Deep Space Fleet

"Yeah, it's really troublesome." The expert in mechanics discussed: "Many advances in technology are essentially advances in materials science."

"If there is a lack of rare earths, it will be difficult to make progress in materials science, and naturally it will not be possible to produce powerful engines. Even some composite ceramics need rare earths."

How important are rare earths?

In materials science, it is as important as oil!

Take the engine as an example: In the era of turbojet engines, the gap between the turbine blades and the casing is wide, the temperature in front of the turbine is low, the deformation of the turbine blades during operation is within a controllable range, and conventional materials can still be used. .

In the era of turbofan engines, the temperature before the turbine of the high-pressure turbine is higher, and the tip clearance is smaller, so the problem of deformation of the turbine blades is particularly prominent. The main element to solve this problem is rhenium element. Adding rhenium to nickel alloy can significantly improve the creep strength of the alloy, and it can also resist deformation well under long-term work.

If this element is lacking, then the Tep people will never be able to develop the turbojet engine, no matter how smart they are, it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice.

Most of the light rare earths that can be used on mobile phones are light rare earths, and the reserves are still so-so, but there are very few heavy rare earths like rhenium.

"The minable rhenium resources on the earth are only 2,500 tons. This planet may be even less, maybe only... 100 tons? Such a big planet is useless at all."

Zhang Yuan couldn't help asking: "Our current material technology has widely used composite ceramics and nanomaterials, right? Many materials do not contain rhenium. Is it possible for them to jump into technology?"

"It's impossible. There are many materials that still need to use rare earth elements. It's because we have developed for hundreds of years... no, thousands of years. Your Excellency Captain, we are already a third-level civilization." The scientist said: " Food needs to be eaten one bite at a time, and the road needs to be taken step by step. Without the previous results, it is impossible to have funds to study the follow-up results.”

"If you can't even research ordinary propeller planes and jet engines, how can you reach the sky in one step and come up with our ramjet engine?"

This is also one of the important reasons why the Taipu civilization has not produced aerial vehicles so far. Not only because the money is not in place, but the lack of materials is also a major reason.

Of course, the Taipu civilization is still facing the fourth difficulty, that is, the atmosphere is too thick and it is difficult to launch rockets.

The friction coefficient of the atmosphere is proportional to the density of the air. A rocket flying at high speed will experience greater resistance. At the same time, the high temperature on the surface of the rocket also puts forward more requirements for materials science.

"If this civilization wants to launch rockets, it must use higher-performance materials. However, this difficulty is the simplest point, and it can be overcome with a little effort."

"The above is the objective environment that Taipu people are currently facing, and they are all difficulties."

Hearing this, Zhang Yuan frowned, "Compared to humans, the Taipu people are really a very unlucky civilization... So, if I am the leader of the Taipu civilization, and with the help of human beings, I will launch some satellites. It’s quite a bargain.”

Li Zhendong then said: "As for the next few decades, this batch of satellites will be scrapped, and it doesn't really matter whether there will be another batch of satellites. Anyway, I am no longer in office, and there is a high probability that I will retire. Read me well."

"You are very politically aware."

Then, assuming that the enlightener civilization really came to this planet 150,000 years ago, they should be able to foresee these difficulties after inspecting the entire planet, so how can we help them? In particular, such assistance may occur hundreds of thousands of years later.

This issue is very complicated, and the Enlightenment civilization has always disliked direct gifts.

"If it is human beings, it is really difficult to help them without directly donating technology. Especially, the other party was a group of primitive people 150,000 years ago... High gravity, high air pressure, lack of rare earth elements, how to solve it? And primitive People say things like rare earths, but they don’t understand.”

The expert said excitedly: "... So we follow the archaeological thinking and study what happened 150,000 years ago, whether it was a natural disaster or a man-made disaster. If this event has enough influence , we must be able to find some clues in history."

"Sure enough!"

"One hundred and fifty thousand years ago, a super earthquake erupted from the ocean!"

"It is conservatively estimated that the magnitude of the earthquake has reached at least magnitude 13."

A magnitude 13 earthquake!

For every 1.0 magnitude difference in magnitude, the energy difference is about 32 times. In other words, a magnitude 6 earthquake is equivalent to 32 magnitude 5 earthquakes, and one magnitude 7 earthquake is equivalent to about 1,000 magnitude 5 earthquakes.

Then, a magnitude 13 earthquake is equivalent to 32,000 magnitude 10 earthquakes!

Such a super earthquake can already cause the movement of the crustal plates.

At that moment, a huge tsunami was generated!

A large number of volcanoes erupted at the same time, and the overwhelming dust blocked the sunlight around the world. Immediately afterwards, due to the sharp drop in temperature, it brought global heavy precipitation, and a small ice age caused by earthquakes was born.

The duration of this little ice age was not too long. It lasted for more than 2 years. A large amount of precipitation caused the dust in the sky to fall again, revealing the bright sunshine.

In 2 years, it will not cause mass extinction of species.

However, the Taipu people have not investigated the specific cause of this earthquake so far, and can only attribute it ambiguously to the movement of tectonic plates.

Zhang Yuan couldn't help asking: "Then, is this earthquake related to the Enlightenment civilization? Could it be that rare earth elements appeared in large quantities in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes? It is a little possible...but this method is too rough ...exploded?"

This is the intuitive thinking of many people, so that everyone will be surprised and a little speechless for a while.

The scientists on the stage couldn't help but smiled bitterly, and then said: "We first investigated the area where the earthquake occurred, which is already a deep sea area, and the deepest trench can reach 30,000 meters. I think, even if the deep sea area contains huge mineral resources , Tep civilization can’t be developed either.”

"Even we can't develop the 30,000-meter seawater."

The ocean is indeed a huge treasure house. The deep seabed manganese nodules are well-known deep-sea minerals, containing more than 20 elements such as manganese, iron, nickel, and cobalt, and have great economic value. However, these mineral sources, even if there is no earthquake, will naturally occur.

Most of the seabed mineral mining bases are built in shallow sea areas. Human deep-water drilling generally refers to offshore operations with water depths exceeding 900 meters, and extreme water depths refer to water depths greater than 1,500 meters.

The deeper the water, the greater the difficulty. In the deep water area of ​​30,000 meters, even human submarines seem to be a bit difficult, let alone large-scale development.

"It is not possible to confirm whether the earthquake has an impact on the number of seabed minerals in the world. According to computer simulations, after a major earthquake, there is a certain probability that due to the eruption of submarine volcanoes, there will be more seabed mineral resources in the world... the specific figures , we have no way of measuring."

"However, this earthquake also brought about a series of subsequent chain reactions..."