"VASIMR, what a challenge!"

In the northwest of Yandu, on the side of Xiangshan, in the large workshop where the exterior walls of the research institute were painted in lead gray, except for the original server room, all other areas were emptied, and it looked empty.

At the foot of the foot is the floor that has not yet been painted, the top of the head is a layer of hanging beams, and the higher part is criss-crossed, painted in various colors of pipelines, vaguely giving people a sense of sacredness that although it is self-made, the grand cause lies ahead.

This made the hearts of the dozen or so newcomers who had just arrived at the institute uneasy, and they were speechless for a while, until a somewhat sharp voice broke the peace.

"Uh, that's right, VASIMR, our project is to get this black technology, don't you know?"

The person who spoke was less than 1.7 meters tall, wider than tall, with a round belly, coupled with a beard and a pair of small glasses, making him look not like a Chinese scientist, but a Yankee who ate junk food all day long and raised himself with a big belly.

"Dongfang Sheng, not a nickname, Hanxia University is engaged in electromagnetic research", the fat man reached out to the others in a friendly manner.

The more you emphasize this, the more you feel that the taste is wrong.

Although the others muttered in their stomachs, they still smiled and shook hands with him, after all, they were colleagues in a team.

"Everyone's here? It's still empty, but it's going to be filled with all sorts of equipment and instruments," and two more people entered the workshop. When everyone's eyes focused on the foreigner, who was also a fat man, but was nearly two meters tall, and his belly was so fat that ordinary pregnant women couldn't compare, the thin middle-aged man next to him spoke.

The middle-aged man's next sentence turned everyone's attention to him: "Whatever you want, you will have it at that time, who has made Xiao Xia crazy." ”

He smiled at the group: "My name is Lou Xinghai, and I am your leader." My task is to take everyone with me. Go crazy with Natsu. ”

"Yes, when I heard that it was VASIR, I also thought Xiao Xia was crazy, but I like it!"

The little fat man smiled, and then looked at the foreigner who was bigger than him in all aspects: "This is ......"

"Call me Vasily," the foreigner said in a somewhat stiff tone: "I'm an astrophysicist." ”

"Vasily is a celebrity. If you play Galaxy of Illusions, you should know him. He made his own space into a solar system, and every detail was very accurate, and he could even conduct simple planetary gravitational studies. ”

Lou Xinghai's introduction made everyone sigh of admiration, everyone is a technology nerd, "Phantom Galaxy" players are already a label of technology nerds, and celebrities like Vasily naturally know it.

Vasily scratched his head and smiled, looking very honest.

After getting to know everyone present one by one. Lou Xinghai said: "For Xiao Xia, every minute is precious, let's start now." ”

"Is Natsu coming? I heard that he was injured and bedridden", Dongfang Sheng asked excitedly.

"You'll see him", Lou Xinghai motioned to Vasily, who took out a bunch of boxes from the pocket he was carrying and handed one to everyone. When I opened it, I saw a pair of AR glasses. It's not a dream mirror on the market. The lenses and frames are larger and unbranded.

"Our project is currently in absolute secrecy. Private smart devices are not allowed. We will provide AR glasses, mobile phones, watches, and laptops equipped with neuronal chips and machine intelligence, guaranteed to have no PEI installed. ”

Lou Xinghai's explanation is clear to everyone, and these terms are available in the agreement to enter the research institute, but the next sentence makes them excited: "However, if you are willing." You can also apply to the research institute, Xiaoxia has a special PEI here, not a consumer-oriented fire, but a more powerful scientist assistant, named Torch. ”

Although Cicada Motion has already released a lot of trial versions. But the official version of Tinder PEI is still a month away. Tech nerds are salivating for this thing, but I didn't expect to have a stronger PEI when I entered the institute, which is a big surprise, and no one wants to.

After motioning for everyone to put on AR glasses and taking a moment to adjust the settings, everyone reached out and clicked the confirmation button of "Scene Meeting Invitation" in the air.

