"Do we really have this weapons research program?"

Sun Hongtao asked Zhang Xingyang curiously.

"Old Sun, this is really not a weapon."

"It's just an electromagnetic accelerator!"

Zhang Xingyang took the trouble to explain to Sun Lao the situation of accelerating the orbit.

"But it can be turned into a weapon, can't it?"

Sun Lao asked rhetorically.

"It's like synthetic ammonia, it can be a fertilizer for agriculture or a dynamite that can be used to bring death."

Zhang Xingyang was speechless.

Because what Sun Lao said was right.

Even if he doesn't want to turn the electromagnetic track into a weapon.

Nor can he prevent others from applying electromagnetic acceleration orbits to space weapons.

Even out of consideration for being one step ahead of the enemy.

The latest application of electromagnetic railgun is Xinggang.

Because both the technical reserve and the actual construction capacity.

The Dragon Kingdom has such strength.

"Here's our design drawing."

Zhang Xingyang didn't care too much about the weaponization of electromagnetic acceleration orbits.

In the future, in space warfare, electromagnetic kinetic energy weapons will be considered standard.

I just advanced this historical process by a large margin.

"The width of the electromagnetic accelerator tube is 20 meters, and the design indicators are capable of accelerating the spacecraft to more than 10,000 kilometers per second."

"Elder Sun, do you know what the consequences of such a blow will be?"

Since everyone has the idea of weaponization.

Zhang Xingyang believes that he has an obligation to remind everyone of the horror of such a blow.

"It's not very clear, you can tell me."

Sun Hongtao shook his head.

"An asteroid that is five meters long, wide and high, with a mass of about 425 tons."

"When it is accelerated to 10,000 kilometers per second, the kinetic energy will reach 2.15*10^19 joules."

Zhang Xingyang casually listed a string of numbers.

I know that Sun Hongtao doesn't have much concept of energy.

Zhang Xingyang continued: "The explosive energy of a meal of TNT is about 4.182*10^12 joules. ”

Sun Hongtao finally had a little idea.

"A meteorite that is so small in space can reach the TNT equivalent level with kinetic energy alone."

Zhang Xingyang said with a serious face:

"And this is a conventional strike, which will not produce any nuclear contamination and can be launched with impunity."

A meteorite that might be considered a large rock on Earth.

Accelerated by electromagnetic orbit to 10,000 kilometers per second, it can produce an effect comparable to that of a super nuclear bomb.

With a single blow, a city with a radius of tens of kilometers can be completely wiped off the map.

It was originally a seemingly solid reinforced concrete fortress.

Under such a kinetic strike.

It's like tofu with a hot knife.

It doesn't take much effort at all to destroy it directly.

The ceiling for kinetic weapons is actually very high.

Because it uses a very simple principle, that is, the kinetic energy formula.

Mankind has been applying this principle since time immemorial.

Throwing rope, spinning the thrown stone.

and meteorites in space orbit that are blasted out after experiencing electromagnetic acceleration.

In essence, there is no difference.

Their power is nothing more than the embodiment of the kinetic energy formula.

"But I remember, didn't your previous paper say that space kinetic strikes would not have such a strong effect?"

Sun Hongtao remembered an important article published by Zhang Xingyang and asked.

Originally, this article didn't get much attention.

But when Taka-chan shouted out that the dragon country was carrying out the construction of the staff of God.

This article has attracted the attention of many people.

The number of downloads has soared from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of thousands overnight.

"Elder Sun, you also know the two major conditions for kinetic energy."

Zhang Xingyang explained:

"First of all, quality."

"The titanium tungsten alloy rod in that article has a mass of only 140 kilograms."

"But a meteorite five meters long, wide and high, has three thousand times the mass."

"In fact, if we use a meteorite with a length of 10 meters, the mass will continue to soar to 24,000 times that of a titanium-tungsten alloy rod."

"The impact of quality is actually smaller, and the impact of speed is exponential."

"At that time, we were just accelerating the titanium-tungsten alloy rod to 14 times the speed of sound, which is 4.76 kilometers per second."

"There is a difference of more than 2,000 times with the speed of electromagnetic acceleration."

"After many superimpositions, their energy levels differ by a factor of 12 billion!"

