Although Zhuang Yunwei has gone through hibernation many times to extend his life, he has still become an old man. Wrinkles have appeared on his face and his hair has turned gray.
This is aging that cannot be delayed by the most advanced genetic modification technology.
Zhao Changxing really does not want human civilization to lose this intelligent brain owned by Zhuang Yunwei. After all, for human civilization, it takes too long to become a scientist and consumes too many resources.
This is just an ordinary scientist. It takes who knows how many years for an outstanding person like Zhuang Yunwei to appear.
For outstanding figures like Zhuang Yunwei, Zhao Changxing has already issued relevant policies before.
Once their physical condition shows signs of irreparable and accelerating deterioration, before their physical condition truly deteriorates, the human civilization government will step forward to implement a free, long-term hibernation policy for them, waiting for subsequent scientific development.
, they will not be allowed to wake up until sufficiently advanced technology is available to change their physical condition.
But... the length of hibernation is also limited, and it is impossible to hibernate forever. With current technology, once hibernation exceeds 50 years, it is very likely to cause irreversible damage to the body.
Even ordinary people who are hibernating at this moment will wake up in batches regularly to ensure that they do not suffer irreversible damage caused by long-term hibernation.
When even the hibernation quota is used up, but the development of science and technology still has not reached a sufficiently advanced level, I am afraid that people like Zhuang Yunwei will have to really die.
But there is nothing that can be done about it.
At this moment, in the main control room of the Yuanhang spacecraft, Zhuang Yunwei's actions attracted everyone's attention.
"Professor Zhuang, what did you remember?"
Zhuang Yunwei's tone was a little hasty: "I only calculated the energy of the electromagnetic wave band before, and forgot to calculate the neutrinos! Xiaoxi, give me the neutrino data about that explosion!"
Zhao Changxing was slightly confused, but did not continue to ask.
"Okay Professor Zhuang. Currently, our ship is equipped with three large-scale neutrino detectors. Normally, after providing as much shielding as possible, the muon flux is... when the explosion occurs
, the observed data is..."
Xiao Xi reported a series of data. Zhuang Yunwei wrote quickly on the paper with a pen in his hand. After more than ten minutes, he put down the pen.
He raised his head and looked at Zhao Changxing.
Zhao Changxing knew that he must have discovered something.
"Leader, I accidentally discovered that the total energy released by this explosion is about the same order of magnitude as the kinetic energy lost by our spacecraft."
"Um?"
The shocking conjecture contained in this sentence made Zhao Changxing unable to help but feel surprised.
"Give me the data."
Zhao Changxing took the pen and paper and started the calculation himself.
It is very simple to calculate the kinetic energy lost by the Yuanhang spacecraft due to changes in speed. As long as there is mass data and speed data, it can be calculated.
The conclusion is that due to changes in speed, the Yuanhang spacecraft lost a total of approximately 4.6*10^28j energy.
However, it is also relatively simple to calculate the energy released by the previous explosion. People only need to add up the observed energy in each radiation band.
The observation equipment on the Yuanhang spacecraft can accurately measure the radiation received within a certain area. And with the distance, you can calculate how many percent of your own area is the total radiation area, and then perform a simple
After multiplication, the total radiation area can be calculated.
The conclusion is that if only the radiation energy of electromagnetic waves is calculated, there is undoubtedly a huge energy level gap between the two. But if, if the energy of neutrinos is included...
Then, the total energy released by this explosion is approximately 3.9*10^28j energy.
This energy data is as high as about 84.8% of the energy lost by the Yuanhang spacecraft.
However, if the energy of this explosion really comes from the energy lost by the Yuanhang spacecraft, then the energy loss of about 15.2% is also very reasonable.
The most critical problem is not this slight difference, but that the energy between the two is at the same energy level. This is a very strange thing in itself, and it is difficult not to make people think in this direction.
"Then...if this is true, the existence hidden in the dark stole the kinetic energy of our Yuan Voyage spacecraft without us realizing it, and then released it in an explosion. It,
What does it want to do?"
What is this? A kinetic thief - a thief who steals kinetic energy? A prank? What's the point of it doing this?
Professor Zhuang Yunwei's speculation seems to have verified something, but it seems to have verified nothing. Instead, it has plunged people into greater confusion.
All that can be done at this stage seems to be to wait.
But people can't just wait forever.