The scene in the glasses changed, the workshop was gone, and the vision ahead was filled with clouds, the sea, and the land where the border could be seen.

"This is a medium-high orbit 2,000 kilometers away from the Earth, and only a few satellites, such as GPS navigation satellites, will be launched to this altitude. For a variety of reasons, our probes are also launched to this altitude and then fly to Homo sapiens. ”

A clear voice came from behind him, sounding a little tired, everyone turned around, and suddenly found themselves in the vast sea of stars, and a young man was standing between the sea of stars, smiling faintly.

Xia Ming! No, this is just an image of Xia Ming, he himself is still lying on the hospital bed, but the voice is not synthetic.

"Bringing people together is to accomplish a pioneering feat, an initiative that has disrupted human astronautics. We need to let the probe fly to Zhishen within two months, Lao Lou said that it can't be done without black technology, and in the existing technology, only VASIMR can be counted on. So, the goal is to verify that VASIMR is feasible within a month, and if it does, to put it into practical use within three months, and then, in six months at most, our probe will reach Homo sapiens. ”

Xia Ming said that even Dongfang Sheng was stunned, only Lou Xinghai looked indifferent, he had already said that Xiao Xia was crazy, and he was crazy with him.

"Everyone's face is full of the word impossible, then, let's make this impossible possible", Xia Ming said with a faint smile: "I am not a believer in spiritual omnipotence, I will provide you with the world's most powerful supercomputer, as well as the world's most powerful scientific research team, everyone has it." ”

"Everyone is responsible for one direction, theoretical physics, rocket assembly, rocket propulsion, astrophysics, in each direction, there will be a team to support you. They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and never get tired. ”

"If you're willing to use Torch PEI, the supercomputer plus support team will be waiting for your instructions on the other side of the PEI at any time, and if you don't want to use it, it's okay, you'll have the privilege to contact them through smart devices."

Dongfang Sheng finally couldn't help but raise his hand to speak: "Is it a super GEI for scientific research?" ”

"That's right!" Xia Ming was not discouraged by the puzzle being revealed. The people present are all very good young scientists with sharp minds, and if he can't imagine that Xia Ming, who has the title of "Father of EI", will use Super GEI to support research, then he will be very disappointed.

"When the final commissioning is complete, everyone will receive their own team." Xia Ming probably exhausted his mind too quickly, and advanced the topic to the practical level: "Before the work officially begins, I would like to hear what different opinions you have on the direction of VASIR. ”

VASIMR is the abbreviation of "variable ratio impulse magnetic plasma rocket", which is classified as a category of "electric rocket" by astronauts, and the core principle is the same as that of an ion propulsion engine, which is to ionize hydrogen and other fuels and then eject charged ions to propel the rocket forward.

The advantage of ion propulsion engine technology is that it consumes less fuel. Very efficient. In 1998, the Americans used ion propulsion engines for the first time on the comet probe Deep Space One, and 81 kilograms of fuel could fly the probe for 20 months. Then the Dawn traveled for nearly eight years with an ion propulsion engine (of course, the engine was not always on).

But the flaw of the ion propulsion engine is that the thrust is very small, otherwise Dawn would not be as slow as a turtle, so it is now only used for satellites, spacecraft or space stations to adjust attitudes.

The VASIMR direction has been in place since 1979, and the principle is to heat the gas with a microwave and then use a magnetic field to eject an ion stream. It is characterized by using less fuel, but the injected ion flow velocity is higher. This results in much greater thrust than conventional ion propulsion engines. In addition, it has no physical electrodes in contact with the plasma, and has a higher lifetime, reliability, and power density.

Franklin Chang, a Chinese-Chinese in Costa Rica. Also called Zhang Fulin's promotion, VASIMR has become a hot technology in recent years, in all the currently known aerospace technology, including solar sails, laser sails, etc., VASIMR is the closest to the practical stage, and the most promising technology to become a new generation of aerospace engines. In the sci-fi film "Interstellar". The human spaceship also uses the VASIMR engine, which is a relatively rigorous setting.

