A big country of aerospace with black technology

After finally using the EM engine to dispatch the leader of the no-propulsion propulsion faction.

Zhang Xingyang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, Zhang Xingyang did not clearly explain the shortcomings of the EM engine just now.

That is, compared with the Hall thruster, the thrust output is smaller.

Even the more mature EM engine in later generations has only about half the thrust of a Hall thruster of the same level.

This means that for the same space voyage, the acceleration and deceleration time of the EM engine is twice that of the equivalent Hall thruster.

Of course, the Hall thruster itself also has many shortcomings.

For example, Hall thrusters require xenon as fuel.

Xenon is actually very expensive on earth.

And it is also relatively difficult to prepare.

In fact, working fluid propulsion will be used more in the future space age.

For example, a Proxima Centauri probe was launched in 2150, using an EM engine.

It was already the most advanced EM engine at the time, but its thrust was still very small and could only produce 122.2 grams of thrust.

It can only provide the detector with an acceleration of 0.001 mm/second per second.

It would take about five years to accelerate the probe to the solar system's escape velocity of 16.6 kilometers/second.

This is just the acceleration time.

"Xingyang, what do you think the future of working medium propulsion will be like?"

Geng Bo asked Zhang Xingyang on the train returning to the Rocket Research Institute that night after the meeting.

"The future!"

Zhang Xingyang recalled the space battleships he had seen in his life.

“The biggest difference between working fluid propulsion in the future and now will be the change in working fluid due to engine changes.”

"What do you mean, please tell me carefully?"

Geng Bo also showed a lot of interest.

"First of all, let me ask you a question, what method do you think will be used as a space engine in the future?"

Geng Bo himself had thought about this problem before when he was bored.

"I think the rocket method we are using now should not be eliminated."

"But there should be many other space engines."

Geng Bo thought well.

In the next one or two hundred years, rockets, as a mode of interstellar transportation, will not be eliminated and will even develop.

This is just like how the bicycle was not eliminated by the invention of the automobile within a few hundred years after its invention.

Each mode of transportation has its own usage scenarios.

Rockets work the same way.

On a planet with a thick atmosphere, launching through the planet's atmosphere through rocket launches has been applied to the era before Zhang Xingyang's time travel.

But at that time, rocket launches were not as cumbersome as they are now.

Rather, like a bus, it frequently travels between the ground and space.

"If we can master nuclear fusion, fusion fluid propulsion should also be feasible."

When Geng Bo talked about this, he was still a little unsure.

After all, nuclear fusion has a saying that it lasts forever.

No one knows when this invention that can change the course of human history will be completed.

"This is indeed very likely to become the propulsion method for large spacecraft in the future."

Zhang Xingyang first confirmed Geng Bo's idea.

"Nuclear fusion propulsion has many advantages."

"The first is fusion fuel, which is not in short supply on many planets in the solar system."

"Right above the moon, there is helium-3 that we can use for tens of thousands of years."

"The second point is that nuclear fusion itself can produce numerous high-temperature plasmas, and these plasmas can produce extremely powerful thrust."

Zhang Xingyang explained the propulsion method of the nuclear fusion propulsion spacecraft.

Nuclear fusion can produce extremely hot plasma, which is difficult to use directly.

It's better on the ground. It can generate electricity by continuously boiling water.

But in space, this path doesn't work.

Because there is no way to carry out convective heat transfer in space, and there is no medium for heat conduction.

These extremely high-temperature plasmas, which almost reach the core temperature of the sun, can only be discharged as propellant exhaust gases.

"Your statement is quite interesting. Now everyone thinks that if nuclear fusion is achieved, we should rely on power generation and radiation light pressure to drive the spacecraft."

After listening to Zhang Xingyang's statement, Geng Bo found it very interesting.

At present, whether in scientific research literature or in various fantasy works, it seems that this method of directly using exhaust gas for propulsion is rarely mentioned.

"In fact, compared to nuclear fusion propulsion, another propulsion method may have more advantages, but it is also too difficult."

Zhang Xingyang continued to talk about his thoughts while Geng Bo was sighing.

"That's antimatter propulsion."

"Antimatter?"

Geng Bo was also a little surprised at this time.

If we talk about the nuclear fusion we just talked about, there is still a saying that it will last for fifty years.

At this time, antimatter is basically science fiction.

Over the past few years, antimatter has been the crown jewel of physics.

Various studies on antimatter are endless.

Not only was it the first time to artificially create antimatter, but tens of thousands of low-energy antihydrogen atoms were produced in batches.

However, although in the laboratory, a lot of antimatter was created.

But at this time, research on antimatter was still rough.

There is no precedent for actual research.

"You should also know that compared to the energy utilization efficiency of traditional methods, even nuclear fusion cannot actually achieve 100%."

"But antimatter is different. At the moment when positive and antimatter are annihilated, energy completely converts its own mass into energy."

Zhang Xingyang continued to explain the use of antimatter on interstellar spacecraft.

"Achieving 100 percent energy utilization allows us to achieve the efficiency of nuclear fusion propulsion even with only one-third of the fuel."

Although Zhang Xingyang described it very well, Geng Bo still had a lot of questions.

"But the creation of antimatter is a problem, right?"

"Our current antimatter is still produced in the laboratory. It is still too difficult to produce antimatter in large quantities."

"It's not as troublesome as you think."

Zhang Xingyang didn't care about this problem.

"We don't have to prepare it in the lab at all."

"In the solar wind, there are a lot of antihydrogen atoms."

"We can deploy a large number of special magnetic cages outside the solar orbit to store these antihydrogen atoms from the solar wind."

Zhang Xingyang smiled and said:

“Have you ever seen fish traps set up in small rivers and streams in rural areas?”

"Put the cage in the water, just wait and collect the fish and shrimp the next day."

"The principle is the same. After placing the special magnetic field cage, we only need to harvest antihydrogen atoms regularly." (End of Chapter)