The principle of so-called ion propulsion is probably similar to that of electromagnetic gun. The only difference is that the electromagnetic gun fires projectiles, while the ion engine fires ionized charged particles.
These charged particles can be electromagnetically accelerated to extremely high speeds—for the Voyager spacecraft, this is about 32% of the speed of light.
Relying on these high-speed particles being ejected, the spacecraft itself can obtain reverse thrust similar to that of ejecting high-temperature gas, and use this as the driving force to move forward.
From this point of view, there is no essential difference in the way of advancement.
However, ion propulsion has a huge advantage that chemical fuel propulsion cannot match, that is, it is extremely economical in working fluid. The biggest bottleneck restricting long-distance interstellar navigation is the amount of working fluid.
In this way, the utilization rate of working fluid can reach hundreds or even hundreds of times that of chemical fuel propulsion. Even if technology develops in the future, charged particles can be accelerated to higher speeds, such as 99% of the speed of light, then the reverse thrust obtained will be greater and the efficiency will be higher.
It is not certain that interstellar navigation will eventually be realized through this method in the future.
The original deep space civilization most likely used this method to complete interstellar navigation.
Regarding this, although there is not enough direct evidence due to the impact of the war, scientists generally believe that this is the case.
But there is a downside to ion propulsion. That is, its jet direction must not be directed towards man-made objects, such as space cities.
The high-speed charged particles it ejects are essentially similar to high-energy cosmic rays. And the energy is extremely high, basically it will cause damage wherever it is sprayed. If it hits a person, even if it is hundreds of thousands or millions of kilometers away, its energy is enough to break chemical bonds and cause the human body to suffer from severe radiation sickness and even cancer.
A slightly higher degree of damage is genetic collapse, and genetic modification machines cannot do anything about this disease.
Therefore, when the Voyager spacecraft sets sail, it must also pay attention to the direction of the jet. If it hits a space city, it will be great fun.
Fortunately everything went well.
After orbiting Sedna for several weeks, the Voyager spacecraft finally gained the speed to escape Sedna's gravity. So it moved away and sailed into deep space.
In the main control room of the bridge, Cheng Xuanjia looked at the constantly rotating starry sky in front of him, his heart filled with surging blood.
After waiting for many years, this day has finally arrived...
Soon, we humans will have a powerful fleet...
Time passed bit by bit, and in the blink of an eye, the Voyager spacecraft accelerated to its maximum speed and entered the inertial navigation mode. Several more years passed, and the voyage was finally halfway through.
A long journey of billions of kilometers has been quietly crossed during this time.
Before reaching the destination, except for daily emergency drills, most people in the spacecraft have been doing nothing, spending what may be the most leisurely period of their lives.
But this leisurely mood did not last long.
On a normal day, when Cheng Xuanjia came to the main control room as usual and continued to personally monitor the operation of all aspects of the spacecraft, a huge screen suddenly turned red. This made his heart immediately lift.
This is the highest level of alert!
The next moment, a violent explosion occurred in the Voyager spacecraft that had been floating in the vast and deep universe for several years. A large ball of fire, accompanied by countless fragments, rushed from inside the spacecraft into the deep space of the universe.
Amidst the violent vibrations of the spacecraft, countless sleeping people woke up from their dreams. I don't know how many people were taking a leisurely stroll, or busy people raised their heads in astonishment.
The thing that worried people the most finally happened.
This is empty space. Here, even the nearest planet is at least a billion kilometers away.
Here, people cannot get any support from outside.
This is the risk that long-range interstellar voyages must bear.
At this critical moment, Cheng Xuanjia remained calm in the face of danger.
Now is not the time to search for the cause of the accident. There is only one thing that must be done immediately. That is, control the situation as soon as possible and minimize losses. If you can't control the situation, at least prevent it from getting out of control and not involving more.
"The explosion location is... a warehouse. The type is a high-heat explosion. Activate the third emergency plan."
Along with the sirens that resounded throughout the spacecraft, Cheng Xuanjia's still calm voice reached everyone's ears.
"When the spacecraft encounters an emergency, the third plan will be activated immediately. From now on, all healthy men and women over the age of 18 will immediately report to their respective floor supervisors."
Under the command of Cheng Xuanjia, from him on down, the Voyager spacecraft's deputy captain, risk manager, materials manager, civil affairs manager, mechanical manager, etc., as well as the circle managers at the lower level, as well as the most basic floor managers, This entire set of administrative agencies immediately started operating at the fastest speed.