Zhang Fulin is also famous because his AAR company has developed a 200-kilowatt VASIMR engine, which is used on the International Space Station with only 0.45 kilograms of thrust. That is, it is used for testing.

Zhang's goal is to build a 20-megawatt engine so that a manned spacecraft can be sent to Mars. The VASIMR engine of this level only needs 39 days to fly to Mars, and can reach a speed of 65,000 kilometers per hour.

Unfortunately, Zhang Fulin's AAR company has not made much progress.

Dongfang Sheng raised his hand again: "The biggest difficulty of VASIMR is not the engine, but the energy. If this problem can be solved, it is a black technology that is even darker than VASIR! ”

Xia Ming nodded, this fat man was indeed a hit.

The biggest difficulty for VASIMR is energy. Even if there are supercapacitors to solve the power density problem (how much thrust), there is also the energy density problem (how long it can work) that is difficult to overcome.

The energy required for an ion propulsion engine is electricity, and to get more thrust, more electricity is needed. For a spacecraft propelled by VASIMR, the electricity needed to fly from Earth to Mars would have to be met by a nuclear power plant.

At this stage, the cooperation between NASA and AAR on VASIMR is advertised as using energy sources such as solar sails, but industry experts know that solar sail technology has not yet reached that level, and VASIMR can only use nuclear energy to generate electricity to solve the energy problem.

Therefore, from the current point of view, the prospect of VASIMR is a "nuclear power rocket", and for Xia Ming, this is another policy problem that cannot be solved outside of technology. He is not in the system, how can he get involved in nuclear energy.

If Xia Ming solves the energy problem of VASIR, and does not use nuclear energy, it will inevitably be a revolution in energy technology, and the impact will far exceed VASIMR itself.

"To turn the black technology of VASIMR into reality, you need to first implement a darker technology like the super battery, which sounds a bit ......" The fat man shrugged: "Funny." ”

Xia Ming's smile didn't change, he liked this fat man, if he wasn't still lying on the bed, he really wanted to beat the fat on his stomach.

Whether it's funny or illogical, Xia Ming's grievances can only be admitted, who let the countdown tick in his head? Naturally, he wouldn't tell this fat man, or even Lou Xinghai, what he wanted was not the practicality of VASIMR, not the Homo sapiens exploration plan, but to meet the future of mankind, the unknown future.

"You don't have to think about energy, the nearest power plant will have a special line to supply the power we need. Your task is to verify that the 10 megawatt VASIMR engine is not viable, and as for the energy system, just set the necessary weight and space. ”

Lou Xinghai didn't speak, the reason why he took over this task was also because of Xia Ming's words. The regular plan was handled by another of his teams in Chang'an. He came here to see if he could create a miracle.

After finishing the meeting with Lou Xinghai's team, Xia Ming transferred the AR channel to the core laboratory.

"After the upgrade of Qianyan is completed, notify me as soon as possible, regardless of whether I am sleeping or not."

He Xinghui and Hu Jun, who were circling around Qianyan, nodded, Xiaotang was holding his arm beside him, he should be checking the data, and said to Xia Ming casually: "Racing against time is just an adjective, your mental condition is so poor, even if you work hard, the progress will not be fast." “

Xia Ming sighed: "I want to make a black technology that can set off an energy revolution within a month, do you think I should fight?" ”

Not to mention He Xinghui and Hu Jun, even Xiaotang was stunned: "You...... Can it really be done? ”

"I can't do it, but there are thousands of faces, I feel some hope", Xia Ming said firmly: "Even if it's one in ten thousand, we have to try." ”

If you don't get the energy technology right, the probe will have to fly over in four or five years, four or five years...... For a countdown of just over seven years, it is completely unacceptable.

Xiaotang and He Hu understood Xia Ming's radicalism, didn't speak again, and devoted themselves to Qianyan's upgrade work. (To be continued.) )