A good start is half the battle, and the discovery of Centaur Alpha Star AA this time is a great encouragement to the entire extraterrestrial civilization project team. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Yuan Haochen could clearly feel this.

......

Late that night, at the peak of Mount Maonaki, Yuan Haochen was dressed in black, looking vigorous and free under the night, and he was looking at the starry sky above his head with great attention.

In the early winter, on the top of the mountain, the cold wind was blowing through his hairline.

Yuan Haochen tightened his collar and let out a long sigh.

Winter nights are not only cold and lonely, in fact, she also contains countless beauty.

Tonight's night sky is even deeper and more distant against the backdrop of white snowy peaks.

The moonlight was so cold and bleak, thin, shattered, and trembling and scattered in all directions.

"The starry sky here is truly unique!" Yuan Haochen said with emotion.

"The summit of Mount Maunaki is above the inversion layer, and you already have 40 percent of the atmosphere and 90 percent of the water vapor under your feet, so you have a very clear picture of the starry sky." Durunik explained to Hara.

Mount Maunaki is indeed a great place for stargazing, and at a low latitude of 20 degrees north, you can see almost the sky of the northern and southern hemispheres.

On this lonely winter night, in the midst of this vast silence, Yuan Haochen couldn't help but recall the experience of stargazing in the suburbs of Beijing with his best friends from college.

When you close your eyes, you seem to see a beautiful figure in the starry sky......

Yuan Haochen retracted his gaze, turned to look at Durunik and said, "Durunik, you see that we are one step closer to the goal!" ”

"yes, I'm sure we'll find more target planets in the Centaur Alpha system." Durunik said confidently.

Then, as if remembering something, Durunik shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, we have not been able to observe the real scene on these planets. ”

The cold wind was blowing, accompanied by a period of silence.

After a while, Yuan Haochen suddenly looked at the starry sky and said faintly, "Maybe there is a way." ”

"What's the solution?" Durnik's eyes lit up at once.

"Have you ever considered that maybe we could launch a high-precision miniature space telescope into the Centaur Alpha System?"

"Miniature Space Telescope!" Durunik was first taken aback.

"How to launch and how long will it take to arrive?" Durunik continued to ask.

"Shoot at close to the speed of light! In four to five years, we will be able to see the true vision of Centaur Alpha. ”

Yuan Haochen looked at Durunik calmly and said.

"The speed of light!! How could it be possible with our technology! Durunik asked with a stunned look on his face.

"If it's a spaceship, maybe we don't have the strength yet." Yuan Haochen continued to smile and said, "But if it's just a miniature space telescope with a very small size, maybe we have a way." ”

Hearing this, Durunik fell into deep thought, and several plans quickly passed through his mind.

"Okay, I'll take a closer look at this plan." Durunik replied earnestly.

"Do you remember the [Breakthrough Starshot] program from decades ago?" Yuan Haochen asked indifferently.

"Impressions." Durunik nodded in reply.

It is a cosmic exploration program founded and led by renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.

On June 21, 2035, the Breakthrough science team launched three nano-vehicles to Alpha Centauri.

The three nano-vehicles utilize a light-sail acceleration system.

When it comes to the light sail acceleration system, in fact, as early as more than 400 years ago, the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler had already proposed the dream of a solar sail spacecraft.

He believes that in a few hundred years, humans will be able to fly a spacecraft that does not need to carry fuel and relies only on sunlight as propulsion. Just like the seafaring adventurers of the time, they relied on the free thrust provided by nature to reach the end of the ocean.

Think about it more than 400 years ago, what was the world like?

At that time, there were no airplanes, not even steam engines, and people didn't even have the ability to fly, but they imagined spaceships.

Johannes Kepler's idea was more dreaming than a dream for people at the time.

Just as there are many people today who insist that humans will never be able to fly out of the solar system.

However, with the passage of time, more than 400 years have passed, and this "dream" of Hannes Kepler has come true!

First, the Breakthrough Science team sent the nanocraft into space and opened its light sails.

Subsequently, the Breakthrough Science team used a laser emitter on Earth to hit a powerful laser beam on the light sail to power the nano-vehicle, which finally made the nano-vehicle fly at 12% of the speed of light.

In fact, Hawking's earliest idea was to make nano-flying vehicles reach 20% of the speed of light.

However, in practice, the laser emitter of the "Breakthrough Star" scientific team was not able to produce a powerful enough laser, and because of the problem of atmospheric attenuation due to the emission of lasers from the ground, the actual acceleration effect only reached 12% of the speed of light.

