Free Web NovelChapter 1251: Chapter 602: Space Station and Z-wave Generator_1
"Compress raw materials with Z-Wave Compression?" freewebnøvel.coɱ
"Is that feasible? To my knowledge, Z-waves enhance particle activeness and are also used to ignite nuclear reactions. If we compress raw materials, wouldn’t that lead to an explosion?"
When Chen Zeshu heard what Zhao Yi said, he was a bit stunned at first, and his immediate reaction was that it was very dangerous.
"No, it won’t."
Zhao Yi said with a smile, "Even for igniting nuclear fusion, it occurs after the reaction has started, not by directly igniting it at first. Z-waves indeed enhance reactions, but as for direct ignition, that’s only for nuclear fission."
Z-waves can enhance particle activeness. Highly enriched uranium materials will be ignited directly, causing a strong nuclear fission reaction.
However, the raw materials for nuclear fusion, which inherently don’t radiate strongly, cannot be ignited directly even if their particle activeness is increased.
Chen Zeshu understood the basic principles and asked in confusion, "But our current problem is that the material performance isn’t up to standard, and we can’t control the reaction. If we used compressed materials, wouldn’t the reaction be more intense?"
"You could think that way, but the principle is different."
Zhao Yi nodded and explained.
Compressed materials, due to spatial compression, have increased particle activeness, which, under the same conditions, can increase the reaction intensity.
Yet, the increase in intensity is different.
If it’s regular nuclear fusion material, a stronger reaction only means more particles are involved, but with compressed material, the same number of particles releases more energy. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Or you could understand it this way: particles absorbing energy from spatial compression will release more when they participate in a nuclear reaction.
If it’s conventional fossil fuels, compression hardly increases the intensity of the reaction because the chemical properties of the compressed substances will not change in the chemical reactions they undergo.
Nuclear fuel is different.
The fundamental principle of nuclear reactions is the conversion of energy into mass; particles with higher energy due to compression naturally release more.
Of course, it also becomes more dangerous.
Chen Zeshu actually got what Zhao Yi was saying, but he said with a wry smile, "Let’s still look into how to control the reaction. This feels too dangerous. We might consider this if the subsequent reaction power is insufficient."
Zhao Yi shook his head, "Actually, this has nothing to do with controlling the reaction. High reaction strength and high power output is one aspect, but the main thing is, under the same power, the consumption of materials is greatly reduced."
"Also, Academician Chen, you don’t have to worry about the control of nuclear devices. If the core is all compressed material, it will definitely meet the reaction control requirements."
He was very confident in the nuclear fusion device he designed.
The control core of the device would definitely have no issues. Once the related materials were compressed, their performance would certainly be greatly enhanced and control would no longer be a problem.
The two began to discuss.
Chen Zeshu was a nuclear expert and knew a great deal about nuclear reaction mechanisms.
Zhao Yi also had a certain understanding of nuclear reactions, as he had completed all the core designs himself, but his knowledge of the contents of internal reactions and the actual situation during nuclear fusion was still limited to what was written.
This was mainly because Zhao Yi hadn’t conducted detailed studies of high-energy particles and hadn’t participated in actual nuclear tests or analyzed work related to internal reactions.
The two discussed and calculated together.
They quickly came to a conclusion: if they used materials compressed five times, they could greatly reduce material consumption under the same power output, with the difference being about twice as much.
This was related to the increased energy of the material’s particles, but more importantly, the compressed materials would react more fully.
That’s the key.
In reality, even if the materials were compressed and the particles absorbed energy, it was limited, as the energy released by Z-waves was finite, and because energy is conserved, the energy absorbed by the particles certainly wasn’t high. Even if all the enhanced energy were released, it wouldn’t be much.
But compressed materials, with enhanced particle activeness, would be involved in the nuclear reaction more fully.
For example, originally, out of a hundred particles, only fifty would be covered by the nuclear reaction.
Now, with the materials compressed, ninety out of a hundred particles would be involved in the reaction; and with the higher particle energy, the released energy would double.
When the actual calculation was completed, Chen Zeshu became very excited.
Nuclear fusion devices, unlike nuclear fission where highly enriched materials can be used continuously for over a decade, require continuous replacement of materials during operation.
The currently designed experimental nuclear fusion device, if used at high power continuously, is expected to last about six months.
If it’s regular continuous operation, it’s estimated to last about two years.
These are still theoretical figures.
However, replacing fuel in a device isn’t as simple as refueling a car with gasoline. Although nuclear fusion devices release very little radiation, due to their complex internal structures, the process of changing materials is also very complex, and the cost of the replacement process can easily be several times more than the value of the materials themselves.