It's time to think about the way forward.
"Suppose... let's temporarily assume that this is just a prank by a super civilization that happened to pass by, or it may be some kind of natural phenomenon that we have not yet understood the specific mechanism. In short, our kinetic energy is very likely to be used in another way.
It has been released and cannot be retrieved again. So, what should we do next?"
These words from a civilized leader caused people to fall into silence again.
The energy reserve on the Yuanhang spacecraft is not very large. After supporting the acceleration of the Yuanhang spacecraft to 8% of the speed of light and supporting the operation of the spacecraft for so many years, nearly half of it has been consumed.
If we had not reserved 20% more antimatter redundancy, the current energy reserve would be reduced to less than half of what it was when fully loaded.
But even so, it is far from enough to rely on these energy sources to accelerate the Yuanhang spacecraft to 8% speed again, and then slow it down when it reaches the EZ Aquarius galaxy.
Comprehensive calculations, including the energy reserves that must be set aside to prepare for unexpected events, the available energy reserves can only support an acceleration and deceleration of about 4% of the speed of light.
But in this way, the time required for the remaining voyage will expand from the original approximately 80 years to approximately 180 years. The comprehensive assessment report on the Yuanhang spacecraft tells people that the Yuanhang spacecraft is very likely to
It can't last this long.
As its service time gradually increases, the probability of failure of its internal modules has been slowly increasing. At this moment, the overall perspective of the spacecraft shows that there are still as many as 16,000 failures waiting to be resolved.
After the peak failure period in the initial stage has passed, during the inertial navigation stage, ten years ago, the maximum number of failures was only 10,000. Twenty years ago, the number was only 10,000 at most.
Equipment is aging and faults are accumulating. After all, human civilization is not the Moyun Litar civilization, and it is impossible to achieve such a high quality in the structure of the spacecraft.
"If there is really no other way, then we can only change the destination." Zhao Changxing said in a deep voice: "At our current location, we are still 5.7 light-years away from the ez Aquarius galaxy. But with another star, Laca
The distance to I-9352 is only about 2.9 light-years. Even at 4% of the speed of light, it only takes about 100 years to sail to Lakai-9352."
Compared with the original 80-year voyage, the extension of 100 years is not much. The Yuanhang spacecraft still has a fairly high probability of being able to survive.
Zhuang Yunwei smiled bitterly and said: "If the lost kinetic energy cannot be recovered, then changing the destination and heading to the Lakai 9352 galaxy may be our only way out."
Lakai 9352 is a red dwarf star. Its mass is about half that of the sun and slightly less. It has been determined that there are three rocky planets orbiting it, and their masses are 6.5 times, 8.3 times, and 2.1 times that of the Earth respectively.
times.
Compared with ez Aquarius, Lakai 9352 is undoubtedly more suitable for the development of human civilization. However, in order to prevent being hunted down by the Moyun Litar civilization, people still chose ez Aquarius as the final destination.
But if you really have no choice, then you don’t have to worry so much.
But at this moment, Zhao Changxing suddenly remembered a possibility. This possibility made his expression become serious again.
He considered the words and said slowly: "Is it possible that the kinetic energy being stolen this time was not an accident or a prank or some unknown natural phenomenon, but an unknown
existence, in order to force us to take the initiative to change our voyage destination and take the initiative to go to the Lakai 9352 system, that’s why..."
After all, there is a simple cause-and-effect relationship between these two events. The cause of "kinetic energy being stolen" directly led to the effect of "The Voyage spacecraft changed its destination and headed for the Lakai 9352 galaxy."
Zhao Changxing's guess shocked all the participants. At this moment, in the originally vast, dark and quiet space of the universe, there seemed to be countless pairs of eyes silently watching the tiny Yuanhang spacecraft.
If this is the case, there is a lot of room for speculation and imagination.
But there is still one most fundamental question that cannot be answered.
That is, what is the motive of that unknown being doing this? What purpose does it... want to achieve?
In a daze, Zhao Changxing felt that the entire human civilization had fallen into an invisible whirlpool.
At this time, the observers on combat readiness once again reported a piece of news to Zhao Changxing.
"Leader, we found something on the port side of the spacecraft at a distance of 2,263 kilometers."
After getting Zhao Changxing's permission, the next moment, the observation image from the telescope was displayed on the big screen in front of people.