After walking around the engine, Professor Huo Liang asked: "I heard that Musk's plan is to reduce the speed of the jet and add other working fluids to increase the thrust. I don't know if this is the case."
Ye Ming nodded: "Their plan was proposed a long time ago. During the take-off stage, a large amount of water is poured into the aircraft to increase the ejection material and obtain greater thrust."
"Are you sure it's water?"
Ye Ming coughed and just smiled.
Professor Huo Laien talked to him about these things purely with the mentality of complaining, rather than specifically leaking secrets to him - this kind of ethics, the old man still has.
Moreover, neither Ye Ming nor the country said they wanted to treat this old man as a "surrendered" scientist and pry out anything useful from his mouth.
In essence, the arrival 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 some tricks." Ye Ming put his hands behind his back and looked at the engine again.
What a great engine... It's a pity that we can't see it when it accelerates with full power - because for a long time, or even throughout its life cycle, it can only be used for commuting between the earth and the moon. If it really wants to accelerate at full speed,
It will be extremely troublesome to slow down and land by then.
"Let's go and have a look in the cave."
As the workshop door opened, the oncoming cave was also busy.
Here you will face the engine's ejected materials - helium 4 atoms, protons and rays.
During the test, various data will be collected here to provide valuable information for future engines and the fusion reaction itself.
That evening, Director Niu rushed in from the capital.
…
"I won't let you prepare for failure."
Director Niu didn't look as carefree as usual today. On the contrary, he was in a very serious state.
Ye Ming could tell that Lao Niu was nervous.
As the leader of Y, and as someone who strongly supports the radicalization of the Kuafu Project, Comrade Niu Jianjun knows very well what this ignition failure means...
This is not to say that I am about to lose my reputation. After all, failure is normal in the field of science.
But if something unexpected happens in such a big project, no matter what you say in the future... it will definitely not work that well anymore.
"Haha, if you ask me to do it, I can't do it..." Ye Ming smiled and shrugged: "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."
As he spoke, Director Niu exhaled softly and stared at Ye Ming seriously: "Although the country has been talking about seeking stability, when it really decides to be "radical", you must believe that our country still has the courage.
of."
Ye Ming was stunned, then nodded: "You say."
"Needless to say, engine upgrades, but more importantly, we still need to take advantage of the opportunity of establishing a factory on the moon to complete the layout of the helium 3 industry chain."
Ye Ming nodded slightly, but quickly asked hesitantly: "Is there any international agreement on lunar development?"
"have."
Ye Ming was stunned: "Then how can this be a monopoly?"
Director Niu blinked: "But we didn't participate."
Ye Ming: "..."
Director Niu laughed: "The Artemis Agreement was launched a few years ago. It attracted a lot of people, but it just didn't involve us and excluded us."
When Ye Ming heard this, he immediately became interested: "How do you say it?"
"Well, it seems that NASA announced it in 2020. Anyway, it is to manage the exploration and mining activities on the moon by signatory countries and private companies, and to establish some kind of safety zone around the exploration and mining areas on the lunar surface. Now the member states
...Basically, they are the people from the 5-eye g7 EU."
Ye Ming laughed.
That's pretty good, isn't it?
Then he asked curiously: "By the way, can the Artemis project still fly?"
"Who knows, after the rapid development of controllable nuclear fusion in the past two years, the Artemis project has become a bit embarrassing... But I guess, according to the temperament of the old American, she should still fly, not that
In June this year?" Director Niu chuckled: "Anyway, there's still a month or two left, so we'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 construction of multiple spacecrafts as soon as possible and complete the industrialization of helium 3 at the same time."
As he spoke, Director Niu nudged Ye Ming: "You know what I mean..."
"Is it 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 commercial power stations for helium 3 fusion, and at the same time accelerate the development of lunar resources."
Ye Ming nodded.
Of course, this is what he wants, but...some goals sound simple, but it is really difficult to achieve them technically.
Apart from anything else, if we need to increase development efforts, water alone is the biggest problem.
Although the existence of water ice has been discovered on the moon, it is unknown how much there is, whether it is enough, and whether it is easy to extract.
In order to solve the water resource problem, the expert team even used their imagination to chase comets and obtain water resources from comets.
Of course, currently experts still dare not explore the idea of capturing comets - at least not until they have a large amount of antimatter resources.
"In addition to increasing efforts to develop the moon, we should also consider Mars. However, the Mars base is more for scientific research, rather than boasting about human immigration - it is better to plant a few more trees in the desert."
Ye Ming laughed.
Lao Niu's words deeply impressed him.
We will definitely go to Mars, but it will definitely not be used as a Mars immigrant, but as a cutting-edge scientific research station.
In fact, any planet that requires atmospheric modification to become habitable is not suitable for large-scale immigration and is only suitable as a scientific research base and resource collection site.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! If you really want to be a cosmonaut, you might as well build a huge ark in space, and then use a fusion engine to push it out of the solar system.
After the two chatted for almost two hours, Director Niu looked at the time: "Okay, I won't put any pressure on you, let's wait until the ignition is successful in two days, and all plans now can only be finalized after the engine is completed.
, you still have to go to the capital when the time comes."
"Um."
…
The next day, Director Zhang came with a group of people to join the fusion team. In addition, Chief Engineer Luo of Foreign Nuclear also gathered in Jiangcheng with a group of experts.
Early on the third day, Ye Ming arrived at the command hall.
At 11 a.m., 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 speech of expectation, and then said that he would watch the entire ignition process in time with his colleagues and cheer for the entire project team.
Hearing this, although the hall burst into applause, everyone couldn't help but become more nervous.
At 11:58, 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 Director Zhang's hand, and he could clearly feel that the aerospace director, who had once knocked the airplane with a hammer, was shaking constantly.
Perhaps feeling Ye Ming's eyes, Director Zhang also looked up at him and lowered his 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."
"Yeah." Ye Ming took a deep breath: "Don't worry, you won't fail."
As soon as he finished speaking, the countdown began.
When the countdown reaches zero, both people push hard at the same time.
On the monitoring screen, the high-energy particle beam simulating the ignition screen instantly began to rotate, and a huge buzzing sound was heard outside the house.
Then, the simulated ion beam turns blue.
During the monitoring, the temperature numbers began to jump continuously, reaching hundreds of millions of degrees in an instant.
Everyone in the entire hall held their breath.
When the temperature reached 300 million degrees, four big characters jumped out instantly.
"Fusion Begins"
Ye Ming looked at the four words, and his eyes instantly shrank: "Engine 1/10 power output."
As his voice fell, a strong light rose from the factory building at the surveillance scene in the picture, just like the light of billions of suns converging here and shining into the cave.