From black technology to super engineering

Chapter 306 The Gathering of Hundreds of Millions of Sunshine
(There is something wrong with the title...it should be the convergence of billions of suns)

After turning around the engine, Professor Huo Liang asked: "I heard that Musk's plan is to reduce the jet velocity and add other working fluids to increase the thrust. I don't know if there is such a thing."

Ye Ming nodded: "Their plan was put forward a long time ago. During the take-off phase, a large amount of water is injected to increase the jet material and obtain greater thrust."

"Are you sure it's water?"

Ye Ming coughed and just smiled.

Professor Huo Laien talked to him about this purely with the mentality of complaining, rather than specifically leaking secrets to him - the old man still has this kind of ethics.

Moreover, neither Ye Ming nor the country said that they wanted to treat the old man as a "surrender" scientist and pry something useful out of his mouth.

In essence, the coming of the old man represents the transfer of scientific soil-this is the greatest significance.

"They don't have an anti-gravity structure, so they really can only play with these tricks." Ye Ming put his hands behind his back and looked at the engine again.

What a wonderful engine... It's a pity that I can't see what it looks like when it's fully fired and accelerated - because for a long time, or even the entire life cycle, it can only be used for commuting between the earth and the moon. If you really want to accelerate at full speed, At that time, it will be troublesome to slow down and land.

"Come on, let's go to the cave and have a look."

As the workshop door opened, the oncoming cave was also busy.

It will face the jets of the engine - helium-4 atoms, protons and rays.

During the test, various data will be collected here to provide valuable information for the future engine and the fusion reaction itself.

That night, Director Niu hurried over from the capital.

……

"I won't let you make failure plans."

Director Niu didn't look as careless as usual today, on the contrary, he was very serious.

Ye Ming could tell that Lao Niu was nervous.

As the leader of CNY, and as a radical supporter of the Kuafu project, Comrade Niu Jianjun is very clear about what the ignition failure means...

It's not that I'm going to drop my black hat, after all, it's normal to have failures in the field of science.

But if there is an accident in such a large project, no matter what you say in the future... it will definitely not work so well.

"Hehe, you asked me to do it, and I can't do it..." Ye Ming shrugged with a smile: "Now the expert team is full of engine upgrade plans, what do you want us to do?"

"Well, so let me give you a brief introduction to the general development route in the future."

Speaking of Director Niu, he breathed lightly and stared at Ye Ming seriously: "Although the country has been talking about stability, but when it is really determined to be "radical", you must believe that our country still has the courage of."

Ye Ming shivered, then nodded: "You say."

"Engine upgrades needless to say, but more, we still need to take advantage of the opportunity of building a factory on the moon to complete the layout of the helium 3 industrial chain."

Ye Ming nodded slightly, but soon asked: "Is there any international agreement on lunar development?"

"Have."

Ye Ming was stunned: "Then why is this a monopoly?"

Director Niu blinked: "But we didn't participate."

Ye Ming: "..."

Director Niu laughed: "The Artemis agreement was established a few years ago, and it attracted many people, but it just didn't pull us, and excluded us."

Ye Ming immediately became interested when he heard it: "How should I say it?"

"Well, it seems that it was announced by NASA in 2020. Anyway, it is to manage the exploration and mining activities on the moon by the signatory countries and private companies, and to establish some safety zones around the exploration and mining areas on the surface of the moon. Now the member countries ...Basically, those in the 5-eyes G7 EU."

Ye Ming laughed.

That's nice, isn't it?
Then he asked curiously again: "Is the Artemis plan still flying?"

"Ghost knows, anyway, after the rapid progress of controllable nuclear fusion in the past two years, the Artemis project has become a bit embarrassing... But I guess, according to Laomei's temperament, I should still fly, not to say that in June this year Is it?" Director Niu chuckled, "Anyway, there's still a month or two left, so I'll see when the time comes."

"..."

"Since we have not joined the Artemis agreement, it means that we are not restricted. In the next few years, we must complete the establishment of multiple spacecraft as soon as possible, and at the same time complete the industrialization of Helium 3."

Speaking of Director Niu, he said to Ye Ming: "You know what I mean..."

"Are you going to build a helium-3 fusion commercial power station?"

"Yes, so in the next step, engine upgrades are not necessary. The main thing is to complete the demonstration construction of a commercial power station for helium-3 fusion, and at the same time accelerate the development of lunar resources."

Ye Ming nodded.

Of course, this is also what he thought, but... some goals are easy to say, but it is really difficult to achieve technically.

Among other things, to increase development efforts, water alone is the biggest problem.

Although the existence of water ice has been found on the moon, how much, whether it is enough, and whether it is convenient to extract are all unknown.

In order to solve the problem of water resources, even the expert group opened up their brains to chase comets and obtain water resources from comets.

Of course, experts still dare not open up the brain hole of capturing comets—at least not until they have a large amount of antimatter resources.

"In addition to increasing the development of the moon, we should also consider Mars, but the Mars base is more for scientific research, rather than bragging about human immigration-it might as well plant a few more trees in the desert."

Ye Ming laughed out loud.

What Lao Niu said deeply pleased him.

Mars is definitely going to go, but definitely not as a Martian immigrant, but as a frontier scientific research station.

In fact, any planet that requires atmospheric modification to become habitable is actually not suitable for large-scale immigration, but only suitable for scientific research bases and resource collection places.

If you really want to be a spaceman, you might as well build a huge ark in space, and then push it out of the solar system with a fusion engine.

After the two chatted for about two hours, Director Niu glanced at the time: "Okay, I won't pressure you anymore, let's wait until the ignition is successful two days later, and all the plans now have to be finalized after the engine is completed. , when the time comes, you still have to go to the capital."

"Ah."

……

The next day, Director Zhang brought a group of people to join the fusion team, and Chief Engineer Luo of Foreign Nuclear also brought a group of experts to Jiangcheng.

Early on the morning of the third day, Ye Ming arrived at the command hall.

At eleven o'clock in the morning, a video call from the capital was connected to the big screen in the command hall.

In the video, the leader first made a very formal anticipation speech, and then said that he and his colleagues would watch the entire ignition process in time and cheer for the entire project team.

Hearing this, although there was applause in the hall, everyone's mood became uncontrollably more tense.

At [-]:[-], Ye Ming and Director Zhang stood in front of the ignition button at the same time.

Ye Ming put his hand on the back of Chief Zhang's hand, and he could clearly feel that the hands of the aerospace director who had hit the plane with a hammer were shaking constantly.

Perhaps sensing Ye Ming's eyes, Director Zhang also looked up at him, and said in a low voice, "I took a quick-acting pill."

Ye Ming: "..."

Director Zhang laughed: "I'm lying to you, but it's really impossible not to be nervous."

"Well." Ye Ming took a deep breath: "Don't worry, you won't fail."

As soon as his voice fell, the countdown began.

When the countdown reached zero, the two of them worked hard at the same time.

On the monitoring screen, the high-energy particle beam simulating the ignition screen instantly turned, and there was also a huge buzzing sound outside the house.

In turn, the simulated ion beam turned blue.

During the monitoring, the temperature number began to jump continuously, reaching hundreds of millions of degrees in an instant.

In the entire hall, everyone held their breath.

When the temperature reached [-] million degrees, four large characters instantly popped out.

"Fusion Begins"

Ye Ming looked at the four words, and his pupils shrank instantly: "The power output of the engine is 1/10."

As his voice fell, at the monitoring scene in the screen, a strong light rose from the factory building, just like the rays of hundreds of millions of suns gathered here, shining towards the cave.

(End of this chapter)