The last human in the universe

Chapter 93 Crystallization
As a highly respected research senior, Wang Luoyi has a very high degree of freedom and authority in the Institute of Optics.But he didn't use any manpower and material resources. He just buried his head in the database every day, constantly thinking, constantly consulting materials and documents, or communicating with colleagues.

He was looking for a new idea, a whole new way of making mirrors for very large space telescopes.

Optical telescopes produced by traditional mirror-making methods have proven ineffective in the search for dwarf planets near Sedna.Therefore, there must be a new path.

However, on the earth back then, human civilization in its heyday, and human civilization with tens of millions of scientific researchers, could not do this. Now, with a total population of less than 200 million people, just relying on this Is it possible for a scientific research institution with two or three big cats and kittens to do this?
It seems impossible to analyze from the common sense.But after careful thinking, Wang Luoyi believed that this was possible.

The main reason lies in the difference of the environment.

People in the Earth Age, because the gravity of the Earth is too high, did not have the conditions to enter and exit space as conveniently and quickly as they are now.In the age of Earth, people would think that building factories in space was a fool's errand unless there was a special need.But for the new human civilization, building huge living bases and huge factories in space is just a routine operation.

This does not mean that the level of technology is high or low, but that the environment is different.

Things that people couldn't do in the earth age back then may not be impossible to do now.

Of course, this road is still very difficult.

Wang Luoyi kept thinking and searching.And this is not easy for an old man.He had thought of giving up countless times, but every time he remembered that his daughter could not even take science experiment classes, and remembered that even leader Zhao Changxing had cut his own resource allocation, like himself, he could only take a bath every five days on average, and only once every three days Clothes, it feels like power is born out of thin air in the body.

In this constant thinking and exploration, an idea was slowly born in his mind.

After submitting the preliminary idea, his idea quickly got the support of Zhao Changxing.To this end, Zhao Changxing specially dispatched a cargo spacecraft, carrying the tools he needed, to travel a full distance of 1000 million kilometers, and carried out experiments in this place that is hardly affected by the gravitational force of any celestial body.

In the pitch-black cultivation cabin, some specially processed raw materials were thrown into it.In it, in the extremely low temperature, almost zero radiation environment, and extremely close to vacuum environment, some strange reactions are slowly happening.

This reaction is usually called crystallization.

The experiment conducted by Wang Luoyi this time is to try the possibility of manufacturing ultra-large space telescope lenses through the crystallization method.

This is a whole new path.This path has never been tried before.

This experiment lasted a total of five days.Five days later, when Wang Luo got the transparent piece of concave "glass" with a diameter of only about 9 centimeters, besides joy, he also felt uneasy.

He didn't know whether the crystal that looked like glass but wasn't actually glass could have the performance he needed.

He hurried back to the optical laboratory in Science City.

The final test result is that the various indicators of this crystal are seriously lower than the requirements of the space telescope lens.

Transparency, reflectivity, flatness, etc., none of which are qualified.

But Wang Luoyi didn't feel depressed at all, instead he let go of his heart completely, and his heart was also filled with joy.

So what if you fail?After all, this is only the first experiment.In fact, the crystals crystallized for the first time can obtain the performance at the moment, which has far exceeded expectations.

This presented a whole new world for Wang Luoyi.When he published the data of this research, the optical research community was detonated almost instantly.For a time, an unknown number of experts began to devote their attention to this new method.

Even Zhao Changxing was alarmed, and even issued special instructions, requiring all departments to fully cooperate with Professor Wang Luoyi's experiment and do their best to meet all needs.

Under such circumstances, the second and third experiments were carried out one after another.In this almost zero-gravity environment far away from any stars, one crystal "seed" after another is slowly developing in one secret room after another.

The experiment lasted for more than a year.When the signs of resource depletion of Sedna Star and Deep Space Star became more and more obvious, the first main lens of an optical telescope with a diameter of 19.6 meters was finally manufactured.

It is formed in one piece, rather than assembled from many small lenses.Although space telescopes in the Earth era are generally assembled from small mirrors.

This is on Sedna Star where you can easily enter and leave space, there is no need to do that.

According to estimates, its various performances will surpass all optical telescopes made by humans in the past after all other supporting facilities, such as lens barrels and support frames, are in place.