If the usage time of the materials could be doubled, it would greatly reduce the maintenance costs of changing materials during operation.
"If the compression rate were higher, the effect would definitely be better,"
Chen Zeshu said with some anticipation.
Zhao Yi shook his head, "Five to eight times is the optimal value. The higher the compression reaction rate, the more energy it requires. If it exceeds eight times, the costs outweigh the benefits."
——
Two weeks later.
The large Z-wave device had its temporary components replaced and underwent a high-intensity experiment, which aimed to create materials for the generator and other components. Essentially, it was producing materials for the device itself.
The experiment proceeded very smoothly, and the team obtained a large batch of materials compressed about six times. Meanwhile, as expected, there was a direct issue with the Z-wave emission port.
Next would be creating a new port with the six-times compressed material.
This process would take some time, as Chen Zeshu had said, with some materials having melting points above 10,000 degrees Celsius, which could almost only be melted and shaped in a laboratory setting.
The relevant technical staff estimated that it would take at least two months at minimum.
But the wait of two months would be worth it.
As long as high-intensity compressed materials could be used, the internal generator would never be affected by the low-intensity space compression rates again.
Certainly, there were limits.
Materials compressed with six times the strength could withstand a space compression intensity of six times. Any higher and the emission port might start having problems.
The compression intensity was related to the Z-wave energy, the number of particles covered, and the magnetic field strength.
For example, when the covered area is empty, the compression rate could rapidly increase, potentially causing the generator to malfunction.
It actually makes sense, similar to cooking with an iron wok. If there’s nothing in the wok, of course there would be problems.
Zhao Yi had calculated that with the current design, situated on the Earth’s surface, covering the smallest area, and if that covered area was empty, the highest achievable compression rate would be about twelve times.
This was the limit value.
The reason it was the limit had to do with the device design, the Earth’s magnetic field, and the air density.
Twelve times might not sound like a lot, but in reality, even if one doesn’t consider the device design or the surface environmental impact and releases the maximum energy, the compression rate wouldn’t exceed fourteen times.
This was mainly related to the principle of releasing Z-waves.
The space compression rate and the required energy exhibited exponential growth.
To achieve a compression rate at the critical value of ’e raised to the power of π’, if all of Earth’s surface fossil fuels were added together, they could only compress a few grams of material at most.
"That’s probably just the kind of ordinary matter you’d find inside a black hole, right?"
Zhao Yi pondered.
While the experimental group had nothing to do but wait for the compressed material components to be fabricated, Zhao Yi simply returned to the capital and spent a quiet half-month at Yanhua University. Along the way, he also attended two meetings, both related to compressed materials and the development of nuclear fusion devices.
Then he received a call from Liu Jiankun and a letter from the Aerospace Bureau, inviting him to visit the space station that was being perfected and the large anti-gravity propulsion device that had been manufactured.
The Aerospace Bureau had always been researching space stations, and the station was already very advanced, with both the experiment module and the manned spacecraft having been made.
It was now in the final stage of completion.
The original plan of the Aerospace Bureau was to use rocket propellers to first send the core module into space, then carry the remaining parts one by one and slowly ’assemble’ them together to finish the entire space station.
But the pace of technological advancement was so rapid that nobody anticipated the swift development of anti-gravity technology. The Aviation Group directly developed a large anti-gravity propeller that had already been used several times to send satellites into the sky.
Therefore, the Aerospace Bureau’s plan changed. They held a meeting and decided to use the large anti-gravity propeller to send the experiment module, the living module, the manned spacecraft, and even other parts and experimental equipment, all at once into space.
This plan sounded very astonishing as the load for one trip exceeded four hundred tons and was to be delivered hundreds of kilometers high into the sky.
If rocket propellers were to be used, it would be nearly impossible to achieve as the limit for rocket transportation was about one hundred tons.
Three hundred tons—it’s hard to imagine.
The anti-gravity propeller was on a whole different level compared to rocket propellers. The related technical staff argued that it could transport over a thousand tons, and it hadn’t even reached its limits yet.
So now, the Aerospace Bureau was inviting Zhao Yi to take a look. Their idea was to have Zhao Yi point out any issues, given that he was the one who developed the anti-gravity device.
After talking to Liu Jiankun on the phone, Zhao Yi decided to make a trip to the Aerospace Bureau.
He wasn’t going alone; several leaders, other technical staff, and a few members from the theory group were also coming along.
A large anti-gravity propeller would surely not be the same as a small one. The technical difficulty was not on the same level, and any sort of problem could arise.
However, what Zhao Yi was concerned about wasn’t this—technical issues weren’t a problem for him. What he wanted to know was whether the space station could spare a space to install a high-intensity Z-wave Generator?
