The last human in the universe

Chapter 43 Dead Knot
Humanity City, which covers an area of ​​about 210 million square meters, is divided into three phases.After the completion of the third phase of the project, there will be a total of 2000 houses.Calculated based on an average of two people living in a house, it can accommodate about 4000 people.

The No. [-], No. [-], and No. [-] comprehensive bases can also carry thousands of people.It can even be said that the amount of residence is no longer a restriction at all.Because the construction of the human city has clearly demonstrated that the current human civilization has the ability to quickly build residences anytime and anywhere.

Then, the biggest bottleneck currently restricting the development of civilization is population.

I don't know how many times, the officials in charge of the industry came to Zhao Changxing to complain, and strongly demanded that more industrial population be allocated to the industrial zone.The heads of various government departments will also find Zhao Changxing every now and then, and strongly demand more manpower for the department.And the reason is so good that even Zhao Changxing can't refute it, because those things are real.

The XX production line that could have been launched could not be launched due to lack of people.The XX products that could have been produced could not be produced due to lack of people.The factory building and equipment that could have been built could not be built because of the lack of people.These things are real obstacles to the development of civilization.

Even the agricultural department in charge of the planting base and animal husbandry base, and the education department in charge of the Tinder spacecraft are strongly demanding that more people be assigned.

The semi-annual graduation season is the most important day for all government departments.Because at this time, 100 adult graduates will leave the Tinder spacecraft and can be added to the human base.But Zhao Changxing is always very strict about this matter. Regarding the allocation of these 100 people, he never depends on how miserable the department heads are crying, and always only depends on whether a certain department can persist.

Said that there are too few people and too much work, so you can't keep going?I'm sorry, it doesn't count if you say you can't hold on, it counts when I say it.I said that if you can still persist, you can persist.I think you still have a lot of potential to tap this year. The 100 people in this graduation season will not be supplemented by your department.

Can't stand it anymore?Oh, let me see, I really can't hold on anymore... Then add one person to your department, one person is enough, and you can hold on.

Since the establishment of the human government, the distribution of adults has been such a process.

But this is only a last resort. The population growth rate is too low, and there is really no way.

Now, Zhao Changxing finally wants to concentrate on solving this problem.The reason why it is decided to solve it now is that the successful construction of the human city means the level of industrial capacity, which gave Zhao Changxing confidence.

Hearing that Zhao Changxing finally decided to solve this matter, many people wept with joy.All the participants came to this meeting with the fullest enthusiasm.

"The main obstacle is the limited capacity of the Tinder spacecraft. This will limit our population growth rate to a maximum of 100 people every six months."

No matter how many children people can give birth to naturally, under the iron law that "minors can only stay in the Tinder spaceship which is equivalent to the gravity environment of the earth", this upper limit cannot be broken no matter what.Because there are too many people, the Tinder spacecraft cannot fit.

"Then, we have two plans. One, to expand the capacity of the Pyro Starship, and two, to build a second rearing base in space."

This nurturing base for minors must be established in space.Because only in the space environment, the base can create a gravity environment equivalent to that of the earth in the form of rotation.At the same time, because it is only used as a raising base, the difficulty of its construction will also be reduced linearly.

It doesn't even need a propulsion engine.Because of the special environment of Sedna, once an object launched into space has a orbiting speed, the speed will basically not decay, and it can continue to orbit without falling.

"A nurturing base with a population equivalent to that of the Tinder spacecraft, based on five circles, would have a length of at least 500 meters and a total mass of several million tons. This is far beyond our existing projects ability."

No matter how low the gravity of Sedna is, transporting millions of tons of materials into space is an impossible task at this stage.What's more, this has not taken into account specific construction issues, such as whether the existing technology can achieve the construction of such a huge space base.

"The plan of building a second tending base is not feasible. Then, the only solution is to expand the capacity of the Tinder spacecraft. Extend its main axis and build more circles on the extended axis."

Zhao Changxing looked at the person in charge of the industrial department.The person in charge of the industrial department immediately stated: "As long as the problem of material transportation can be solved, the project of extending the main axis and adding layers of circles on the main axis will not be technically difficult."

The fusion reactor equipped on the Tinder spacecraft still has a large margin, and people do not need to consider energy issues.The extension shaft is connected to the main shaft, and there is no need to consider the problem of rotation.It is not difficult to only extend the main shaft and rebuild some shells with radiation protection, heat preservation and impact resistance.

"How much supplies do you need to expand the Pylon Spaceship?"

