When Zhang Jingyuan walked into the conference hall of the satellite research department, almost all the more important seniors in the master company were already present. A middle-aged scientist was explaining his ideas in a lively manner; Zhang Jingyuan was not even noticed when he arrived. When Zhang Jingyuan came in, one-third of the video progress bar had passed. Behind Zhang Jingyuan, more people arrived one after another.
Zhang Jingyuan had the impression that the people above seemed to be the faces of the group of experts who went to Germany before the unification of the earth. However, after so many years, I have met too many people and experienced too many things. Even Zhang Jingyuan has blurred too much because he did not deliberately remember it.
Gradually, Zhang Jingyuan got some clues. This is a brand-new detector launch concept, a concept, not a new technology. But sometimes we have to say that technology is just the foundation. How to apply technology is guided by concepts! Of course, we cannot deviate from the essence of technology.
But in just two minutes, Wang Nannan came in, followed by Li Bing, Li Guoyi's grandson and Li Xinyu's younger brother.
"Papa..." Wang Nannan clapped her palms gracefully. When everyone looked over, her red lips parted slightly: "Chen Gong, everyone is here, and I have seen your ideas; but these big shots have I don’t know. I can only ask you to explain it again.”
"Minister Wang, this is my honor." The middle-aged man nodded slightly.
At this time, Zhang Jingyuan remembered that the man in front of him should be named Chen Xingping. No, judging from his age, he should be Chen Xingping's son. Chen Xingping was an outstanding welder who returned from Germany. He looked about 20 years old at the time. After more than 40 years of experience, ordinary workers have to make certain contributions before they can get involved in spiritual practice, so his appearance cannot be like this. He is young; therefore, the person in front of him must be Chen Xingping's son; but his face is really similar to the one in Zhang Jingyuan's memory.
"Hello, leaders. My name is Chen Feng, and I am the son of Chen Xingping, the empire's top welder. What I am explaining today is that we should explore places outside the solar system now, thirty years, three hundred or even thousands of years in advance. Please listen. I'll do it one by one.
First of all, although the solar system is very large. But in fact, we have basically explored it over the years. Except for a few planets, there is actually nothing left, empty. As for dark matter, which accounts for 97% of the mass of the universe, we are currently powerless.
In addition, the solar system is really too small in the universe. Now that we have entered the space age. Then the next interstellar era will inevitably be on the agenda.
It's just that my thoughts are different from other people's thoughts, and I think mine is the right one. Many people say that the construction of Venus. It will take at least 30 years to build a strong science and technology; therefore, some people say that we will only concentrate on developing space technology in 30 years. But I think we need to start exploring worlds beyond our solar system now.
Thirty years may be a long time, but we have already gone through eight years. On the other hand, we cannot avoid it. Very large-scale space environment. Even the speed of light needs to be calculated in years. Assuming that we now have an aircraft that reaches one-tenth the speed of light, it will take 42 years to reach the nearest star system to us, which is the constellation Centauri. However, this is a binary star system, because the instability of the binary star system makes it difficult for such a binary star or even a multi-star system to have a basis suitable for the existence of life; even transformation is basically impossible. So for us. Such galaxies don't make much sense. As for mineral resources, there are Kuiper belt and Oort cloud around the solar system, and there are many resource stars. Therefore, since this Centaur star system is neither habitable nor terraformable, nor does it have the resources we need, there is no point in exploring such a place. At least. For the time being, it makes no sense.
Then, the next Barnard's Star is 6 light years away from us, Woolf 359 is 7.7 light years away, Brand 2147 is 8.2 light years away, UV Ceti is 8.4 light years away, Sirius is 8.7 light years away, and Ross 154 The star is 9.5 light-years away and the Ross 248 star is 10.4 light-years away. Epsilon Eridanus is 10.8 light years away, Ross 128 is 10.9 light years away...forget it, the larger the range, the more stars are around it. But according to recent observations, and there is clear evidence, it is the star T in the constellation Cetus, which is 12 light-years away from us. Here we have observed a planet suitable for life, and it is basically certain that there will be life on it; the nearest Observations have shown that there may be clouds on this planet. After more than 2,000 observations by humans and detectors over the past year, it is basically certain that there is life on this planet; of course, we cannot determine the form and whether life exists. There are advanced beings. What we call advanced life refers to life forms that possess brain tissue.