The original 140 kilograms of titanium tungsten alloy rod kinetic energy strike, with a speed of 14 times the speed of sound, may be as effective as a high-explosive bomb.

But magnify the power of this high-explosive bomb by a factor of 12 billion.

It will also be far more powerful than a large nuclear bomb of the 5 million ton class.

In fact, most of the world's nuclear-weapon states are armed with small nuclear bombs of less than 500,000 tons.

For the first time, Sun Hongtao intuitively felt the horror after the superposition of the kinetic energy formula many times.

"And that's just three percent of the speed of light that accelerates meteorites."

"According to our plan, we will eventually build an electromagnetic orbital accelerator capable of accelerating spacecraft to 10 percent of the speed of light."

"At that point, the power of the blow you see will continue to rise by an order of magnitude."

Zhang Xingyang said seriously.

From ancient times to the present, there is actually only one index for evaluating the effectiveness of weapons.

That's the level of energy utilization.

In the era of cold weapons, the main source of energy utilization was people.

The arm uses the body's chemical energy to convert kinetic energy.

The efficiency is relatively low.

Of course, there are also winch trebuchets and bed crossbows that make use of mechanical energy.

However, their energy level may not even be 10,000 joules.

In the industrial age, the sources of energy utilization became coal, oil, and gunpowder.

When the hammer activates the primer of the bullet, the flame instantly deflagrates, converting chemical energy into kinetic energy.

Weapons are more powerful!

All carbon-based life forms on Earth are unable to defend themselves against such kinetic attacks.

The energy level rises to the level of 10^10 joules.

In the era of nuclear energy, the level of energy utilization has been pushed up by several orders of magnitude.

The most powerful Tsar Bomba ever built, the power level has been increased to 10^19 joules.

This is also the highest level of energy produced by humans to date.

And once the construction of the electromagnetic acceleration orbit is completed.

Then this number will continue to push upward.

For a 10-meter meteorite, the kinetic energy can reach 1.6*10^20 joules.

If you continue to increase the meteorite velocity, you will even be able to push the energy level to the level of 10^21 joules.

The energy continued to climb one step higher.

All of them mean a great progress in human civilization and technology.

"We need to continue to discuss this well."

After thinking about it for a few minutes, Sun Hongtao still didn't come up with an effective way to counter this attack.

The trajectory of the meteorite's attack is very easy to spot.

After all, it has not yet reached the speed of light, and it cannot dodge radar waves that travel at the speed of light.

But being able to spot it doesn't mean that you can stop it.

It is assumed that the electromagnetic accelerator is built in a geosynchronous orbit of 36,000 kilometers.

Then the time at which the meteorite strike reaches the specified position after completing the acceleration.

It's only 3.6 seconds!

This time, not to mention the anti-aircraft equipment controlled by people.

Even computer-controlled anti-aircraft weapons are not always able to turn on the machine.

It's just so fast!

All anti-aircraft weapons that are fast enough today are as fragile as a piece of paper in the face of its speed of light of three hundredths.

Break it with a single stab!

"But the design and manufacture of the electromagnetic acceleration track, you should follow your own plan."

Sun Hongtao sighed and said:

"Actually, I'd love to see what such a powerful weapon would look like!"

At the same time, Sun Hongtao also realized that space is increasingly becoming an important part of warfare.

In the past, only satellites could exist in space.

Countries also use it only as reconnaissance equipment.

It's like an airplane that has just been put into service, and it's basically a reconnaissance plane.

But with technological advancement, space will inevitably become another battlefield.

In past wars, air supremacy was seen by the major powers as a power that had to be seized at the beginning of the war.

Sun Hongtao can think of the future war.

Whoever can truly occupy space dominance can truly own everything.

In the past, after occupying the skies, it was necessary to use expensive precision-guided munitions to destroy the enemy's important targets.

But after taking control of space.

Just an electromagnetic accelerator canister is capable of completely blocking all ground activity of the enemy.

In space, there are many meteorites with a diameter of 1,000 meters.

From them, a meteorite warhead several meters in size was cut.

Able to make thousands.

All of this can be done with the help of high-energy lasers.