The Director of Industry made quick calculations and replied: "On average, adding a new circle layer requires 3.5 tons of supplies. It can accommodate 700 minors."

3.5 tons of materials have to be transported into space, even on Sedna, it is still a big project for people at this moment.Besides, it will definitely not just add a new circle.That doesn't make much sense.

Zhao Changxing pondered: "Can the space elevator be built now?"

Building a space elevator on Sedna is many times easier than building it on Earth.The reason is that Sedna is too small and its gravity is too low.

If a space elevator is to be built on the earth, its length must be at least [-] kilometers, and the material strength requirements can be called abnormal.But here on Star Sedna, the length of the space elevator is about [-] kilometers. If the material is strong, carbon nanotubes can meet the requirements.

The person in charge of the industrial department smiled wryly: "Now we can only produce carbon nanotubes in the laboratory, which is still far from mass production."

"Is the electromagnetic gun okay?"

The surface escape velocity of Sedna is about 500 meters per second. Then, through the electromagnetic acceleration technology, the relevant materials can be directly accelerated to a speed of more than 500 meters per second, and then they can be directly launched into orbit.In this way, the purpose of transporting a large amount of materials into space can be achieved.

"Our technology, ahem, there is still a gap."

"Is it going to be transported one by one by spaceship?"

Zhao Changxing was in trouble.

This is obviously unrealistic.

At this stage, the Falcon 3000 and [-] spacecraft are the only bridges between the Tinder spacecraft and the human base on the surface.In order to transport enough food and clothing for more than [-] minors in the Tinder spacecraft, the two spacecraft have been busy all the time, and there is really no more capacity.

Thinking of these two spaceships, Zhao Changxing thought of another problem, or a hidden danger.

It has to be said that the quality of the two Falcon spacecraft manufactured by devoting all the power of human civilization and striving for perfection, regardless of cost, really amazes people at this moment.Up to now, they have been working with high intensity for more than 100 years without a single major failure.

But... with only these two Falcon spacecraft, the connection between the Tinder spacecraft and the ground base is still too weak.Once a Falcon spacecraft fails, people are immediately dumbfounded.If both ships fail, the problem will be even bigger.

"Just solve this hidden danger together." Zhao Changxing felt ruthless in his heart, and tapped his fingers on the table, and the government officials immediately returned to silence.

"Space elevators and electromagnetic guns won't work, so build spaceships. Fusion-powered ion propulsion spaceships won't work, then build chemical fuel spaceships."

The so-called chemical fuel spacecraft, like the rockets launched by people on the earth many years ago, generates a large amount of gas through the combustion of chemical fuels such as liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, methane, liquid oxygen, and partial dimethyl gen, and injects it from the bottom to obtain power. kind of.

Still because Sedna is too small and its gravity is too low, the difficulty of building a chemical-fueled spaceship is only a tenth of that on Earth at most.

People looked at each other.

"This, isn't this a space shuttle?"

"That's right. It's just a space shuttle that can go up by itself without rocket launch. If ten ships are not enough, we will build a hundred ships, and if a hundred ships are not enough, we will build a thousand ships. Even if the ants move, they must transport the building materials to me. "

Zhao Changxing has already lost his temper.In any case, the problem of too slow population growth must be solved.

In today's era, the population is too small so the level of industrialization cannot continue to increase rapidly, and if the level of industrialization cannot be increased rapidly, it is impossible to build a larger space rearing base and increase the rate of population growth. These two things have almost become a dead knot entangled with each other. .And it seems that chemical fuel spacecraft is the only tool that can untie this deadlock.

The person in charge of the industrial department is full of confidence: "Leader, don't worry, I will do preliminary research right now."

For this plan, he has no reason not to be full of confidence.

Although everyone knows that the industrial capacity is still at a relatively low level at the moment, on Sedna, you can jump to a height of several hundred meters with a kicker, and you can shoot bullets into orbits with a pistol. , there's no reason why you can't even make a chemical-fueled spaceship, right?
But the development of things once again exceeded people's expectations.Less than two months after the person in charge of the industrial department took over the task with confidence, he found Zhao Changxing again with a bitter face.

"Leader, it turns out that our technology really can't even make chemical-fueled spaceships."

"Our material technology is still not up to standard, and we can't produce qualified materials. The pressure and temperature in the combustion chamber of chemical fuel engines are too high, and any material we have will be deformed in that environment..."

Zhao Changxing seemed unbelievable, startled for a moment, looked at the person in charge of the industrial department, and repeated the sentence: "Even, can't even make a chemical fuel spacecraft?"

(End of this chapter)