If it were on the earth, it would be almost impossible to transport a meteorite with a diameter of one kilometer based on current human technology.
Because it's really too heavy.
Even the most common bedrock meteorite has a mass of at least 500 billion tons in its solid state.
However, if you want to transport meteorites of this level in space, although it is a little more difficult, there are still ways.
As early as 2015, NASA announced a plan called the "Asteroid Redirect Mission."
That is, an unmanned spacecraft is used to collect a boulder from the surface of a larger asteroid, and then moved to the vicinity of the moon for astronauts to sample and study.
Although this asteroid redirection mission was ultimately abandoned by NASA, it designed a complete "star-catching" plan and planned the costs.
The first is to collect a boulder from the surface of a larger asteroid as mentioned above.
The second option is to capture an asteroid as a whole, with a budget of US$1.25 billion.
Robert Lightfoot, deputy administrator of NASA at the time, said at a media conference that day that NASA would decide which asteroid to target in 2019, launch an unmanned spacecraft in December 2020, and target the asteroid by 2025.
Drag it near the orbit of the moon or the earth and let it maintain a relatively stable orbit.
For NASA, the 'Asteroid Redirect Mission' will not only test defense technologies to prevent asteroids from hitting the Earth, but will also usher in a new era of space flight and test the performance of newly designed spacesuits in deep space environments.
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Theoretically, this is a very 'futuristic' and 'valuable' task.
However, as the U.S. economy continued to slump after 2015 and was affected by the rise of China, this plan was ultimately unable to be implemented.
But this also confirms from the side that Xu Chuan’s proposal of capturing meteorites and asteroids to impact Mars to create a magnetic field and atmosphere is completely feasible, at least in terms of capturing asteroids.
...
His eyes fell on the report document on the coffee table. Xu Chuan leaned forward to pick it up, flipped through the document, and explained with a smile.
"It is not difficult to capture an asteroid and transport it to the orbit of Mars. At least it is completely feasible for the requirements of impacting Mars as I envision it."
As he spoke, he looked at Academician Chang Huaxiang sitting opposite, smiled and asked, "I wonder, Mr. Chang, if you have ever seen a movie called 'The Wandering Earth'."
Hearing this question, Chang Huaxiang reacted instantly and asked with some surprise: "Are you going to refer to the setting in the movie and build a huge planetary engine to drive and control meteorites or asteroids?"
Xu Chuan nodded slightly and said with a smile: "Theoretically, this is indeed one of the feasible solutions."
"Although it is impossible to use a planetary engine to push the earth to Proxima Centauri, even if the engine has powerful thrust, the earth's crust cannot withstand such an exaggerated thrust."
"But if it is used on small-mass meteorites or asteroids, it is completely feasible."
"A miniaturized fusion reactor is completely enough to be used as the energy core to push meteorites to deviate from their orbits. Theoretically, it is completely feasible to make meteorites in the asteroid belt deviate from the meteorite belt and fly towards Mars as long as the orbit is calculated."
"And from a technical perspective, it's not very difficult."
"The only problem is how to brake."
"After all, every target meteorite and asteroid moves in the universe at an extremely high speed. Taking into account its own speed, mass and other issues, it is necessary to 'relatively stop' them in space close to Mars.
It’s something that requires precise calculation.”
On the sofa, Academician Chang Huaxiang thought carefully and said: "According to this statement, it is indeed possible to transport meteorites or asteroids of suitable mass."
"But it may be more difficult than you think to achieve it."
"First of all, it is very difficult to select meteorites or asteroids from the asteroid belt that are relatively stable and suitable in size, mass, and properties."
"Although the asteroid belt is a meteorite-dense area, with more than 500,000 asteroids and meteorites gathered, the material in the asteroid belt is actually very thin. With current detection technology, if we want to accurately find the required asteroids
It’s very difficult.”
"Especially asteroids used for Mars transformation have higher requirements on their own properties."