If we want to explore Planet T in the constellation Cetus at close range, if we start launching detectors now and emit one-tenth of the light, it will take 120 years for the detectors to arrive. Oh, this is the Earth's chronology; if it were replaced by Venus, then we would have to wait 156 years. After that, the exploration signal still needs to return, which is another 12 Earth years.
Starry Sky Exploration, the author just wants to be lazy, ahem... for the sake of unit unification, we still use the earth's time unit. After all, there are so many interstellar observation data on Earth over the past century that it would be inconvenient to change the units. Moreover, it is foreseeable that with the development, the starry sky time in the future will inevitably be diverse, and we need a standard now.
In addition, we have a weakness in communications. Superstring communication devices in space are only effective within a maximum range of 1.5 billion kilometers, which obviously does not have much effect in a universe that is often measured in light years. If we want to enter space, we must have more advanced communication technology. In other words, a base station for superstring communication devices in space. However, I did the math and the cost was enough to break us. Approximately 80 million base stations need to be installed within one light year to barely line up a line to transmit information. Based on the calculation of a near-earth base station cost of 10 million, it is estimated that the cost price increases by 1% for each point farther away, so I am sorry that I did not calculate the final number, because it has no meaning. Anyway, tying the Earth and Venus together is not enough to bear the cost. Well, it should be about 50 billion yuan.
Of course, today I am not talking about communication technology; We should explore now. The scale of space is too large. We must plan for the next hundred or millenniums a hundred years in advance!
In space, not inside the planet, the plane started and arrived in a few hours. In space, any temporary plan is too late! You know, even if we take a trip to the constellation Centauri. Calculated at a speed of one-tenth of a light-year, a one-way trip would take 42 years! If we make a temporary plan, the information transmission time will take 4.22 Earth years, and when we receive feedback, it will take about 8.5 years! At this point, any plans are useless!
so. I think we should plan for the future now. So I designed a detector launcher. The technologies used are all our existing technologies, and I even borrowed some of the labor results of others. But I can only say that this is currently the lowest-cost and most feasible method of interstellar exploration.
First of all, according to the mass-energy formula m=m÷(1-v^2÷c^2)^2, we can know that when the speed of an object is close to the speed of light, the greater the speed, the greater the mass. The reason remains unknown for now. It should be the high-level laws of the universe at work.
According to my rough calculations, an interstellar exploration probe must have powerful capabilities—and modern ones still use electricity. Therefore, I recommend using micro-scale mature nuclear fission technology. As far as I know, we should have mastered those handheld nuclear fission technologies now. ”
"I know this." At this time, Li Yuzhang, who had been responsible for energy research, stood up. As a core member of Gaoshou Company, he is over seventy years old, but he still looks energetic. "The handheld nuclear power plant you mentioned was only perfected recently. It is nuclear fission technology. As for nuclear fusion, I'm sorry. Now they It is one hundred meters in diameter and requires a lot of sea water for cooling
In addition, the most reasonable handheld nuclear power plant is one with a diameter of 30 centimeters, which can work continuously for 50 years and output 10 kilowatt hours of electricity per hour; it is also very stable and safe, and is a mature product. It is about to be mass-produced and will be used as an energy source for future space communications, various small detectors, and satellites.
Now. In order to meet the needs of space, the minimum diameter can be ten centimeters, the output of one kilowatt hour of electricity per hour, and the working time of 10 years; the maximum diameter can be one meter. It can be adjusted to a maximum of 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour and works for 60 years; it can be adjusted to a minimum of 10 degrees and works for 200 years. After two hundred years, the hardware has aged and cannot be continued.
Well, there's also weight. The weight of 30 centimeters is about 90 kilograms, and nuclear fuel is relatively heavy. One meter weighs 17 tons. Give us another year, the 30cm size will also be able to automatically adjust the power output and the lifespan may continue to be extended. For the measurement of time units, for the sake of unification, the earth chronology is used. There is too much information in scientific research, and we can only continue to extend the time of the earth.
