Great Country Academician

Chapter 1000 A status never seen since the founding of the People’s Republic~

"What do you think of this plan?"

Seeing that Xu Chuan had finished reading the document, the old man asked.

Collecting the documents in his hands, Xu Chuan thought seriously for a while before speaking.

"It will take fifty years to launch an expedition to Barnard's galaxy six light years away."

"I have to say that this is a very, very, very tempting plan for the current human civilization."

Hearing this, the old man's eyes flashed with light and he asked: "Is this plan feasible?"

If even the man in front of him is optimistic about the plan to expedition to Barnard's system, then he will definitely hold a relevant meeting to discuss it more carefully after he returns.

Not to mention the impact of this project on the entire human race, if they confirm and disclose this plan, the attraction of talents will be extremely huge.

You must know that this is another galaxy, the starting point in the history of human spaceflight to conquer the Milky Way and even the universe, and truly move towards space immigration.

Xu Chuan shook his head gently and said: "Part of it is feasible."

"How to say?"

After thinking for a while, Xu Chuan said: "It is feasible to use various astronomical observation equipment and telescopes to investigate Barnard's galaxy."

"I don't really recommend the rest of the plan at the moment."

After a slight pause, he put down the document in his hand, looked at the old man, and continued.

"Although at present, Barnard's system is indeed more valuable than the Nanmen system in terms of exploration, investigation and even immigration. Moreover, it is also the closest single star system to the solar system."

"But it is undeniable that it is too far away from the earth."

"The distance of six light-years may sound very short, but in fact it is still an insurmountable chasm for current human civilization."

"Although we can now touch Mars tens of millions of kilometers away, this distance is nothing compared to space measured in light years."

"Take our solar system as an example. If the outer Oort cloud is included, its diameter is about one light-year. When converted into kilometers, it is almost 950 trillion kilometers, close to one quadrillion kilometers."

"And now our exploration of the solar system has just begun."

"That's Voyager 1, which has been launched for half a century. It has only flown 25 billion kilometers so far."

"The distance it flew out is still not even a fraction of the gravitational boundary of the solar system, which is one quadrillion kilometers."

"Even if we now have controllable nuclear fusion technology, can build large-scale space shuttles or spaceships, and can use aerospace engines to increase the speed of the spacecraft to a whole new level in the universe, leaving the solar system will still be a problem. Something unattainable.”

"Unless we can increase the speed of the spacecraft to one-tenth the speed of light, it will be possible to do the things in this planning report."

After listening to Xu Chuan's explanation, the old man asked curiously: "How far is our current aerospace technology from the one-tenth the speed of light you mentioned? Is there any hope of achieving it? How long will it take?"

Xu Chuan smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying: "It's too far. This is something that cannot be budgeted at all."

"One-tenth the speed of light means it can fly 30,000 kilometers per second."

"The circumference of the Earth's equator is 40,000 kilometers, and 30,000 kilometers can go around half of the Earth."

"The aerospace engines we currently use on the space shuttle are at least two orders of magnitude short of this standard."

After a pause, he continued: "And this is not a project that can be realized simply by solving the problem of flight speed."

"Even at one-tenth the speed of light, it would take a full sixty years to reach Barnard's Star, six light-years away, from the solar system."

It is undeniable that the aerospace engine that uses fusion reactors as energy supply and provides power through strong magnetic fields is indeed very strong, so strong that it has long broken the speed limit that traditional aircraft can provide.

It can even help them get stuck in the window to travel to Mars in just over a month.

But compared to the concept of one-tenth the speed of light, the difference is really too far.

The difference between the two is like the contrast between a baby who has just learned to crawl and an Olympic athlete.

And even if they reached one-tenth the speed of light, it would take them at least sixty years to travel to Barnard's Star.

Sixty years, which is almost half of a person's life, is enough to replace the human race on the earth three times.

How people living on a spaceship can survive such a long period of time is also a huge problem.

Whether it is normal life or considering deep sleep or freezing technology, it is a problem that cannot be solved for the time being.

Perhaps with the development of the times, these problems may be solved one by one.

But now, they do not have the basic conditions to send people, or even an unmanned exploration spacecraft, to Barnard's Star.

The aerospace group's planning report is indeed very tempting, and the title of the expedition to Barnard's Galaxy is also very attractive.

But this kind of project that is purely "fake and empty" at present does not have much meaning.

At least it didn't make much sense to him.

Technology does need to be developed, but the premise of development must be based on a reasonable basis. At least you must have a complete theoretical basis or feasibility conditions, otherwise it will be like a castle in the air, which will collapse sooner or later.

Hearing this answer, the old man's eyes showed some disappointment. He nodded and said, "I will have someone re-evaluate this planning report when I go back."

If there was a chance to conquer Barnard's galaxy several light-years away, even if it took decades or even longer, even if it was not accomplished by his hands, he would still be willing to push for it.

But now it seems that this plan is not feasible.

At least the one in front of me is not very optimistic.

Compared with those experts and scholars from the Aerospace Group and the Academy of Sciences, he was more willing to believe Xu Chuan's judgment.

On the sofa, after picking up the warm porcelain cup on the coffee table and moistening his throat, Xu Chuan smiled and said: "In my opinion, exploring outer galaxies is indeed feasible, but at least it must be done step by step."

"With current space technology, it is too early to talk about expeditions to galaxies several light years away."

"Instead of focusing on more distant outer galaxies, it is better to focus more on the inner solar system."

"Whether it's the moon, Mars, or the asteroid belt, some dwarf planets, and satellites, there are enough resources waiting for our development and use."

