The construction of the Circle Ship is progressing faster than expected.

This is largely due to the fact that Xiaoka has invested more computing resources in the center of the circle spacecraft project. According to the construction needs, Xiaoka has transformed the equipment and assembly line of the smart workshop, and has also specially developed a special maintenance robot, which can currently participate in the installation of components inside the spacecraft, and will follow the spacecraft to space in the future and undertake the important task of unmanned maintenance of equipment.

Yan Guoping also mobilized elite backbones to organize a new project team to design a number of schemes and data models for the construction of the Yuanxin spacecraft and the future space connection, and applied the latest achievements in the company's technology library.

It can be said that this batch of circular spacecraft has gathered all the relevant latest technologies that the company has absorbed and can apply, and it is also thanks to the model calculation and effect testing in the research and development process, as well as some production links, which have been handed over to the supercomputing center and smart workshop controlled by the small card to complete, and the outside world still knows nothing, otherwise it is enough to cause an uproar.

The polymer energy storage coating on the inner wall of the spacecraft is one of them, the thickness of the coating is less than 5mm, but it can absorb or release electrical energy at a specific frequency, through the energy circuit installed in the supporting installation, it can store 15% of the electric energy equivalent to the full load state of the spacecraft power storage system, and when it enters the emergency state, the stored electric energy can be input into the spacecraft engine system at any time. Moreover, the safety and stability are extremely high, and it does not pass through a specific frequency and cooperates with the energy circuit system, so there will be no leakage even if it is burned or impacted.

For a spaceship floating in space, every extra bit of energy is precious. Of course, because this kind of polymer coating can only be produced in a small amount in the laboratory, the biggest problem is: expensive! The cost price per gram of paint is equivalent to 5 times that of the same weight of gold. To paint this paint all over the interior of a spaceship, the cost is conceivable.

Second, the spacecraft's electric energy engine unit, electric energy storage components, and between the shell and inner wall all use a large number of amorphous alloy materials newly developed by the company.

The most important feature of this new material is that it can reduce the losses in the power transmission process by 50%. It is a new material discovered by the company's R&D personnel in the process of absorbing alien technology.

The market prospect of this material is also very broad. At present, the power transmission and supply mode in countries around the world is the same: power plants generate electricity, which is then fed into the grid and transmitted to substations in various places, and then transmitted to end users through distribution equipment.

During the period, there are power losses in all links, taking China, which leads the world in power infrastructure, for example, the power loss in the transmission process alone is 6%-8%, which is still the number when using low-consumption high-voltage transmission. In some rural areas, the loss rate can exceed 20% for low-voltage lines. This is why many rural electricity prices are more expensive than urban electricity prices.

If the corresponding equipment of the power grid transmission node is replaced with this amorphous material, not to mention the reduction of 50% of the loss, even if it is reduced by 20%, it is an astronomical amount in the face of the huge total amount and converted into economic value.

Although the thing is good, because it cannot be mass-produced for the time being, it still has the same disadvantage: expensive!

Thirdly, one of the spacecraft will also carry another secret weapon - a 100-kilogram monomolecular fluid planar film!

If the eight spacecraft are successfully assembled in space, they will form the central management area of the space station. In the overall design of the space station, at least the area should be self-sufficient in energy, and the monomolecular fluid planar membrane is an important piece of the puzzle to achieve this goal.

This product belongs to the native earth technology, which was discovered by the company's scientific research team during the process of testing new materials for battery energy storage half a year ago. It has been found that this single-molecule fluid material can absorb solar energy and convert it into electricity in a vacuum environment. On top of that, it converts up to 58% of solar energy in a laboratory environment.

That's a staggering statistic. At present, the solar panels used in the world are mainly divided into three categories: polycrystalline, monocrystalline and amorphous silicon, which are in the best state - that is, the purity and integration of the battery are the best, and the data of the earth laboratory is about 25%, and it can reach 37% in the vacuum environment of space. 37 and 58 are not simple numerical growths, but qualitative leaps caused by completely new materials.

It is a pity that this single-molecule fluid material can not be used in the normal environment of the earth, and its high conversion of light energy can only appear in a vacuum environment, unlike silicon-based solar panels, although the conversion rate is not high in daily use, only 12% to 17%, it takes about 6 to 8 hours of light per square meter to produce one kilowatt-hour of electricity, but it can be used when installed.

Single-molecule fluid materials, which can only be used in vacuum, have no chance of daily application, and the refining and production costs are expensive. At that time, this new material was invented by R&D personnel, which caused a surprise at first, but after the application test, the expectation fell sharply, and the commercialization was too difficult, so it could only be classified into the company's technology reserve.

Fortunately, Chen Wenhao let Xiaoka monitor the R&D line at any time, so that this technology was not idle in the technology library, which is undoubtedly the best space station energy material that can be found at present. At the same time, at the request of Chen Wenhao, the work of production and reserve has already begun, but after nearly half a year of accumulation, it can be enough to store enough 100 kilograms, which shows the difficulty of its production.

For the sake of ease of transportation and release, when the eight Circle Centered Spacecraft are built, the precious 100 kilograms of new material will be sealed in a special container, stored in a single spacecraft, and will be released after the spacecraft has been successfully spliced.

100 kilograms of single-molecule fluid material will be released in space in the form of thin films, forming a solar absorption barrier as thin as a cicada's wing, with an unfolding area of 100 square kilometers.

What is the concept of 100 square kilometers? Numerically, it is an area with a length of 10 kilometers on all four sides, which is equivalent to an area of about 150,000 acres. To describe it more vividly, then take the super-large city of Beijing as an example, the total area of the second ring road is about 60 square kilometers. In other words, the unfolded area of this solar barrier is equivalent to 1.6 times the area of the second ring road of Beijing.

At the same time, compared to the 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day in most parts of the earth, the area located at the Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon line can receive sunlight at all times regardless of season, day and night. Except for 24 hours a year, because of entering the earth's umbra zone, it is blocked by the earth's shadow and cannot illuminate the sun. It can almost be understood as absorbing solar energy all year round, converting it into electricity, and transmitting it to the space station for use through a dedicated line or wirelessly.

Once the barrier is in operation, the electricity generated will not only easily meet the energy needs of the space station's central management area, but also provide energy support for the subsequent construction of the first and second rings in space. At least in the future, unmanned intelligent machinery and equipment used in space construction will have reliable charging stations.

Compared to these "secret weapons" that are about to become blockbusters, the construction process of the ship is particularly low-key, with no ceremonies and no news to the outside world.

Only when the first center spacecraft was completed, Chen Wenhao and Yan Guoping both put aside their work at hand and stayed at the site of the smart workshop, witnessing the completion of the final steps of the intelligent machinery. Except for Xiaoka, only the two of them have a complete understanding of the space station project and understand how much impact and stimulation it will bring to human society once it is implemented.

The two watched silently for a long time before Yan Guoping spoke first, "When I was studying for a doctorate, my supervisor often told us that what you learn today will change the future of mankind. I always thought that this was what my tutor expected of my students, but I didn't expect that more than ten years after graduation, I might actually do it. ”

Chen Wenhao didn't turn his head, still staring at the first spaceship that had just been completed, "Three years ago, even in the most exaggerated dream, I couldn't have imagined that I could get to this point." It is indeed a pleasure to get the wealth and social status that was once the goal of struggle, but life can't stop there. Hopefully, the future will prove that we are not wrong in our choice today. ”

……

With the successful experience of the first Circle Spacecraft, from the second onward, the construction progress of the Circle Center Ship began to speed up further.