Compared with the lifting weight, which can often be as high as tens of tons and hundreds of tons, and even thousands of tons and tens of thousands of tons of large spacecraft, this can only push the thrust of a piece of paper, which is undoubtedly equal to nothing, and it seems that there is no value for development.

But you can't think like that when doing research. In any case, since it can propel a piece of paper, it theoretically has the potential to propel a spaceship. Moreover, its performance is too superior, too saving working quality, and the potential is really unlimited.

If the potential of chemical fuel spacecraft and rockets is capped at 10, the upper limit of ion propulsion may be as high as 10,000, or even 100,000.

When the train was first built, it ran slower than the ox cart, and later became the main means of transportation on the earth. At first, you are afraid of something, as long as you have potential.

In particular, ion propulsion technology is not limited to the current state of the art. In fact, Chen Yue predicts through research that in the next many years, he will have to deepen his cultivation of ion propulsion technology.

Nuclear fission-powered spacecraft should use ion propulsion technology, and if they have nuclear fusion technology, they will still use ion propulsion technology. He even believes that ion propulsion technology will be his main propulsion method until he masters the real faster-than-light navigation technology.

So Chen Yue officially began the research on ion thrusters.

Of course, he was not working on just one ion thruster, but a whole series.

When it comes to all aspects of nuclear-powered spacecraft, research needs to be started at the same time.

In terms of energy, research on the miniaturization and efficiency of nuclear fission reactors should be carried out. In terms of propulsion technology, it is an ion engine, and in terms of spacecraft structure, it is a higher material performance and engineering structure layout, as well as communication systems and electrical systems that are more suitable for the space environment, and so on.

Chen Yue felt that the research on nuclear-powered spacecraft would become a comprehensive test of his engineering ability and scientific level at the present stage. All the shortcomings in the process of their own development will be exposed in this study. As long as this research and development is completed, its scientific research strength and industrial capacity will be comprehensively improved.

This significance cannot be said to be insignificant.

Chen Yue dismantled the major project of researching nuclear-powered spacecraft into as many as 16 scientific projects, such as materials science research projects, aerodynamic layout research projects, high-performance communication system research projects, etc., and each major project was divided into at least 20 and more than 90 small research projects, with a total of more than 1,000 research projects.

These more than 1,000 projects are indispensable. Chen Yue must achieve the expected goals in the research of more than 1,000 projects before the final nuclear-powered spacecraft can be built.

To this end, Chen Yue mobilized more than 9,000 research institutes and laboratories, mobilized 5,000 factories, and tens of millions of robots to invest in this unprecedented project.

A number of brand-new factories and workshops have risen from the ground, various types of newly developed and specially customized machinery have been quickly put in place, scientific research supercomputers have been quickly put in place, and a large number of experimental data have been continuously produced......

Under the oppression of the existential crisis from the depths of the universe, Chen Yue really used all his strength.

Ion Propulsion Laboratory. It took Chen Yue a year to build a huge ring-shaped thruster with a diameter of 26 meters and a width of up to 5 meters. This thruster is equipped with Chen Yue's special particle accelerator device, which can accelerate the ions generated by the ion generation device and eject them from the vent installed in the rear.

Chen Yue built a power station to power it.

No way, this thing consumes too much power to be connected directly to the grid. Otherwise, huge fluctuations in power load between start-up and shutdown will lead to a direct collapse of the power grid.

At this moment, it is time for the first start-up experiment of this prototype No. 1.

Huge amounts of electricity rolled in, converted into kinetic energy of ions by ion propulsion devices, accelerating them to extremely high speeds, and then ejecting them out of the vent......

The pale blue flames unleashed astonishing heat. At this moment, the huge factory building is reflected in a dark blue color. Amazing radiation is generated here instantly.

These ejected plasmas contain extremely high energy. In unit mass, they are even higher than the solar wind that erupts when the wreckage planet hits the sun.

Yes, the plasma ejected by ion thrusters is basically the same thing as the charged plasma that makes up the solar wind.

In the usual sense, electrical equipment, whether it is a mobile phone or a computer, a car or a washing machine, as long as it enters this laboratory and is sprayed by the tail flame of the ion thruster, it will immediately burn out the circuit and scrap the whole machine.

This test is really amazing, as if destroying the world.

But Chen Yue looked at the data finally generated on the receptor, and his heart was speechless.

It shows that the thrust generated by such a powerful jet is only enough to blow up a cardboard box......

Yes, it's a lot better than blowing a piece of paper.

The behemoth, which consumes 210,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour, has a diameter of 26 meters, a thickness of five meters, and a total mass of more than 5,000 tons, produces only the thrust to push a cardboard box......

"Okay."

Chen Yue thought stupidly: "It's good to make progress." Regardless, the outlook is always bright. Continue to iterate and improve. Well, the current energy loss is mainly concentrated in the particle acceleration stage, maybe we can find a way to improve it......"

Chen Yue realized that if he wants to greatly improve the efficiency of particle acceleration, the most important place is still superconducting technology.

Superconductivity technology has been known since the age of the earth, and even people who are not in the scientific community can know about it.

Superconducting technology is the transmission of electricity without resistance. Because there is no resistance, the energy loss can be reduced to close to zero, resulting in a huge efficiency gain.

In addition, because there is no resistance, there is no heat generation, or because the heat generation is very low, the cooling device can also be directly omitted, which further improves efficiency.

In addition, superconducting technology has many application prospects, and is even extremely important for controlled nuclear fusion.

But superconducting technology has a hard point. That is, even at the peak of human beings, they can only maintain the superconducting properties of materials at extremely low temperatures. It is difficult to maintain extremely low temperatures.

"But this is Europa. The temperature in space is also very low, so maybe I can have a more convenient engineering solution for low-temperature superconductivity applications here......"

Chen Yue thought so.

At this moment, the superconductivity laboratory has also been built. Chen Yue will conduct research and development related to superconducting technology here.

In addition to the Ion Propulsion Laboratory and the Superconductivity Laboratory, the Materials Laboratory is also busy conducting various experiments.