"And compared to the distant Barnard Galaxy, this is something we can do and achieve."

The old man nodded. Just as he was about to say something, he remembered something else. He looked at Xu Chuan and asked.

"By the way, I remember the Mars transformation project you talked about a few years ago. What's going on now? Is it possible to do it?"

He still remembered the extremely grand plan proposed by the man in front of him after the controllable nuclear fusion technology was completed.

It not only includes manned spaceflight, manned moon landing, manned fire landing, establishment of moon and Mars colonies, etc., but also includes one of the most massive super projects in history.

That is, transforming Mars and making it a second home for mankind, so that mankind does not need any space suits, colonies, or protective bases, so that people can live on Mars just like they live on Earth.

The shock that this plan gave him at that time, even now, is more exciting than the expedition to Barnard's Galaxy.

After all, in the eyes of most people, including him, the difficulty of the expedition to Barnard's Galaxy may be easier than transforming Mars to make it habitable for humans.

The former may have a spacecraft that solves some of the problems of deep space voyages. For example, it is still possible to do it with cryo-sleep technology, but at most it will take a little longer.

But for the latter, to be honest, when most people hear this concept, they have no idea what to do to transform an entire planet.

This is almost completely beyond imagination with current human technology.

Hearing this question, Xu Chuan smiled and said: "It is not yet completely certain whether it is feasible, but judging from the existing exploration data, the feasibility of the transformation plan is relatively high."

"real?"

Hearing this, the old man's eyes had a mysterious color. If the expedition to Barnard's Galaxy was not feasible, then transforming Mars was feasible, which would be a huge gain for today's trip.

Xu Chuan: "It's not completely certain yet. Although we have launched a batch of probes to Mars before and conducted many detection and exploration experiments, compared with the transformation plan, the data obtained is far from enough. ”

"There are still some key indicator data that require in-depth exploration and understanding. I will add more probes to Mars to explore and modify the environment and conditions of Mars to gain a deeper understanding of whether it has the potential for modification."

Sitting on the sofa, the old man asked curiously: "Key indicators? What are they."

Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "For example, the core condition of Mars, the fluidity of the mantle, and the gravity distribution field."

After a pause, he looked at Academician Chang Huaxiang who was sitting aside silently and acted like a transparent person, and asked: "Mr. Chang, when we were chatting two days ago, do you still have the Mars Transformation Report I sent you? Keep it?”

Hearing this, Chang Huaxiang smiled and said: "Of course."

In response, he stood up and walked to his desk, opened the drawer and found the previously printed report document.

Xu Chuan took it and handed it to the old man sitting opposite, saying: "I talked about some things in this area with Academician Chang Lao two days ago. This report is based on the data collected from the current Mars exploration. "It contains the basic conditions and related technical considerations needed to transform Mars, as well as the feasibility analysis."

The old man took the report document with some curiosity and flipped through it.

Although I don’t know much about some of the professional terms in it, it’s obvious that this report document was done very carefully.

From the meager atmosphere content and element proportions of Mars, to the geological environment of the Martian surface, the carbon dioxide, dry ice, solid ice, and water resources contained in the soil, to the scanned structure of the Martian mantle and core, etc., there are complete records.

If that's all it is, then this can only be called a detection data sheet.

The key point lies in the problems that may be encountered in the process of Mars transformation listed in this document, as well as some feasible means and theories.

For example, how to re-stimulate the magnetic field of Mars, increase the thickness of Mars' atmosphere, increase the liquid water on the surface of Mars to form an ocean, adjust the ratio of various gases in the atmosphere, artificially create a biosphere, etc.

A series of planning and transformation processes cover the entire transformation of Mars, and they are all done in great detail.

After flipping through the entire document with interest, the old man looked at Xu Chuan and said with a smile: "I don't know much about these, but if your exploration has any results, remember to say hello to me as soon as possible."

"In addition, can I take this document away?"

Xu Chuan nodded with a smile and said: "Of course, this kind of thing must be supported by the country."

After chatting for a while, the old man got up and said goodbye.

After politely declining Xu Chuan and Chang Huaxiang's farewell, he took the Mars transformation report file and temporarily left the Xiashu Space Base under the escort of security personnel.

Tomorrow morning is the key node for manned landing on Mars. There is still half a day this afternoon. He can't just chat here all the time. There are still some other work to be done in Jinling.

In the office, Academician Chang Huaxiang poured two cups of hot tea again, looked at Xu Chuan with emotion, and said: "I have seen a lot today."

"What did you see?" Xu Chuan asked subconsciously.

Chang Huaxiang took a long breath and said with emotion: "Although everyone knows that your position in the domestic academic community is unique, I am afraid that few people really know how much influence you have."

Xu Chuan's position in the domestic academic community is needless to say, he knows that he is definitely unique.

But Chang Huaxiang really didn't expect that his influence could be so high.

Even when he was not optimistic about the plan made by the Aerospace Group, the Space Administration and several academicians of the Academy of Sciences, he made a decision almost without much hesitation.

Obviously, the arrival of that person today was not only for the manned Mars landing project, but more to ask Xu Chuan to understand the direction and path of the country's scientific and technological development in the future.

What's more important is that these things that seem to be casual chats in the office today, such as AI intelligence, industrial development, quantum computers, biotechnology, virtual reality technology, etc., may become the core areas of national development or even strategic deployment in the future.

Looking back at the history of the country for decades since its founding, it is not that there are no scholars who have influenced the development of a certain field.

But there has never been a scholar who can decide the future technological form of a superpower with his own opinion like now.

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