists in our country. , but the current situation should be better than that in the United States."
The old man nodded, obviously agreeing with Xu Chuan's statement.
The problem of distribution mechanism obviously exists in every country, whether it is the United States, China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and other countries.
Not to mention modern society, there were so many dynasties in ancient China that were reincarnated, divided and combined. In the final analysis, most of the time it was because the distribution mechanism had failed in the final years of the dynasty.
The farmers at the bottom cannot even obtain the most basic resources to support themselves, so they will naturally rise up to resist, break the original order, and redistribute resources.
In this process, the population will be greatly reduced due to the war.
When the population decreases and order is re-established, resources or productivity will allow everyone to live happily until time continues to pass and the cycle repeats itself.
But after entering modern society, especially today when countries are stockpiling nuclear weapons in large quantities, it is obvious that it is difficult for wars like those in ancient times to break all old orders, establish new ones, and significantly reduce the population to happen again. .
After all, once the three wars break out on a large scale, the consequences can be imagined on the basis of possessing each other and destroying each other.
There is no war, but the problem of uneven distribution of resources still exists. How to solve this problem?
The external expansion of the United States is obviously a path suitable for them.
By plundering the resources of other countries to meet domestic needs and create profits, thereby solving the problem of uneven resource distribution.
Can they take this path?
Obviously, it is very difficult.
As Xu Chuan said, their population is too large.
With a real population of 1.4 billion, if we want to satisfy the whole world through social welfare security, I am afraid that we will need to siphon the world's wealth to do so.
While occupying the top of the technology pyramid, the United States can hand over other less core technologies or sub-level technologies to other allies for production.
But they do not have this condition. The population determines everything.
For example, South Korea's shipbuilding industry is one of the pillars of their country's economy, and they also have a developed shipbuilding industry, and competition between the two is fierce.
If South Korea's shipbuilding industry can eat 10 shares to make itself full, then they have to eat at least 100 or even 1,000 shares to make themselves full.
This means that it is actually very difficult for them to follow the expansion path of the United States.
After all, they are too big.
After thinking for a moment, the old man looked at Xu Chuan and asked, "Can space solve our problems?"
Xu Chuan nodded and said, "I don't know how to solve resource allocation. Mechanism is a difficult problem, but I am certain that space has enough resources to support our continued development.”
"I have played a game before, which contained a large number of alien races and a compact game plot. In the early days of development, the most important thing for players was the population. The population growth in the early stage was too slow, resulting in There is no labor force in many positions. "
"And in the later period, too much population will cause severe economic pressure, decreased administrative efficiency, slowed down scientific research, social instability and other problems." "I think. this This game is just like our current earth. The population is too small to develop, and there will be various problems if the population is too large (PS: Stars makes money!)"
" The easiest way to solve this problem is to obtain more resources.”
“Needless to say, compared with the entire universe, even the entire solar system, the resources on the earth are pitiful.”
"If we turn our attention to space and develop the moon, Mars, and even other planets further away, then the problems we are facing now can be solved to a large extent."
"When entering space After the era, no matter how large the population is, it will become a scarce resource."
The old man showed a thoughtful expression on his face: "That means we should take a longer view. Let’s focus on space development?”
Xu Chuan nodded and said, “Actually, we should also focus on space development without talking about these issues.”
“This. This is the path that any advanced intelligent civilization should take after it has sufficient capabilities, instead of fighting life and death with its fellow humans on the home planet to compete for the limited resources on the home star.”
To me, it's like standing next to a Man-Han banquet and fighting for a few peanuts. "
Hearing this, the old man couldn't help but smile. He was obviously interested in Xu Chuan's description.
"Standing next to a Manchu and Han banquet, fighting for a few peanuts? "
After muttering something subconsciously, the old man smiled and said: "I have written this down. I will hold a meeting to study it when I get back. "
After a slight pause, he looked at Xu Chuan, and then said: "In addition to AI intelligence and space development, do you think there are any other suitable research directions? ”
Hearing this, Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "Quantum computers, biotechnology, virtual reality technology, etc. are all important areas for future technological development."
"Today may be in a hurry, and it is difficult to elaborate in detail. Let’s talk, why don’t I find time to think about it seriously after the manned mission is completed?”
