Three professional spacecraft testers controlled the Deep Space spacecraft through the brainwave induction control method in the anti-Ghost survival chamber.
Captain Ren Yingwu and two team members, Li Wei and Park Quandao, conducted the last routine self-inspection of the system.
[The fuel tank is normal.]
[The communication system is normal.]
[The detection system is normal.]
[…]
The overwhelming flow of big data refreshed rapidly on the virtual display screen in front of the three people.
[Confirmation completed, everything in the spacecraft system is normal.]
Ren Yingwu opened the star map of the solar system. The sun, eight planets, various asteroid belts, and the Cooper belt were all on the star map.
Natural celestial bodies all use blue as the background color, while New Humanity's own artificial celestial bodies use yellow as the background color, and unknown celestial bodies use red as the background color.
On the solar system star map, apart from the blue and yellow markers, the only red marker is the Nemesis Wormhole.
With the assistance of the spacecraft's supercomputer, artificial intelligence began to plan the spacecraft's flight path, and the test path was quickly planned.
Considering that the space on the solar ecliptic plane is relatively crowded, not only are there many celestial bodies, but the spacecraft of the new humanity itself are also densely populated on the solar ecliptic plane.
Therefore, the course is diagonally upward in the Xiaoshu area of the asteroid belt, first flying upward for 10 million kilometers, and then turning and flying parallel to the solar ecliptic towards the outer circle of the solar system.
Ren Yingwu ordered through brainwave communication: [Bearing 2569/8071/2517, power 5%, set off.]
[receive.]
The fuel distribution system of the spacecraft accelerates antihydrogen and hydrogen atoms into the antimatter annihilation furnace. There are 10 antimatter annihilation furnaces inside each photon engine.
Each antimatter annihilation furnace passes through 10% of the power of the engine. At this time, only two antimatter annihilation furnaces are started, and only a quarter of the power is used.
The positive and negative atoms ejected at high speed attract and annihilate each other in the annihilation furnace. A torrent of photons hundreds of times stronger than nuclear fusion spurts out and directly hits the action plate of the engine's main action chamber.
The action plate and passivation grid composed of degenerate materials reflect the torrent of photons and neutrinos toward the engine nozzle.
Photons and neutrinos act on the action plate, creating a huge interaction force. This interaction force pushes the spacecraft forward rapidly.
Even though they had anti-drag support tanks, Ren Yingwu and the other two people still felt a slight sense of oppression, mainly because the acceleration was too violent.
The speed and acceleration time of the virtual display in front of me are rising.
[13 kilometers/second...3 seconds]
[120 kilometers/second...11 seconds]
[567 kilometers...]
The final speed stayed around 1170 kilometers per second.
After entering a constant speed flight, the interior of the spacecraft will not be affected by acceleration, and the engine gradually reduces the antimatter injection and enters a constant speed inertial flight state.
After flying at this speed for two hours, Deep Space has flown more than eight million kilometers.
[Enter the turning channel.] Ren Yingwu ordered.
[receive.]
The spacecraft's engine entered vector control and began to adjust its flight direction.
When the spacecraft reaches the turning angle of 10 million kilometers, the spacecraft is already flying parallel to the ecliptic plane of the sun.
This is an open waterway, with no dense celestial bodies or spacecraft passing by, so the Deep Space can roam the void unscrupulously.
[Range 2673/0267/2411, target cypress belt-NM36 satellite city, move forward at full speed.]
[receive.]
The Deep Space's three photon engines gradually increased their power, and the arrogant flow of photons and neutrinos pushed the Deep Space to sprint forward.
The speed on the virtual display is beating crazily at 2760...5027...8391...
[Alert! Encounter with free particle cloud...]
If someone could see Deep Space, they would observe that the front half of Deep Space was experiencing a terrible impact, with countless free particles in the void and sparks flying off the surface of Deep Space.
Ren Yingwu looked calm. This was expected. As long as the speed is fast enough, there will be a reaction if it hits an atom.
When the speed exceeds 18,000 kilometers per second.
[Alarm, photon pressure 0.0214...]
The so-called photon pressure is a kind of resistance that the spacecraft will inevitably encounter when it enters the sub-light speed flight state. It can be understood as something similar to air resistance.
The closer the speed is to the speed of light, the greater the light pressure the spacecraft faces. Once the spacecraft reaches 90% of the speed of light, it will be like being in a collision chamber all the time.
Ren Yingwu pressed the accelerator to the bottom, and after 3.7 hours of continuous acceleration, Deep Space finally reached its limit.
At this time, the flying speed of Deep Space is 23,400 kilometers per second, which is equivalent to 7.8% of the speed of light.
This speed is about 0.2% slower than the expected speed of light of 8%.
After reaching the ultimate speed of 23,400 kilometers per second, the spacecraft engine entered a low-power inertial flight mode.
Deep Space only needs to use part of its power to offset free particles and light pressure.
Of course, the flight speed can actually be increased, but if it continues to accelerate, the spacecraft will lose the fuel for braking and return, and it will become a lonely ship drifting in the starry sky forever.
After 24 hours, Deep Space has advanced 2 billion kilometers and is less than 15.7 billion kilometers away from the NM36 satellite city. It can reach the NM36 satellite in about 8 days.
Compared with the previous flight journey of five to six hundred days, it took 9 days to cross 17.7 billion kilometers, which is almost endless.
This speed is almost enough for use within the solar system.
…
Satellite city of New Constantinople.
The data sent back by the neutrino communication made Gao Zishang excited: "It is indeed an antimatter fuel, and it is a perfect match for the photon engine."
"It seems that there are no major problems with the prototype. It can be improved and the first-generation photon engine can be launched." Yang Tiansheng said while browsing the data.
People at the Spacecraft Research Institute also became happy, as the low-sublight spacecraft could finally move forward to the development stage.
[Note: Low sub-light speed refers to flight speed lower than 30% of the speed of light. In addition, there are medium sub-light speed (30%~59% of the speed of light), high sub-light speed (60%~89% of the speed of light), and extreme sub-light speed (90%~
99%)]
Gao Zishang looked through the data and suddenly turned to the people at the Spacecraft Research Institute and said, "Deep Space has some stress damage. Take a look."
Why? They hurriedly browsed the data fed back by Deep Space. After reading the data, spacecraft design engineer Mi Wanli replied helplessly:
"The photon engine accelerates too fast. Part of the Deep Space structure cannot withstand the acceleration. We will improve it."
"You can use degenerate materials as the spacecraft skeleton." Gao Zishang suggested.
Mi Wanli shook his head at this suggestion: "Our degenerate material processing technology is not good. If a large number of degenerate material parts are used, the spacecraft will be overweight."
"That's it!" Gao Zishang frowned.
This is a very helpless reality. Nibelung can use a large number of degenerate materials as spacecraft parts. That is because the other party's degenerate processing technology is better than that of New Humans.
For example, the shell of the Nibelon spacecraft only had one layer of N16-N-2, but New Humanity required three layers, resulting in a weight that was 3.4 times higher than the other in the same area.
Degenerate materials themselves are overweight. If used in large quantities, the dead weight of a Tianzhou-class spacecraft made of ordinary materials will be about 670 tons, while degenerate materials may reach more than 10,000 tons.
Faced with this situation, the Spacecraft Research Institute can only reduce unnecessary parts and use degenerate materials as much as possible to avoid overweighting the spacecraft.
The design of a spacecraft must balance the engine power and the dead weight of the spacecraft.