In the vastness of space, a small spacecraft floats quietly above the orbit of the planet Jade, orbiting it at a speed of more than 600 meters per second.
It is not big, only about seven or eight meters in length, and its widest point is only a little over three meters, just like the size of a small truck on Earth.
Its total mass is only a dozen tons. In the face of the mass of an interstellar transport ship, which can easily reach hundreds of thousands of tons, it is undoubtedly just a small thing.
But, even if it's just a little thing, it's still a solid spaceship. It is a spacecraft built by Han Yang based on the industrial capabilities and technological foundation of the Jade God Base.
This was made by Han Yang himself. Every screw, every cable, and every component was made by himself!
As everyone unanimously agrees, spaceships are the most highly integrated technological creations in industry. Because the parts and technologies required by a spacecraft involve almost all industrial categories.
Correspondingly, what kind of spaceship can be built is also the most important indicator to measure a civilization's technological strength and industrial base.
Manufacturing this spaceship is undoubtedly a comprehensive test of the industrial development level of the entire Jade Star base.
As long as the development of an industrial category is not up to standard, Han Yang will not be able to create it.
And now, Han Yang has created it!
Even with Han Yang's temperament, he was a little excited at this momentary achievement.
Under his control, a command traveled from the earth to the Jade Star Communication Center across a distance of more than 200 billion kilometers through long-distance communication, and was then transmitted via radio waves to the small ship named "Xinsheng" by Han Yang. On the small spaceship.
Just like the birth of a new life, although it is weak at the moment, the future contains infinite hope!
On the Xinsheng spacecraft, two low-power ion thrusters installed at the tail simultaneously ejected bright red light, pushing it to slowly accelerate.
"Well, the acceleration has reached 0.3 mm/S^2, which is not bad."
The speed of the Xinsheng spacecraft at this moment is 665 meters per second. The second cosmic speed of Ephemera at about 100 kilometers is 790 meters per second.
That is to say, as long as the speed of the Xinsheng spacecraft reaches 790 meters per second, it can break away from the gravitational field of Jade God and leave Jade God.
At this moment, the Xinsheng spacecraft was slowly accelerating. It has been accelerating for almost five days. When the orbit of the Xinsheng spacecraft became extremely flat, when it reached the apogee at one point, it finally broke away from the gravitational control of Jadeite in a parabolic orbit and flew towards the vast sky. space.
Everything was as Han Yang expected.
At this moment, the speed of the Xinsheng spacecraft is 792 meters per second relative to Ephemera. Although it has escaped from Ephemera's gravitational field, it has not yet escaped from the sun's gravitational field.
If left unchecked and unmodified, the spacecraft will begin to orbit the sun.
But of course Han Yang would not allow this to happen. After the Xinsheng spacecraft flew a certain distance, the engine was shut down directly. A small aerospace spacecraft directly caught up with it, dragged it back, and then transported it to the laboratory.
Han Yang immediately controlled the robot and inspected it to determine the operating status of each system and component.
"The ion engine is working perfectly, the hydraulic system is intact, the electrical system is intact, the control system is intact..."
The results of the inspection made Han Yang very satisfied.
The only thing that dissatisfied Han Yang was that the fuel tank of the Xinsheng spacecraft was... empty.
In order to support this experiment, Han Yang specially purified seven tons of high-purity methane and oxygen as fuel.
The combustion of methane and oxygen releases heat, which is converted into electrical energy through a generator and into kinetic energy through an ion thruster.
There is a lot of methane on Elysium, and oxygen can also be produced by electrolyzing water, so there is no shortage.
Methane is the main component of natural gas. In other words... the Xinsheng spacecraft actually burns gas.
In order to carry so much methane and oxygen, the entire payload of the Xinsheng spacecraft was used up, leaving almost no remaining space. But even so, it only accelerated over a hundred meters per second, and all the methane and oxygen were used up.
"The energy supply efficiency of chemical fuels is still too low."
Han Yang sighed.
However, there is nothing he can do at this stage. He cannot build a nuclear fusion reactor yet. Han Yang was confident that he could build a nuclear fission reactor or a fission battery. However, there was an extreme lack of fission raw materials on Elysium, so he couldn't build one even if he wanted to, so he could only temporarily use chemical fuels.
"If the original human civilization knew that I burned natural gas to propel the spacecraft, I would probably laugh to death. Before the arrival of the Eta people, fission batteries had already been used on a large scale."
The scientific and technological development of the Jade God Base is actually uneven. The more advanced development, such as the current ion thruster technology, has far surpassed human civilization. But other aspects, such as energy technology, have only reached what they were at the end of the twentieth century.
But there is no way around it, just take your time.
"At this stage, ion propulsion technology has made a breakthrough. The next step is to do our best to conquer fusion reactor technology. Even if we cannot build a reactor as small and efficient as the Eta people, it must at least be practical.
There is also computing technology, which needs to be developed as soon as possible. "
Han Yang thought secretly.
At this moment, Han Yang has overcome all the technical difficulties in manufacturing 90-nanometer chips and building supercomputers using 90-nanometer chips in the laboratory of the Jade God Base. Compared with the past, the computing power has once again been greatly improved. Only then did the Jade God Base, a black hole that devoured computing power, be supported.
At this stage, Han Yang's computing power is still barely sufficient, but there are already signs of deficiency. It is imperative to seize the time to develop a new generation of chips.
“A fusion reactor technology, a chip technology, plus further in-depth research on ion thrusters, well, these are three key points.
The remaining secondary focuses include materials science research: high-temperature resistant materials, radiation-resistant materials, soft materials, high-strength materials, etc., as well as the chemical industry and controller systems, which must also be promoted simultaneously. "
Generally speaking, there are almost hundreds of large technology and industrial classifications.
On Earth, it is impossible for millions of scientists to advance so many research fields, and they must be coordinated, communicate smoothly, and work around the clock.
A little more wastage, more miscommunication, power struggles, intrigues, holding each other back and other nonsense, I'm afraid it would take tens of millions of people to carry out this project.
(End of chapter)