Then the electromagnetic acceleration orbit can accelerate these meteorite warheads to a speed of tens of thousands of kilometers per second.

Then sway them to the ground.

Hit like a storm!

It can inflict a devastating blow on an area of thousands of kilometers in length and width.

The originally flat ground will be smashed out of the craters as dense as the surface of the moon by violent meteorite warheads.

The strong air wave formed by the explosion can even tear apart the peaks that are not small.

The volcano, which had been silent for a short time, will come back to life, spewing out plumes of smoke thousands of meters high.

Above the land, it is almost entirely a post-apocalyptic scene.

Even if there are humans who survive, he is in this land.

Death is basically pronounced.

And all these blows, the blow side paid only a common asteroid in space, and a part of the energy.

Unlocked molten salt reactors, and microwave wireless power transmission technology.

The use of energy in space has not been a problem for a long time.

So for the striking side.

The cost of a blow is even much cheaper than fighting a war on the ground.

Whether it is for electromagnetic acceleration or for warhead processing costs.

All combined, it will not exceed 10 billion.

But a war will burn tens of billions in a day.

"I think if such a weapon is really built."

Zhang Xingyang has different ideas from Sun Hongtao.

"Then no one would want to give themselves such a blow."

"Its biggest effect, in fact, is deterrence."

"Of course, launching a spacecraft to the moon is also very useful."

The biggest role of electromagnetic acceleration orbit is the future interstellar colonization activities.

Although it is too fast to launch a ship carrying humans.

But launch some cargo spacecraft, still without any problems.

——

"Report to the ground command center, 18 Hall thrusters have been installed, and pipeline installation work is underway, please instruct."

Xu Ying worked for eleven hours in a row, and finally installed all the Hall thrusters in place.

However, this is only the first step.

The subsequent pipeline installation is more troublesome.

Hall thruster, there are two cables to install.

They are the radon transport pipe, which acts as a propellant, and the cable that connects the ionization device.

Pipelines can't just let them swing through space.

Cables that are not fixed can easily be displaced, which can become entangled.

Therefore, Xu Ying needed to tighten these pipelines along the keel and fix them together.

It is then connected to the controller inside the Tiangong-1 unmanned spacecraft.

The fixation method is also very unpretentious.

It is to use a cable tie to tie the cable directly to the keel.

Anyway, these are only temporary use, and there is no need to think about subsequent use.

By the time the construction is officially completed, these Hall thrusters will be dismantled.

Of course, they will not be scrapped directly.

In good condition and capable of secondary use, it will become part of the Starport attitude adjustment engine system.

Xu Ying operates two robotic arms, one holding the cable and the other holding them in place with a fixed cable tie.

The fixing of the cables is not as strict as the requirements of the Hall thruster installation.

As long as you can hold the cable, it's done.

So Xu Ying's work speed is much faster.

Eighteen Hall thrusters, it took more than twenty hours.

But it took less than three hours to get their cables completely secured.

To complete the fixing of the cable, Xu Ying has been working for nearly thirteen hours this day.

The physical strength and energy have reached the limit.

"Report to the command center."

"Eighteen strands of cable have been secured, and the final connection work is expected to begin tomorrow."

Xu Ying tiredly reported to the ground command center.

This time, Xu Ying did not recombine the Tiangong No. 2 spacecraft with the Tiangong No. 1 spacecraft.

Instead, he directly let the robotic arm grab the keel of Xinggang, and ended today's work.

After washing, Xu Ying opened her notebook.

Start journaling.

[July 13, 2007, cloudy]

[Today is the fourth day of space, and I have already completed more than half of my work. 】

[Hopefully I'll be able to finish all the work tomorrow so I can have a few days to rest for the next few days.] 】

A brief record of today's work.

Xu Ying turned off her tablet and looked up at the window.

Whenever he looks at the earth from space, it will cause Xu Ying's heart to move.

"After tomorrow, you can see this scenery every day."

With this thought, Xu Ying fell asleep.

The completion of the Hall thruster does not mean that Xu Ying's work is over.

He needs to wait for the Hall thrusters to be fully debugged before the job is done.

After all, the starport is too far from the ground, and it is too difficult to come once.

It has to be done all at once.

(End of chapter)