But I worry that in space exploration, ten years and a hundred years will not be enough at all. ”
"Thank you." Chen Feng bowed slightly, "In this case, we will use 30 centimeters of nuclear fusion. The output of 10 degrees of electricity per hour should be able to basically meet the needs of the space probe.
In this way, the design weight of an interstellar probe with good functions is about 200 kilograms. We calculate based on 200 kilograms.
My plan is this. Use the super combined electromagnetic guide rail to launch the detector. This guide rail is not the length we usually see, it is several kilometers. Rather, it is thousands of kilometers or even tens of thousands of kilometers.
Using the guide rail, we accelerate the detector as much as possible and then launch it out of the solar system. When the detector is moving forward, we use solar sails to accelerate the detector.
There is no resistance in space, which allows us to design the solar sail to be large enough within a reasonable range. Using nanofilm technology, we can design a solar sail with an area of tens of thousands of square meters, and the weight can be controlled within 30 kilograms.
Then, we use the space mirror to collect enough sunlight and convert it into parallel sunlight beams to illuminate the solar sail, thereby continuing to accelerate the detector.
We already have several types of high-strength films that are resistant to high temperatures. However, there is one thing to note here. This film needs to be as reflective as possible. In this way, lighting and reflection will provide two thrusts. Otherwise, a large amount of light will be absorbed, and under high-speed motion, this absorbed energy will be converted into mass through an unknown mechanism. This is what we don't want to see.
Using the phenomenon of constant speed of light, theoretically, we can always accelerate the detector to infinitely close to the speed of light. Of course, this doesn't make sense to us. In science, we never vigorously explore things that don't make much sense.
But in theory, as long as there is an endless supply of sunlight, the detector can be accelerated all the time. However, considering the complex space environment, solar sails will sometimes lose their effectiveness. Therefore, we will activate nuclear power plants at this time to provide forward momentum and energy for instrument work.
But the specific speed, etc., still need to be calculated. After personal calculations, I prefer to ultimately accelerate to 0.7 times the speed of light, and use 0.7 times the speed of light as a standard for our exploration of the universe. Because when it is about 0.7 times, the mass of the substance will double. An object with a mass of one kilogram becomes two kilograms. But on small detectors, this change is acceptable.
At 0.7 times the speed of light, it will take about 17 years for the detector to reach the star T in the Ceti constellation; it will take 12 years for the signal to return. Taking into account the various complex problems of the universe, it will take about 30 Earth years and 39 Venus years before we can receive feedback signals from the detectors launched now.
This time does not include the time consumed by the acceleration process.
Also, I want to say that this kind of detector launch technology can only be regarded as the foundation. If it needs to be expanded in the future, the technology can be expanded and used as a way to accelerate the spacecraft. ”
Many people frowned when they heard this and forgot to clap their hands in congratulations. The reality is so bad, no one thought of it; to be precise, no one dared to think about it! Because this is so shocking.
Originally, I felt that I was very powerful. You see, the technology is so advanced that it far surpasses our counterparts on Earth. But now, when I took a look at the specific numbers, I discovered that - after taking a test, according to current technology, it will take more than 40 years to travel to the nearest constellation Centaur - and it is still a one-way trip. If you include the time for signal transmission, it will take 45 years! How many 45 years are there in life! Ordinary people can live two 45 years, that is real longevity!
For a moment, the scene felt a little calm, or rather depressing. Only Chen Feng was silently demonstrating and explaining his expected animation. The guide rail, which is tens of thousands of kilometers long, has a pair of wings every 100 meters - they are photovoltaic cells; the electromagnetic guide rail with a total of 100,000 pairs of wings is like a dragon in space; the error at any point of the entire guide rail is almost zero, and the diameter is about one rice. If it is larger, the magnetic field will be dispersed, resulting in reduced rail technology efficiency and serious heating. Also, due to the influence of various forces in space and the universe, a guide rail with a length of tens of thousands of kilometers is almost equivalent to the diameter of the planet. There are still many difficulties that need to be overcome to realize such a slender guide rail technology with current technology. ;Rather than simply splicing.