Super Dimension Technology Era

New Era Year 4, May 10th.

11:34 a.m. Blue Star time.

The three photon engines that have rotated 180 degrees are ejecting photons and neutrinos in forward and reverse directions, braking through reaction force.

In space navigation, not only must it be able to fly at high speed, but it must also be able to brake at high speed. If the spacecraft can only fly but not brake, wouldn't it mean that there is no return?

Cannonballs or missiles can choose to go without returning, but spaceships definitely cannot use this method.

When the last photon was ejected, the spacecraft docked steadily at the spaceport next to the NM36 satellite city.

This is an unmanned satellite city, a factory-type satellite city specially used to produce Luban transport ships.

Levi exited the anti-Ghost capsule and took out a nanorobot reserve package from the cabin. His own spacesuit could be used in outer space.

After the airtight cabin opened, he activated the nanorobot to take charge and floated into the NM36 satellite city.

Since it is an unmanned satellite city, there are no standard cabins for human use, not even airtight passages.

In the empty satellite city, Levi was the only human being active.

Ren Yingwu and Park Quandao were inspecting the spacecraft. The continuous acceleration and deceleration caused considerable damage to the hull structure of the Deep Space. For safety reasons, they now plan to use the spacecraft on the satellite city to build a dock for repairs.

The Deep Space is based on the Tianzhou class, and the Lu class transport ship and the Tianzhou class are both derivatives of the Huo Qubing class, and the docks can be used in common.

…

The sky is surrounded by stars, and the sun is only slightly brighter than other stars. Driven by the nanorobots, Levi entered the three main control cabins of the NM36 satellite city.

Inserting the ID card, he obtained temporary control authority over the NM36 satellite city, which had the usable dock and 5 tugboats of the NM36 satellite city.

[Captain, I mobilized a tugboat to go over. ]

[receive. ]

The tugboat pulled Deep Space into one of the docks, and the dock immediately locked the Deep Space inside.

Ren Yingwu synchronized the damage data of the spacecraft's internal structure, and the shipyard's artificial intelligence system automatically operated the nanorobots to repair these damaged parts based on these data.

The internal structural stress damage caused by acceleration is not an obvious crack or the like, but a hidden damage hidden inside the structural parts.

The Spacecraft Research Institute has sent a temporary structural enhancement plan to initially strengthen and transform these damaged parts.

This preliminary transformation plan is enough to ensure that there will be no problems when returning to the New Constantinople Satellite City. As for the in-depth optimization plan, we can only wait until the spacecraft returns.

Fortunately, the engine uses a lot of degenerate materials and did not suffer any hidden stress damage.

Levi retrieved his identity card and controlled the nanorobot to return to the spacecraft.

The NM36 satellite city was completely silent. Apart from the Luban transport ships coming and going, there was nothing else moving.

Even the lighting is pitiful. Robots and artificial intelligence do not need natural light, so satellite cities will naturally not be equipped with lighting facilities.

Looking up at the starry sky, there are extremely bright stars in all directions. Standing on the connection next to the dock, Levi saw a completely different scene inside the solar system.

Because in the inner solar system, when looking at the starry sky, it is easy to be disturbed by sunlight, and in the Cooper Belt, the sun is only a relatively bright star.

In less than two hours, the Deep Space was repaired.

Levi returned to the spaceship.

They were not in a hurry to return to the asteroid belt, but had a meal on the spacecraft first.

The food on the Deep Space is just an ordinary spaceship meal.

Staple food: steamed buns/bread/fried rice;

Meat: beef patty/sausage/fish balls;

Vegetables: mixed vegetable puree

Fruit: tomato/apple/cantaloupe

Beverages: pineapple/orange flavored vitamin drinks.

It's that simple. The menu changes occasionally, but it's generally the same.

Levi took out two steamed buns, beef patties, and mixed vegetable puree, and put them in the microwave to heat them.

He opened a bottle of pineapple-flavored vitamin drink and drank while waiting.

Both Ren Yingwu and Ren Yingwu were already eating.

"Li Wei, what are your plans for the future?" Pu Quandao asked curiously.

After taking a sip of the drink and swallowing it, Levi said slowly: "I am studying for a doctorate in quantum communications. I will probably consider transferring to a communications company or research institute!"

"Ph.D.? That's awesome. I don't know when I can get a master's degree." Park Quandao said enviously.

Levi smiled, turned around and took out steamed buns, beef patties and vegetable puree from the microwave.

"If you weren't fooling around, you would have a master's degree long ago." Ren Yingwu said angrily.

Pu Quandao scratched his head in embarrassment, and he did not dare to refute the captain.

Before they knew it, they finished their meal and fell into deep sleep again. During the nine-day flight, they had not had a good rest, and now they needed to rest for a day before setting off.

…

May 11th.

The Deep Space was pulled by a tugboat 1 million kilometers away from the NM36 satellite city.

Then Deep Space started the antimatter photon engine again, flew diagonally upward for 10 million kilometers, and entered the upper parallel plane of the solar ecliptic plane.

Officially embarked on the flight home.

After the emergency strengthening, Deep Space once again suffered acceleration stress damage, but this time the damage was much smaller than the last time.

Nine days later, the Deep Space docked steadily at Port 4 in the satellite city of New Constantinople.

As soon as the spacecraft docked at the port, it was taken away by the Photon Engine Research Institute and the Spacecraft Research Institute for comprehensive inspection and analysis.

…

After a series of inspections and analyses, Gao Zishang, Yang Tiansheng and others discovered some problems in the design of the photon engine.

For example, the problem of waste heat in antimatter annihilation furnaces. Photon engines can only utilize 96% of photons and neutrinos, and the 4% of heat energy is wasted.

If you think that 4% heat energy is not much, you are totally wrong.

Antimatter annihilation converts 4% of the mass into heat energy, while nuclear fusion reactions can only convert up to 7% of the mass into photons, neutrinos, neutrons and heat.

This 7% conversion rate of nuclear fusion refers to the multiple nuclear fusion from hydrogen to iron. Ordinary nuclear fusion does not even have a 4% conversion rate.

The 4% heat energy generated by the annihilation of antimatter is higher than the energy density of ordinary nuclear fusion. If we don't use it, we will be sorry for this heat energy. It is a shame to waste it.

Gao Zishang decided to add a thermoelectric converter to the antimatter annihilation furnace to convert the thermal energy into electrical energy for internal use of the spacecraft.

At this point, the first-generation photon engine has officially entered the quasi-mass production stage. The Photon Engine Research Institute has contacted the Universe Industrial Group to prepare matters related to the mass production of the engine.

The first-generation photon engine, modeled as Qingluan-1, echoes the model of the gamma-ray laser, Phoenix.

The Universe Industrial Group quickly established the Qingluan Engine Company to specialize in the production of Qingluan-1 photon engines.

the other side.

The Spacecraft Research Institute is also improving the spacecraft to reduce stress damage caused by acceleration as much as possible.

Not only the Huo Qubing class and its derivatives, but also the Kunpeng class and Xinxing provincial class have been included in the upgrade.

The photon engine will definitely replace the nuclear fusion engine. The upgrade and transformation project is urgent, and the new humanity also urgently needs to increase the speed of the spacecraft.

During the busy period, the Nemesis Wormhole has been cleared of 12 billion kilometers.

The time for new humans to explore wormholes is also approaching.

Thank you for your support (ω｀)