"The [Breakthrough Star] scientific team originally expected that after 40 years of flight, the nanocraft would reach Centaur Alpha. It's a pity that these three nano-flying machines lost contact with the earth in the 5th, 12th, and 13th years after they left. Yuan Haochen said with a regretful face.

"What is the reason for the loss of contact .....?" Durunik asked.

"I don't know, maybe the communication signal emitted by the nano vehicle is too weak for the earth to receive. Or maybe for some reason it was destroyed in space. Yuan Haochen waved his hand and said helplessly, after all, the environment of the universe is too complicated, who knows what bad luck happened to the three nano aircraft.

"Do we also use light sail technology?" Trunik seemed uncertain.

Light is made up of photons that have no static mass but momentum, and when they hit a smooth plane, they can change the direction of motion like a ping-pong ball bouncing off a wall, and give a corresponding force to the impacting object.

The thrust produced by a single photon is extremely small, and at the distance from the Earth to the Sun, the thrust generated by light on a square meter of sail is only 0.9 dynes, which is less than the weight of an ant.

However, because the spacecraft operating in space is weightless and has no air resistance, a slight thrust (the pressure of the sun's rays) can make it accelerate.

If the diameter of the light sail (solar drive) is increased to 300 meters, its area will be 70,686 square meters, and the thrust obtained by the light pressure will reach 0.034 tons (not large, 340 N).

According to theoretical calculations, this thrust can enable a spacecraft weighing about 0.5 tons to fly to Mars in more than 200 days.

If the diameter of the light sail (solar power) is increased to 2,000 meters, the thrust it gains from 1.5 tons can send a spacecraft weighing about 5 tons outside the solar system (not very fast).

The sails are made of very light and thin mylar, they are unusually hard and coated with reflective substances, which make them extremely reflective, and when the light hits the sails, the sails will reflect photons, which will also have a reaction force on the sails, propelling the ship forward.

Therefore, the larger the diameter of the sail, the greater the thrust and the faster the speed, which can be adjusted by changing the angle of inclination of the sail to the sun.

However, the theory is plump, and the reality is skinny!

At present, Lightsail Power has been seriously limited by the problem of light source technology, the sunlight is too weak, and the laser beam energy made by humans is far from enough.

For example, if a laser beam were to help humans fly to 55 Scorpio, the output power of the laser would be incredibly large.

Based on the mass of a small spacecraft, the stable energy output of the laser required to propel the spacecraft should be 17,000 trillion watts.

That's why Trunik doubts the feasibility of using lightsail technology to accelerate miniature space telescopes to the speed of light.

"Maybe light sails are the most feasible way for us right now." Yuan Haochen replied after a little thought.

"How did we create such a powerful laser that could accelerate a miniature space telescope to near the speed of light?" Trunik still looked incredulous.

Yuan Chenwei looked up at the starry sky again, and said in a deep voice: "When the [Breakthrough Starting] program was founded, Hawking once said, what is the quality that makes human beings unique? In my opinion, going beyond the limits is a quality that is unique to us. ”

"One day we will take another big step into the universe, because we are human beings and our essence is to fly!"

"This ......." Durunik did not understand Yuan Chen's intention in saying these words.

"Earth civilization really can't make such a powerful laser beam!" Yuan Haochen turned back to Durunik and said meaningfully, "However, other civilizations can do this. ”

"I still don't quite understand what you mean......" Durunik said, shaking his head.

"Have you forgotten about the artificial black hole propulsion system?" Yuan Haochen then reminded him.

"What's going on with black holes......

"Ahh Yes! Yes! Before Durunik could finish the previous sentence, he immediately reacted, and he shouted excitedly from the summit of Mount Maunaki.

The working principle of Doctor Alien's artificial black hole propulsion system is to use an incomparably powerful laser beam to concentrate on one point, change the curvature of space-time in space, and create a theoretical singularity!

"How powerful is laser technology that can create black holes and singularities!! Yuan Haochen said with emotion.

"Thank you Alien Doctor, Alien Doctor is so good to us!" Durunik chimed in.

That's right, the civilization of Earth though does not have the ability to create a laser beam powerful enough to propel a light-sailing ship.

However, super alien civilizations have long been prepared for us with sufficiently powerful laser emitters.

Even if the earth's civilization cannot decipher the relevant technology for the time being, it is not difficult to use it rationally!

ps: I'm on a business trip today, I'm out all day, and I know that I won't go home until 9 o'clock in the evening, so I'm updating so late, and I've written a little more in this chapter, so please be considerate of all book friends. (To be continued.) )