A month passed quickly. Initial progress has been made in the scientific investigation of the Tepu civilization.

"Is this civilization still using fossil fuels? "Survey on the Spread of Fossil Fuels", "Survey on the Possibility of Global Warming", ......"

On this day, Zhang Yuan was sorting out this information in the captain's room, and there were all kinds of messy reports. He also heard the people's call for tourism, including the topic of his own bionics transformation was brought up again.

If you use robot VR technology to travel on behalf of you, the effect will be much worse, and it will take at least five or ten years to reproduce with virtual world technology, where is it so fast? The weak human body is impossible to adapt to 3 times the gravity, and no matter how much you strengthen the exercise, the only way to experience it is to biomimicry.

Of course, no matter how popular the voice is, it is impossible to realize it immediately, and if you want to reform yourself, you have to go through some legal procedures.

Li Cheng of the Secretariat replied: "Some of them use fossil fuels, and the planet is very rich in fossil resources. According to the estimates of our geologists, it is at least 20 times more than the Earth! Because the planet is huge...... There is also a portion of renewable biofuels. ”

"Oh? Biofuels? Zhang Yuan wondered.

"Yes, this civilization generally cultivates an annual herb called 'Alc', which is very simple and efficient in refining industrial alcohol as well as methane. Most of the fuel for airboat engines is provided by this plant. Only a small number of military weapons, which require fuel with a high calorific value, can use oil. ”

"Very nice plant indeed. It was a bonus. ”

Many of the chemical raw materials in Kunlun Mountain are also provided by plants, so biologists in Kunlun Mountain are thinking that if this plant is really good, they can try to introduce it into the entire industrial system.

Zhang Yuan pondered for a while, frowned and asked, "Did the Taipu civilization consider renewable energy so early?" Are they so visionary? But when the oil crisis really happened, mankind vigorously developed controllable nuclear fusion, and most of the oil was simply burned. Is there a deeper reason, such as ......"

"Not really, it's mainly economic." Dr. Li Cheng said with a smile: "Because for this civilization, although oil is available, it is too difficult to mine, and in a high-gravity environment, oil in the shallow layer is very scarce, and it requires more pressure to be able to extract it." Petroleum extraction relies on artificial energy such as pumping pumps and gas lifts, which is more difficult in high-gravity environments. ”

"High-quality oil is at the deeper surface, which makes it expensive to extract."

In a high-gravity environment, the deeper the surface, the harder the stone, the more difficult it is to extract the oil.

Just like the earth's shale oil, the reserves are about 11 trillion ~ 13 trillion tons, far exceeding the oil reserves, but it is extremely difficult to develop, and only a small part can be really utilized.

Dr. Li continued, "The planet is vast and sparsely populated, with a surface area four or five times that of the Earth, and a population with a low birth rate, less than four billion. Therefore, these farmers choose to grow this type of plant on a large scale in the plains, which is economical and affordable. ”

"I see." Hearing this, Zhang Yuan asked, "Then do you think that this excellent energy plant was deliberately left behind by the Enlightener Civilization?" Oil, even if there is a large amount of oil, will be used up, but renewable energy is completely different and can be sustained for a long time. ”

Finding the traces of the enlightened civilization has always been the key goal of this scientific expedition. People have been looking for so-called evidence, and it is impossible for any bit of wind and circumstance to think that it is left by the enlightened civilization, which is too funny.

Faced with Zhang Yuan's question, Li Cheng replied: "It depends on whether this plant named 'Alke' has undergone large-scale genetic mutations like the 'World Tree' of the Riley civilization at this point in time. If anything, it can basically be concluded that it was the civilized behavior of the enlighteners. ”

“…… From an innate point of view, it is indeed very difficult for this civilization to go into space. If controlled nuclear fusion never works, even if there is no energy crisis now, there will be in the future. ”

"Now that this plant has appeared, the energy crisis will undoubtedly be greatly alleviated and more time can be provided."

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "However, this doesn't seem to be quite in line with the concept of the Enlightener Civilization, if this civilization gradually stops progressing in the next few thousand years and has been using this plant to survive, wouldn't it be the same as the Riley Civilization?" What's the point of going on forever? So I don't think it's very likely that this plant was deliberately made for this reason. ”

"According to my personal thoughts: if a civilization runs out of fossil fuels, but does not ignite the spark of nuclear fusion and leaves the planet, then it is dead and dead, and there is nothing to regret."

Li Cheng replied: "I don't really agree with your idea. I think it is also necessary to consider the technical difficulty of leaving the planet itself. If a planet's gravity is ten times greater than that of Earth, will the planet's creatures be able to leave the planet? It's impossible, even our ships will have a hard time taking off and landing. Then the appearance of an energy source to give these beings a chance to breathe can be regarded as a kind of mercy. ”

"Our scientists are deducing whether it is possible to leave a planet with three times the gravity and start the great interstellar era according to the scientific and technological level of mankind at the end of the 20th century."

"The mathematical modeling work is still ongoing, and some scientists think that it can, while others believe that traditional rocket technology will not help the Tepu people to leave the planet step by step."

"If it really can't, it means that the innate environment of this civilization is flawed and needs some help. Visionary enlighteners might try to do something about this......"

"It makes a lot of sense." Zhang Yuan saw a picture on the screen of an anthropologist visiting a museum.

This civilization also has its own archaeology, and it is also studying its own origins, which may be the common denominator of technological thinking, everything wants to go back to the origins, rather than vaguely attributing its existence to the gods.

Therefore, the current research direction is divided into two parts, one is archaeology, focusing on the history of 150,000 years ago.

The other is to examine whether the Taipu civilization has technological defects, environmental defects, whether there is hidden help from enlighteners, and so on.

"I haven't made any good discoveries yet...... In 150,000 years, a series of complex evolutions have been formed, and if we do not rely on the power of the Taipu civilization itself, it is too slow and too slow for us to conduct our own scientific research. ”

"Our diplomatic team is considering whether it is possible to make such a scientific request directly to the other side. In other words, it would be better if you could read the other party's archaeological documents directly...... After all, the other party's information is not completely open to us. ”

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "That's no problem...... What we can trade is in this table, and the corresponding prices are clearly marked. ”