"There is no need to worry about radiation in the use environment, and the third-generation nuclear bomb technology can also add an extra layer of sufficient lithium cladding to absorb neutrons, or use beryllium metal to bounce neutrons out of the nozzle."

Wei Hong organized the following language: "The temperature problem caused by the explosion can also be avoided, and there are three ways of heat propagation: heat conduction, heat convection and heat radiation, as long as the high-temperature medium is not allowed to touch the material, the temperature cannot affect the material." ”

"You mean, magnetic fields?"

Lu Yi vaguely guessed which way Wei Hong wanted to avoid the thermal shock of the nuclear bomb explosion.

"Yes, Magnetic Field."

Wei Hong nodded confidently and said: "We can wrap a thick layer of solid helium around the periphery of this nuclear bomb to isolate and absorb the optical radiation and thermal radiation generated by the explosion.

Plasma gases can be bound by magnetic fields, just like plasma in fusion reactors.

As long as the strength of our magnetic field is sufficient, it can block the ultra-high temperature of the plasma gas and resist the shock wave, and we can obtain greater thrust and acceleration with the help of the expansion pressure of the explosion shock wave and the heating of solid helium.

This is the data model I have just deduced based on this idea, which is not perfect, but it can be roughly determined that this idea is feasible......"

"Wait, don't show me yet, you let me ...... slowly"

Lu Yi looked at the number mold handed over by Wei Hong and felt a headache for the first time, 96.8 potential is so crazy, if it is 98 or even 99, wouldn't it be a brain hole to break through the sky?

What's even more terrifying is that ordinary people's brain holes are called brain holes, just think about it, but these crazy people can build a mathematical model from the existing conditions according to their own brain holes, and use data to accurately tell you...... Believe me! No problem!

People can deceive people, but math doesn't deceive people.

I didn't agree with the digital model, and I used it very cool before, but why is it so bad when someone else holds a digital model and proves that their terrifying ideas are okay.

"Show me your data."

After slowing down for nearly a minute, Lu Yi took the model that Wei Honggang had built in less than two hours, and it could be seen that he was not as good as Professor Lin in playing mathematics, but thinking that the other party's main business was to study engines, it would feel terrifying.

After watching it for more than ten minutes, Lu Yi handed the notebook back to Wei Hong and said: "There are still a lot of imperfect data, and at the same time, there is no data on the magnetic field to resist the impact of plasma, are you sure there is no problem?" ”

"I can complete it in two days without perfect data, and from the data that has been shown so far, this idea is no problem, and I need the magnetic field confinement data of the nuclear fusion reactor to resist the impact of plasma, so I didn't write it."

Wei Hong explained these two problems, and then seemed to be afraid that Lu Yi was not studying space engines and did not know enough about this Orion engine, so he took a pen and drew a rough structure diagram of a rocket engine on paper, explaining:

"Chief Engineer Lu, now the barrier of the space engine is not propulsion fuel, but material!

There are only two directions to increase the thrust of the engine, either to increase the amount of fluid injection or to increase the speed of fluid injection.

Increasing the amount of working fluid jetted, that is, increasing the combustion output of the propellant per unit time, is a significant cost burden on the propellant, and the weight of the propellant itself can also be a hindrance.

The cabin of the rocket engine is shaped like an hourglass, and above it is the combustion chamber, and the burning hot working fluid is sprayed downward, and the further down the compartment space is, the smaller the space, and at the same time the injection speed is getting faster and faster.

When it crosses the nozzle neck, the chamber space begins to expand again, and the jet working fluid that has not been completely burned at high temperature and high pressure expands in the expanded chamber space, and the expanding pressure acts on the inner wall of the nozzle to form a thrust.

In the case of equal fuel, if you want to increase the thrust of the engine, it is necessary to increase the injection speed and this expansion pressure, the higher the pressure, the faster the injection speed, the higher the temperature, the greater the expansion pressure.

