When Yang Yi walked into the cockpit of the "somersault cloud" nuclear fusion spacecraft in a milky white spacesuit, the sunset at dusk was slowly falling, and today is June 5, 2090 AD.

The command hall of the Wenchang launch site in Hainan has long been brightly lit, all the equipment is running at full capacity, and each station is full of scientific researchers wearing blue space dispatch staff clothes.

The live broadcast has been open to the global media for an hour, and it is clear that this is a highly anticipated and extremely important launch.

In the command hall, on the CCTV news channel, a beautiful reporter in a white shirt is doing a live broadcast in front of the holographic imaging equipment:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am waiting with you in the command hall of the Wenchang Cosmodrome in Hainan Province, waiting for this exciting moment with you. Through decades of hard work by aerospace researchers, the world's first fusion-powered spacecraft, 'Somersault Cloud', developed and manufactured by China, will be launched here.

This will be a new revolution in the way of human spacecraft propulsion, astronaut Yang Yi piloted the 'somersault cloud' spacecraft into space, its initial speed will reach 300 kilometers per second, the next year, it will accelerate to the maximum speed of 600 kilometers per second, create a new miracle of human spaceflight, carry the desire of human beings to explore the universe, fly to the vast space, will fly 4.3 light years away after 2150 years to reach Proxima centauri. ”

On the holographic surveillance screen of the command hall, the "somersault cloud" spacecraft like a huge gourd stands quietly on the No. 1 launch station, and the lander is like a pair of huge silver feet, steadily supporting the huge hull.

The silver-gray hull of the five-star red flag and the big blue characters of "China Aerospace" are particularly eye-catching, and judging from its huge size of a 30-story building, it is at least a big guy weighing thousands of tons.

Unlike previous spacecraft cabin structures, which require high-thrust launch vehicles to send them to Earth's orbit, the somersault cloud looks a little weird.

The huge cylindrical anti-gravity engine and energy storage device of the nuclear fusion reactor at the tail are more than a dozen stories high, which looks much larger than the nose, giving people a feeling that the tail is too big to fall, and this is already the latest model of miniaturized nuclear fusion power reactor on the earth.

According to the theoretical parameters of the design, the core temperature of the "somersault cloud" nuclear fusion reactor is as high as hundreds of millions of degrees, like detonating a small hydrogen bomb that burns in a steady state, and the artificial sun illuminates the advancing starry sky. The energy in the energy storage device is enough to sustain the spacecraft in space at full speed for thousands of years.

In the middle of the spacecraft is a highly intelligent, fully automated, self-sustaining small ecological circulation system that provides energy through a fusion reactor at the tail.

The environment in the ecosystem is simulated like a miniature star system, where the artificial sun with clear daylight allows plants to photosynthesize, similar to the Earth's ecosystem, automatically producing enough air, fresh water, fruits, vegetables, cereals, and meat to synthesize food for a person's long-term life.

The cone-shaped head of the spacecraft is the veritable command center of the spacecraft, and the main system is a quantum computer with a computing power equivalent to 50 million memory times.

The gravity centrifuge that creates artificial gravity is located in the belly of the spacecraft, which is also powered by a nuclear fusion reactor in the tail, and after entering the earth's orbit, the controlled gravity centrifuge is activated, and the high-speed rotation of the centrifuge at the bottom of the spacecraft creates an artificial gravity field, allowing people to walk on the ground in a zero-gravity environment.

The entire spacecraft is made of the latest high-strength nanomaterials, and the external sensors have the ability to avoid the impact of small meteorites, and the fuselage is up to one meter thick nanomaterial fuselage, when it encounters the inevitable meteorite belt, the "somersault cloud" will automatically open the energy cover, and the hull will be shrouded by the protective high-temperature magnetic field powered by the nuclear fusion reactor, and the high temperature of up to 30,000 degrees can instantly vaporize the meteorite fragments.

In order to have sufficient self-defense capabilities, the spacecraft is equipped with a total of six high-energy laser cannons controlled by a central computer, which are installed on the nose, tail and waist of the spacecraft, and can continuously fire high-energy lasers with temperatures of up to 100,000 degrees Celsius to hit any target that poses a threat to the spacecraft during the voyage.

