Voyage of the Stars

Chapter 30 Bad News

After dealing with the matters at the design institute, Yue Yuan took the opportunity to discuss the battleship with Manyuemei, mainly to communicate in advance so that she could be prepared to board the ship in the future.

After the Security Department was split into two, Manyuemei no longer served as the Minister of the Security Department, but became the Minister of the Human Armed Forces Equipment Support Department, also known as the Minister of Arms.

As for the security department, it is headed by Yue Yuan's assistant Zhu Pite.

Both are military departments, but have different functions. The Ministry of Security is mainly responsible for internal security. Internal public safety, security, police and other departments are all under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Security.

The Ministry of Armed Forces is engaged in foreign operations.

Although it is indeed empty talk to talk about foreign wars now, since the new human government has been established, it must have complete functions, and it is not a bad thing to prepare for a rainy day.

Moreover, not everyone can do such things as operating a battleship. Getting on board, getting familiar with it, and training all take time.

The battleship has not been built yet, but you can use simulation equipment to practice first.

In an era when virtual reality technology has become common, simulation exercises are routine operations, and the Callisto base originally had these devices.

Although the battleship design data has not yet been produced, the virtual data of previous transport ships can be used for simulation first.

After leaving the Ministry of Armed Forces, Yue Yuan returned to his busy and regular work routine, reading plans, approving plans, and making decisions.

Time just passed by day by day.

Many technologies that had lagged behind the pre-disaster era were picked up again by the surviving humans, and they continued to catch up along the path they had already traveled once.

It has been more than two years since the controllable nuclear fusion project was proposed, and progress has been obvious. However, there is still a long way to go to reach the level where hope could be clearly seen before the disaster.

Fortunately, controllable nuclear fusion technology has been determined to be achievable before the disaster, and the road to success has been almost paved by predecessors. Therefore, surviving humans do not need to explore the unknown to cross the river, and only need to continue to accumulate technology. , then it will definitely be realized one day.

In fact, this is not only true for controllable nuclear fusion, but also for many other lost technologies, but humans need time.

Humans need time, but Callisto doesn't seem to want to give humans that much time.

Just today, Yue Yuan opened a report that made him worried.

"Callisto Resource Exploration Report"

For more than two years, humans returned to the surface from the underground, and then through various detection methods such as exploration teams, intelligent robots, satellite remote sensing, etc., they finally figured out the detailed resource distribution, structure, and reserves of Callisto.

As a member of the solar system, Callisto, like other planets and asteroids, has a complete range of common elements. Although rare earths and other trace elements are small, they are barely enough for human use at the current scale.

The problem lies in its reserves of radioactive elements, that is, nuclear fuel.

According to estimates in the report, even if humans hollowed out the entire moon of Callisto, the nuclear fuel they could obtain would only be enough for humans to squander for about 70 years at most.

If it is used on the planned new spacecraft, then this number will be discounted.

Yue Yuan rubbed his swollen temples, which gave him a headache.

"Xiao Lin, go and call Dr. Gan De and Dr. Xu Zhenyi." Leaning against the office sofa, Yue Yuan pressed the phone on his desk and said.

"Okay." A crisp voice came from the other end of the phone.

Since Zhu Pitt was pulled by Yue Yuan to take charge of the Security Department, Long Xiaolin took over the position of assistant and secretary, so Yue Yuan's messenger changed from Zhu Pitt to her.

She was in the big office next to Yue Yuan's office, and Yue Yuan called her directly through the direct line.Long Xiaolin's work efficiency was pretty good. After a while, there was a knock on the door of Yue Yuan's office.

"Enter!"

"Mr. Yue, what's the matter?" Xu Zhenyi came in. He asked calmly, then turned around and prepared to close the door.

"There's still one person who hasn't arrived yet, so there's no need to close the door yet." Yue Yuan stopped Xu Zhenyi's movement, then stood up and handed over the tablet in his hand, "Sit down wherever you want, take a look at this first."

Xu Zhenyi took the tablet and read it carefully. The more he looked at it, the more serious his expression became. In the end, he didn't even bother to sit down.

"Chief, what's the latest data?" Xu Zhenyi's face was extremely serious, but he seemed to have become calmer. Perhaps this was the look he usually had.

"Yes, the exploration department has just finished sorting it out." Yue Yuan nodded and signaled Xu Zhenyi to read the content carefully.

Just at this moment, an old man walked in the door, it was Gander.

Before Gan De could speak, Yue Yuan stepped forward and said, "Dr. Gan, how is the current situation in interstellar space?"

"what?"

Gan De was stunned. He did not expect that Yue Yuan called him here to ask this question, but he still answered truthfully: "The interstellar dust is much thinner than two years ago, but it still does not meet the navigation conditions."

Speaking of this, Gan De seemed to understand why Yue Yuan asked, so he raised his eyelids and looked at Yue Yuan, "Mr. Yue, do you want to start an interstellar voyage in a short time?"

Looking at Yue Yuan's eyes that gradually became firmer, Gan De quickly shook his head and said: "No, absolutely not, we will definitely not set sail within 50 years, otherwise we will all die on the road."

Gan De, who knew Yue Yuan's character quite well, knew that Yue Yuan's look in his eyes really wanted to speed up the schedule of mankind's voyage.

But the dust clouds from the supernova remnants still permeate the interstellar space, and are not thin enough to be sailed. If it sets sail rashly, it will definitely be slowly decelerated during the inertial navigation stage, and eventually the fuel will be exhausted and it will perish.

Thinking of this, Gan De, who had always been calm, became a little excited: "General Manager Yue, if the conditions are not met, we must not set sail. This is science. If the data says it won't work, it won't work. There are no miracles."

"Dr. Gan, please don't get excited. I didn't say to set off immediately. Take a look at this first." Yue Yuan suppressed his budding desire to set sail and pointed to the tablet in Xu Zhenyi's hand.

"The situation is not optimistic, Lao Gan." After reading the content, Xu Zhenyi handed over the tablet with a solemn expression.

Gan De was a little confused, but looking at the looks of Yue Yuan and Xu Zhenyi, it seemed that the reason was here.With this in mind, he took the tablet and started browsing it carefully.

After a while, Gan De was also a little confused. He looked at Yue Yuan in disbelief, "Only 70 years?"

"Yes, look further down. Below is the data curve listed by the Engineering Department." Yue Yuan paused and added: "About fuel and spacecraft."

Gan De continued to read down. After a while, he raised his head and glanced at Yue Yuan, then moved his eyes to look at Xu Zhenyi with a solemn expression.

He now knew why Yue Yuanxiang accelerated his voyage.

The reasons are all in this report.

The exploration department provided data on nuclear fuel reserves and usage, and the engineering department made a consumption curve based on these data for the spacecraft and base that were about to be built.

It is marked with clear data. It will take 1 years for the spacecraft to accelerate to 30% of the speed of light, and another 30 years to decelerate. Both processes must continue to consume nuclear fuel.

(End of this chapter)