Hearing this, Mr. The man nodded with a smile and said, "Then I'll forgive you for the hard work."
Xu Chuan smiled and said, "This is what I should do, and it's also my honor. It's not hard work or trouble. ”
“To put it bluntly, being able to determine the direction of the future era is an opportunity that many people only dream of and dare not even think about.”
The old man smiled and was about to say something when he suddenly remembered another thing and spoke.
"Oh, by the way, there is one more thing."
As he said that, he took out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Xu Chuan.
“This is a project plan submitted by the Joint Academy of Sciences of the Space Administration some time ago. Take a look.”
Taking the envelope with some curiosity, Xu Chuan opened the seal. The files inside were taken out.
When his eyes fell on the report on the first page, he was stunned for a moment, looked at the old man in surprise, and asked.
"Expedition to Barnard's Star?"
Hearing Barnard's Star, Chang Huaxiang was stunned for a moment, and then looked over curiously.
The old man nodded and said: "This is a project plan made by the Aerospace Group, the Space Administration and the Aerospace Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences."
"They plan to launch a space shuttle to carry detection The spacecraft will go to Barnard’s galaxy to detect whether there are Earth-like planets suitable for human habitation and to examine various conditions of outer planets.”
While listening to the old man's introduction, Xu Chuan quickly flipped through the planning documents in his hand.
Barnard's Star, also known as Barnard's Star in English, is a very small red dwarf star located near the beta star Ophiuchus, about 6 light years away from the earth. It was named in memory of the astronomer Edward · Named after Emerson Barnard.
At the same time, it is also the closest 'single star' galaxy to the solar system.
But what is interesting is that it is not the first star closest to the sun, nor the second closest star, nor even the third closest star.
Because the first, second and third stars closest to the sun are all in the Centauri galaxy, which is also the galaxy where Proxima Centauri is better known to everyone.
This story sounds a bit like a certain great man who fired three shots in a row.
Compared to Barnard's Galaxy, the three stars of Proxima Centauri are all closer to the solar system. Among them, Proxima Centauri is only 4.24 light-years away from the sun, making it the closest star to the sun.
The core reason why Barnard's Galaxy was chosen as the target of the expedition instead of the closer Proxima Centauri is that Barnard's Galaxy is a single-star galaxy. Generally speaking, they are more suitable for human expeditions than the Nanmen II system.
First of all, a single star means more stability.
Although the three stars of Nanmenmen are closer, the interaction between the stars means that the surrounding planets will also be affected.
In the famous science fiction novel "Three-Body", the "Trisolaran Civilization" four light-years away was destroyed and reborn more than a hundred times because of the irregular movement of three stars, and was forced to escape from its parent star.
Although science fiction novels are based on fantasy, even from a scientific perspective, Proxima Centauri is not very suitable for human habitation.
Because the planets discovered near it are too close to their parent stars.
The other two stars, Nanmen A and Nanmen B, are in a state of intertwining and influencing each other, which means that even if there are planets nearby, their orbits are likely to be in a chaotic state.
Barnard's Galaxy is different.
The structure of a single star is similar to that of the solar system, and more importantly, three planets were discovered near it, in the habitable zone for life.
It is worth mentioning that these three planets were calculated and confirmed using the expanded application of the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem completed by Xu Chuan through radiation fluctuations, gravitational lensing and other parameters.
Of course, no matter how it is confirmed, there is no doubt that it is now more worthy of exploration than Nanmen II.
Judging from the plan in the letter, this project was divided into two parts by the aerospace group. The first part is earth exploration + unmanned exploration.
That is, various astronomical observation equipment and telescopes are used to investigate Barnard Galaxy on Earth, and then an unmanned space shuttle is launched to carry a large amount of detection equipment to Barnard Galaxy for on-site investigation.
And the second part is the expedition!
Yes, if the results of the first part of the investigation are in line with expectations, the aerospace group is planning to build a large spacecraft to carry three hundred to five hundred people on an expedition to the Barnard Galaxy.
The entire project has been planned for fifty years, which includes reports on some problems that may be encountered and technical breakthroughs that need to be solved.
If you look at it from the letter report, this is indeed a very attractive plan.
Expedition to Barnard’s Galaxy six light years away!
This is simply the most inspiring plan ever.
PS: Please give me a monthly pass~