It is no exaggeration to say that the "somersault cloud" is a sensitive and sturdy flying fortress.

Since the world's first commercial fusion power station was connected to the grid two decades ago, the commercial and military value of controlled fusion energy has been revealed.

The efficient use of energy in nuclear fusion reactors, which can generate electricity by reacting with deuterium and tritium in seawater, and the earth's seawater reserves that are enough for human use for tens of billions of years, have solved the problem of energy depletion, which has always been regarded as a major problem for mankind.

Traditional energy companies are transforming and investing heavily in the fusion energy sector. In just 15 years, fusion electricity accounts for one-fifth of the world's energy, and it seems that it will be replaced by fusion energy in the near future.

Almost at the same time as the advent of nuclear fusion power stations, the idea of developing a manned spacecraft with deep space exploration capabilities using long-lasting nuclear fusion as a power source was proposed, and until the problem of controlled nuclear fusion technology was solved, long-distance space exploration was almost a luxury for mankind.

As early as the era of nuclear fission energy, nuclear power has been widely used in naval aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered submarines and other large ships, the United States is in service with the 10 Ford-class aircraft carriers, China's tenth aircraft carrier propelled by nuclear fission power reactor "Peace" was also commissioned 20 years ago.

But attempts to use nuclear fission spacecraft have not made much progress.

The farthest manned flight recorded by humans using nuclear fission energy is also comparable to Mars, barely reaching the vicinity of Jupiter, and the interstellar voyage out of the solar system is out of reach.

In addition to the fact that the energy utilization of nuclear fission energy is not as efficient as nuclear fusion, potential safety hazards such as lethal radiation are important reasons for the abandonment of development.

The safe and efficient characteristics of nuclear fusion have given mankind the hope of manned long-distance deep space flight.

At the same time, the development of miniaturized nuclear fusion reactors and nuclear fusion power engines has become the highest point for scientists from all countries to seize the highest point, and in addition to the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the right of veto, some non-permanent members have also invested huge sums of money to join this race, and all the ruling authorities want to master the small nuclear fusion engine, the most cutting-edge technology in the world today, in advance.

In the cockpit of the "somersault cloud", Yang Yi looked out of the porthole with a calm expression. For this mission, Yang Yi is full of expectations and his mood is extremely complicated. It will be a lonely journey, and in the time after entering space, he will face the deep universe and the starry sky alone.

Yang Yi is the only volunteer selected by the "somersault" space expedition program project office, and the reason why he is the only volunteer is because "somersault" is a one-way ticket that will sail to the closest star system to Earth, Proxima Centauri.

The distance between Proxima Centauri and the Earth is as long as 4.3 light years, even if the "somersault cloud" flies at a limit speed of 600 kilometers per second, it will take more than 2,000 years to reach the galaxy.

Even if, as the ship's designers claimed, the flight was safe enough to avoid other accidents, the fuel would be enough to sustain the flight to its destination. Yang Yi, who flew alone, will also drift lonely in the cosmic space far away from the earth, turning into a small point of light in the vast cosmic sea of stars, far away from the familiar home of the earth.

"Report, nuclear fusion anti-gravity engine ready!" Yang Yi heard the clean voice of Commander Zero in the command hall in his ears.

Listening to this familiar voice, Yang Yi became a little excited, although the "somersault cloud" is a one-way mission with uncertain life and death, but since the moment it began to recruit volunteers around the world, the number of applicants has soared, and the number of people who have signed up online alone is as many as 100,000, and there are as many as 30,000 people who have signed up through other channels.

In recent decades, although medical technologies such as genetic modification, anti-tumor, and anti-aging have made great progress, and the average life expectancy of human beings has increased substantially, the longest life expectancy of human beings has just exceeded 140 years old, and the long-distance flight of hundreds or even thousands of years is still a drop in the bucket for the current human life expectancy.

In addition, the "somersault cloud" project itself is extremely expensive, so without violating the juvenile protection law, it is natural that the younger the more suitable this expeditionary spacecraft costing one trillion yuan.

Due to these limitations, the "Somersaulting Cloud" program requires astronauts to be trained between the ages of 15 and 18, resulting in the majority of applicants not being able to participate in the program.