The biggest magic weapon to deal with risks and difficulties is organization. With the ability to quickly organize the people, you have the ability to be invincible and invincible.
This is one of the most important achievements of Cheng Xuanjia's research on military theory for three generations and many colleagues.
At this moment, countless drills over several years finally had an effect.
Most of the people in the Voyager spacecraft, except for those responsible for daily maintenance of the spacecraft, doctors and teachers, etc., have nothing to do. Of course, Cheng Xuanjia couldn't let these people's time go to waste.
Therefore, since his departure, he has organized countless crisis drills and formulated hundreds of different plans to deal with various crises.
Three days of small exercises, ten days of one exercise, a monthly summary, and an annual selection. Those who perform well will be promoted and have a salary increase, and those who perform poorly will be demoted and have their salaries reduced, and the whole ship will be notified. All risk plans must be drilled to Only when it goes deep into people's memory and body instincts will they be willing to give up.
This is Cheng Xuanjia's most important job during the voyage.
At this moment, his daily drills guided by military thinking finally had an effect.
At this moment, almost no one was panicking. All the adults rushed to the core square of the floor at the same time. Then, under the arrangement of the floor supervisor, young children, sick people, etc. were placed together, and a certain number of caregivers were left behind. The rest were arranged under different arrangements from the top floor. Next, they took out different tools and rushed to the positions that had been decided during the drill in batches.
A front-line rescue team is composed of spacecraft daily maintenance personnel, mechanics, and engineers, who are responsible for handling crises on the spot. Some people form a logistics team, responsible for providing support to the front line. Some people form a material rescue team, trying their best to ensure the safety of materials, and some people form a cut-off team. The team tried their best to ensure that the scope of the disaster would not expand. Someone formed a spacecraft maintenance team to ensure that the entire spacecraft operated smoothly during the rescue process. Medical personnel formed an emergency medical team to deal with injured people anytime and anywhere...
Cheng Xuanjia felt that he was not directing a rescue, but a war.
Yes, this is war.
At this moment, he felt that his thoughts and limbs seemed to have divergent functions, spreading to every place in the spacecraft and to everyone who participated in the rescue.
Whether it can be directed by an arm and run smoothly so that everyone can act according to their own will, the key lies in whether the daily training is done well. On this point, Cheng Xuanjia can obviously give him a perfect score.
Fire, debris, gas leaks, secondary explosions, and a large number of busy and orderly people made up all the contents of this rescue and disaster relief effort.
During this process, some people were injured and were taken to the rear field hospital for emergency treatment. Some people were unfortunately killed, and even their bodies were left. People could only endure their grief and continue to fight. Some supplies were burned or blown up, and people didn't care about the pity. They only cared about preventing more supplies from suffering this fate.
The rescue and relief operations lasted ten hours in total. After that, the disaster largely subsided. The subsequent processing took more than ten days.
As early as the beginning of the disaster, Zhao Changxing got the news immediately. After that, he stayed in front of the communicator, waiting for further news.
When the disaster finally subsided, he breathed a sigh of relief. When the cause of the accident was finally found out, he felt angry at first, but it calmed down after a while.
The cause of the accident came from design errors. Insufficient safety redundancy led to the failure of the cooling system. The dust density in one cabin happened to be too high, which eventually detonated, causing a series of fires, which ultimately led to the accident.
But Zhao Changxing knew that he could not blame the original spacecraft designers too harshly because of this mistake.
After all, this is the first such a huge spacecraft in the history of human civilization. No one has experience. Failures and accidents are really normal things.
Nothing is normal unless there are accidents and failures.
"Just follow the procedure."
Zhao Changxing issued the order.
According to the process, it is nothing more than downgrade, fine, expulsion and so on. It's incredible to spend three or four years in prison, it can't be any heavier.
At this time, the loss statistics from the Voyager spacecraft were finally sent to Sedna.
Zhao Changxing's brows gradually wrinkled.
The overall structure of the Voyager spacecraft suffered little damage. However, the material losses were considerable.
Especially food reserves.
There is not enough food to eat. Based on the existing grain and a certain degree of independent grain production capacity, there is still a gap of at least half a year.
Zhao Changxing sighed.
It seemed that the Voyager spacecraft was going to make the same mistake it made hundreds of years ago when it first arrived on Sedna.