After a slight pause, he looked at Xu Chuan and asked with a frown.
"Also, how are you going to do construction on these asteroids?"
"Not only are the asteroids in the asteroid belt moving at high speed, but many of them also have rotation behavior."
"These asteroids in motion and rotation are extremely unstable and can easily lose control due to external interference."
"At the same time, the environment on the asteroid is extremely harsh, and construction is more difficult than on the moon."
"If you want to deploy a propeller on it, I'm afraid it will be more difficult."
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "The detection problem is actually quite easy to solve. The current astronomical telescopes are enough to explore these asteroids."
"The asteroid numbering data from the International Astronomical Society can be screened, and a group of relatively suitable S·silicate asteroids and M·metallic asteroids can be selected as the first batch of investigation objects."
"In the future, I will arrange for the Xia Shu Space Base to launch a batch of detectors and go to the asteroid belt for close inspection to understand these targets in more detail."
"As for how to construct..."
"This is indeed a huge problem. My idea is to develop intelligent robots."
After thinking for a while, Xu Chuan continued: "Compared to astronauts, intelligent robots have more advantages in space."
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "They can fix themselves on the asteroid in various ways and are not affected by the outside world during the construction process."
"In addition, if the difficulty of construction is taken into account, combined construction can be considered."
"First extend the required propulsion engines on the earth or the moon, assemble them into spliced parts similar to building blocks, transport them directly to the asteroid belt via the space shuttle, and then assemble them."
"Compared with traditional construction methods, this construction method is easier, and the gravity-free space environment can also carry out large-scale parts transportation and assembly."
"Overall, although it is difficult, it is not completely impossible."
In fact, besides autonomous intelligent robots, he has a choice.
That is the virtual reality technology that Xu Xiao is studying.
Through remote control, engineers control the mechanical equipment on the asteroid from the space shuttle, which has a more stable environment.
However, this option was not in Xu Chuan's original plan.
On the one hand, virtual reality technology is currently unable to achieve this technology, and there is still a long way to go before it can completely transmit brain waves to control complex mechanical equipment in real time.
On the other hand, long-term construction in space will have a certain impact on the health of engineers and astronauts.
And if an unexpected situation occurs during the construction process, meteorites or asteroids may deviate from the orbit, causing damage to the space shuttle and endangering the lives of people on board.
After all, it is in the asteroid belt. Even though the material inside is quite sparse from a human perspective, there are still many meteorite collisions that occur in the asteroid belt every year.
Especially due to the gravitational influence of Jupiter and Mars, the orbits of meteorites in the asteroid belt are not so fixed.
Therefore, in comparison, fully automated intelligent mechanical equipment is more in line with his choice.
...
On the other side, the headquarters building of Xinghai Research Institute.
Looking back at this research institution, which is extremely mysterious in the eyes of Americans, William Thompson, the vice president of Qualcomm, had complicated eyes.
For him, today is definitely the most "groveling" time he has ever had in front of these Chinese people, and it is also the most "humble" time Qualcomm has ever had.
Of course, this is what he thinks.
As early as when Xu Chuan published the two papers on carbon-based chips in the journal Discovery, Qualcomm was keenly aware that the era of silicon-based chips might be about to undergo major changes.
After asking people to conduct an overall evaluation of these two carbon-based chip-related papers at the first time, they believed that Xinghai Research Institute was very likely to have made a major breakthrough in carbon-based chip technology.
After holding an internal meeting, they quickly contacted Xinghai Research Institute and made an appointment for a visit. They hoped to learn more about the situation with the Carbon-Based Chip Laboratory and see if there were any opportunities for cooperation or equity participation.
At that time, Xinghai Research Institute agreed to their request for a visit without hesitation, which made them very happy and believed that Qualcomm was very influential even in China.
As a result, no one expected that Xinghai Research Institute would schedule their visit request for today, the day after the carbon-based chip product launch.