This pressure and temperature are given by the combustion chamber, so this involves a problem, that is, the upper limit of the material, is the upper limit of the expansion pressure of the inner wall of the nozzle, but the pressure of the supercharged combustion chamber of the rocket engine reaches the upper limit.

The pressure and temperature of the combustion chamber of modern rocket engines have reached the limit of existing materials and can not be increased, unless there is a breakthrough in materials, otherwise we can only work hard from the design, but the design and construction of rocket engines are so simple, and there is not much room for optimization in this regard. ”

"This is the bottleneck of our current rocket and space engine, the bottleneck of materials, but my previous two plans are different.

The first is to use the thermal expansion effect of the propulsion working fluid, and the expansion pressure generated by the ultra-high temperature exhaust gas and heat flow of the nuclear fusion reactor is used to promote the work.

Because the expansion work is carried out directly due to the reduction of the pressurized combustion link, the bell-shaped or conical nozzle below is also changed from small to large, rather than from large to small, so the material pressure and working fluid consumption are reduced a lot.

Second, we use the energy of the explosion of the ultra-small nuclear bomb to heat the solid gas, and instantaneously heat the solid gas to the plasma state, and use the magnetic field to bind and block the plasma to avoid the limit of the material's bearing, and convert the impact force of the nuclear bomb explosion and the expansion pressure of the gas into thrust.

Of course, the second option is not very efficient because of the need to build a high-strength magnetic field, but under the premise of having a nuclear fusion reactor, I think energy efficiency is not a problem. ”

After watching Wei Hong analyze the bottlenecks of the current space engine and the advantages of these two engines in detail, Lu Yi also fell into silence.

As a scientist, he also understands the sentence that the upper limit of materials determines the upper limit of science and technology, but materials cannot be broken through in a short time, so he will abandon the rocket engine at the beginning and want to seek a breakthrough in the ion engine.

The design ideas of the two space engines proposed by Wei Hong are indeed perfect use of the advantages of nuclear fusion reactors, and at the same time avoid the current material bottlenecks......

"Combining the two engines, since the magnetic field confinement can be applied to the Orion engine, it is no problem to apply it to the thermal expansion engine to increase the power."

After thinking for a while, Lu Yi finally failed to resist the amazing prospect and temptation of the Orion engine, and agreed with Wei Hong's idea, but also put forward his own ideas for improvement.

The magnetic field confinement isolation scheme can be applied to the Orion engine, but it can also be applied to the thermal expansion engine, and the ultra-high temperature exhaust gas from the fusion reactor is enough to heat the propulsion working fluid to the plasma state.

"No problem, but I need the current performance parameters of superconducting materials and the data on the magnetic constraints of nuclear fusion reactors." Hearing that Lu Yi finally agreed, Wei Hong's expression became a little excited, and he quickly put forward his request.

"Relevant data and specific superconducting materials, I will let people give it to you tomorrow."

Lu Yi glanced at the excited Wei Hong, and said solemnly: "Conquer the thermal expansion engine first, and keep the rest of the Orion engine silent, first improve the relevant data model and structural parameters and bring it to me, and I will find a way to miniaturize the hydrogen bomb." ”

Miniaturized hydrogen bombs, this is the only trouble with the Orion engine, and it is the big one.

Unlike the atomic fission bomb, the engineering drawings and manufacturing methods of the atomic bomb can be found even in Baidu, and there are enough high-purity uranium-235 and simple equipment and tools to build it by any nuclear physics student.

But the hydrogen bomb? Top secret among top secrets, the construction data is only in the hands of a few bigwigs of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, even with Lu Yi's current status, he doesn't know about it, and it is even more inconvenient to inquire.

Although this Orion engine can also use atomic fission bombs, as an interstellar space engine, it is important that fuel can be easily and quickly obtained.

Whether in the universe or on Earth, there are far fewer fission elements than fusion elements, and if the problem of small hydrogen bombs cannot be solved, then this plan can only be put on hold.