At this moment, even Zhao Changxing sent a congratulatory message expressing his sincere appreciation.

Various supporting facilities were quickly completed in the space factory, and then transported to a place more than 1000 million kilometers away from the Sedna star, where they were assembled.

Yes, this space telescope with unprecedented performance will eventually be placed here, not closer to Sedna's star.

The main reason for this is that although the performance of this lens is high, it is also too delicate and too fragile.

Its manufacturing process and subsequent operating environment must be carried out at a temperature lower than 10K throughout the entire process, and the temperature fluctuation during the entire process must not exceed 0.02 degrees Celsius, otherwise the internal density will change, resulting in greatly reduced light transmission performance.

The manufacturing environment and operating environment must be extremely pure vacuum, because dense gas molecules can also cause damage to it.

It can't get close to any larger gravitational source, otherwise it will deform itself. In theory, even spaceships with a mass of more than 10 billion tons cannot approach—of course, humans don't have such large spaceships at this stage. .

At the same time, it cannot even be directly irradiated with a strong light source.Shining a bright flashlight directly on its lens may cause irreparable damage to it.

Its manufacturing and operation process cannot be approached by humans.Because the human body is also a powerful source of infrared radiation, which can damage its structure.

The impact of interstellar dust clouds will also greatly reduce its performance.

The final plan determined by people is to manufacture it in the same way as the Hubble telescope in the earth era.That is, build a deep, large empty barrel, install this lens in the bottom of the empty barrel, and rely on the body of the barrel to provide it with as comprehensive protection as possible.If necessary, the empty barrel can be closed directly to completely protect it.

Such high requirements make its final assembly difficult.However, people finally overcame various difficulties and assembled it.

When its first live-action pictures were sent back to the Institute of Optics in Science City, everyone was boiling.

For the first observation, its chosen target was a distant star.As a result, people can see the corona structure of this star very clearly, and even, after blocking the light of the star, people even directly see the existence of a planet orbiting it.

This planet is probably slightly smaller than Jupiter, and what is shown in the picture are only some pixels, and a more accurate appearance cannot be seen at all.But this is already an extremely astonishing discovery.

You know, the human world has never directly taken pictures of planets equivalent to Jupiter or smaller than Jupiter in other star systems before!It can't even render a single pixel.

This is undoubtedly a historic breakthrough.

Facing the crowd's congratulations like the tide, Wang Luoyi felt a sense of relaxation from the bottom of his heart.

"Finally, it's finally done...the search for the dwarf planet near Sedna is finally hopeful."

Zhao Changxing came over and held his hand tightly.

"On behalf of the entire civilization, I thank you for your contribution."

Wang Luoyi looked at Zhao Changxing, who was obviously much younger than him, but his actual age was several times his own, and he also clenched his hand tightly.

As a scientist, Wang Luo also has his own thoughts on some things in his heart.

He knew that Zhao Changxing could almost change the direction of the entire civilization by himself in the past dispute over whether to divide human beings from subhuman beings.

Wang Luoyi believes that for a normal civilization, that is, a civilization with a normal cycle of life and death, when faced with the dilemma of resource depletion, the decision to divide human beings and subhumans is a historical trend and an irresistible trend .

After all, this choice has too many rationalities and too many benefits.

If Zhao Changxing died early, and human civilization continued to change leaders like a normal civilization, then, in this ever-evolving social environment, the new leader is very likely, no, not very likely, but It will definitely obey this historical trend and complete the division of human and subhuman in human civilization.

But Zhao Changxing can live forever.He connected the old human civilization and the new human civilization.Deeply influenced by the concept of equality for all in the old human civilization of the earth age, he is like a magic needle in the sea, firmly fixing human civilization on the road of "everyone is equal", making it impossible for it to develop in other directions.

And this may be the only fundamental difference between human civilization and other civilizations in the universe.

Only in this way, human civilization will be the human civilization that I am familiar with, that I love, and that I am willing to give everything for it...

"You are a good leader. I hope our civilization will become stronger and stronger under your leadership."

This sentence, Wang Luoyi said sincerely.

　Thank you book friends for the rewards of "miniature examples", thank you, thank you very much!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)