Originally, what they thought was that it would be best to participate in the technology research and development of carbon-based chips, cooperate with China in the field of carbon-based semiconductors, and occupy a certain investment technology share and voice.
However, a product launch event completely disrupted all their ideas.
In the field of carbon-based chips, China has not only made major breakthroughs, but also directly manufactured products that are fully sufficient for commercial use.
Even in the field of memory chips, the first-generation Longzang memory chip series launched almost completely crushed the high-end products of the storage giant Micron Technology.
This sudden news not only shocked everyone at the scene, but also shocked the whole world. It even forced him to urgently contact the headquarters to modify the content of the visit and exchange.
After all, judging from the on-site situation at the carbon-based chip product launch conference, they no longer have any possibility of cooperating with China in the field of carbon-based semiconductors and occupying a certain investment technology share and voice.
The other party has already prepared the finished chips and solved almost all the technical problems. How could they be allowed to participate and gain shares and voice?
If you think about it with your toes, you will know that this is impossible.
So after the carbon-based chip product launch, his purpose has changed.
It is no longer an attempt to participate in the R&D process and make early investments, but to find ways to cooperate with Xinghai Research Institute.
It would be great if the carbon-based chip preparation technology could be obtained.
If he cannot do this, he must at least obtain authorization from the other party or initially negotiate the possibility of cooperation.
In the coming era of carbon-based chips, Qualcomm cannot and cannot continue to cling to the sinking ship of silicon-based chips.
Even giving up their dominant position in the silicon-based chip field will cost them heavy losses, or even starting from scratch.
But in order to survive, they must make a decision at the first opportunity.
Therefore, William Thompson's mission is to hope to cooperate with the Xinghai Research Institute.
Compared to previous business conversations, his authority this time was surprisingly large.
If he can obtain the carbon-based chip preparation technology, the headquarters will even allow him to use Qualcomm's core and countless mobile phone manufacturer Mingmen's "baseband technology" as a condition of exchange.
However, in the conference room just now, as soon as he tentatively proposed this idea, he was directly rejected by the gentle-looking man wearing glasses across from him.
The other party's simple words left him speechless.
In the era of carbon-based chips, what technologies do you have that you can use?
In the era of silicon-based semiconductors, the chip technology they were proud of and the patent barriers built around silicon-based chips were simply not worth mentioning in the face of the wheel of the times.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Let alone Qualcomm, even in the United States, it is almost impossible to find an important technology that can be compared with carbon-based chip preparation technology.
energy?
China is the first country to master controllable nuclear fusion technology. Their electric energy and high-voltage power grid not only radiate to the entire Southeast Asian peninsula. Even the United States now has to beg them to help build fusion power stations.
chip?
China has achieved a leapfrog breakthrough in carbon-based chip technology, and their advanced technology in the field of silicon-based chips has now lost most of its value.
Perhaps the most advanced UV lithography machines still have a certain value, but at the product launch, the president of SMIC also showed them the technology that can completely bypass the lithography machine for engraving and processing chips.
It is no exaggeration to say that even in the United States, there is no technology that can trade carbon-based chip technology on an equal footing.
After all, the four words "carbon-based chip" represent a new era.
If Qualcomm wants to survive, its only option is to put down its status and stand from the perspective of mid-stream and downstream companies to help spread carbon-based chips around the world.
Perhaps only by doing this can we gain some support from the Chinese people.
However, this kind of decision is simply not something he, a vice president, can make.
More importantly, when he came out of the headquarters of Xinghai Research Institute, he also saw people from Intel and AMD.
There is no doubt that this is an organized and arranged exchange meeting in China.
Xinghai Research Institute, which has mastered carbon-based chip technology, overlooks the entire silicon-based semiconductor industry from a high position.
Even if Qualcomm wants to put down its status and cooperate from a mid- to downstream perspective, it will probably have to compete with other peers for this opportunity.
Even they may not be able to get this opportunity that they originally looked down on.
For William Thompson, this was definitely the most desperate day in his nearly two decades at Qualcomm.