The principle of so-called ion propulsion is similar to that of an electromagnetic gun. The only difference is that the electromagnetic gun fires projectiles, while the ion engine ejects ionized charged particles.
These charged particles can be electromagnetically accelerated to extremely high speeds—for the Voyager spacecraft, this is approximately 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 aspect, there is no essential difference in the way of advancement.
However, ion propulsion has a huge advantage that chemical fuel propulsion cannot match, and that is the extreme saving of 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 less than 99% of the speed of light.
Class, 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 completed interstellar navigation through this method.
Regarding this, although there is not enough direct evidence due to the impact of the war, scientists generally believe that this is the case.
However, ion propulsion also has a disadvantage. That is, its injection direction must not be directed towards man-made objects, such as space cities and the like.
The high-speed charged particles it ejects are essentially the same as high-energy cosmic rays. The energy is extremely high and will basically cause damage wherever it is ejected. If it ejects people, even if they are separated by hundreds of thousands or millions of kilometers, the energy is enough
Breaking chemical bonds can cause the human body to suffer from severe radiation sickness and even cancer.
A slightly higher degree of damage would be genetic collapse, and genetic modification machines would not be able to 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 break away from 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. After several more years, the voyage was finally halfway through.
A long journey of billions of kilometers has been quietly traversed during this period of 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 him feel heartbroken.
He picked it up immediately.
This is the highest level of alert!
The next moment, the Voyager spacecraft, which had been floating in the vast and deep universe for several years, had a violent explosion. A large ball of fire, accompanied by countless fragments, rushed from inside the spacecraft into the deep space of the universe.
Amid the violent vibrations of the spacecraft, countless sleeping people woke up from their dreams. Countless people who were taking a leisurely walk or busy raised their heads in shock.
The thing that worried people the most finally happened.
This is in 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-distance interstellar voyages must bear.
At this critical moment, Cheng Xuanjia remained calm in the face of danger.
Now is not the time to look 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 the losses. If you cannot control the situation, at least prevent the situation from becoming serious.
Losing control will not lead to more involvement.
"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.
"The spacecraft encounters an emergency and immediately activates the third plan. 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 greatest magic weapon to deal with risks and difficulties is organization. If you have the ability to quickly organize people, you will have the ability to be invincible.
This is one of the most important achievements of Cheng Xuanjia's research on military theory among his ancestors, grandsons, and many colleagues for three generations.
At this moment, countless drills over the past few years finally had an effect.
Most of the people in the Voyager spacecraft, apart from being responsible for the daily maintenance of the spacecraft, doctors and teachers, etc., have nothing to do. Of course, Cheng Xuanjia cannot 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 in a panic. 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.
Under different arrangements from the top, the remaining personnel took out different tools and rushed to the positions that had been determined 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 operation, 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.
The key to being able to direct everyone and make everyone act according to their own will lies in whether the daily training is done well. And on this point, Cheng Xuanjia can obviously give 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 not found. People could only endure their grief and continue to fight. Some supplies were burned.
, or being blown up, people did not care about the pity, they only cared about preventing more materials from suffering this fate.
The rescue and relief operations lasted ten hours in total. After that, the disaster was generally subsided. The subsequent disposal took a full 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, there was a burst of anger in his heart, but it calmed down after a while.
The cause of the accident came from design errors. Insufficient safety redundancy led to a failure of the cooling system. The dust density in a certain 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 spaceship in the history of human civilization. No one has any experience. Failures and accidents are really normal things.
Nothing is normal unless there are accidents and failures.
"Let's handle it according to the procedure."
Zhao Changxing issued the order.
According to the procedures, it's nothing more than downgrading, fines, expulsion, etc. It's incredible to spend three or four years in prison, and 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, but the material losses were considerable.
Especially food reserves.
There is not enough food to eat. Based on the existing food and a certain degree of independent food production capacity, there is still a gap of at least about half a year.
Zhao Changxing sighed.
It seems that the Voyager spacecraft will make the same mistake it made hundreds of years ago when it first arrived on Sedna.