Homo sapiens

"The countdown begins..."

"10...8...0...activate!"

Hydrogen was injected into the prototype's six Levi's rings.

However, there is a difference in injection time.

In the first Levi's ring to be injected with hydrogen, the magnetic field quickly restrained the hydrogen. In an instant, each of the tailfield devices was activated, and the hydrogen was rapidly accelerated, and then passed through the gamma ray plasma heating device.

The heating limit of 1.27 billion degrees Celsius instantly splits hydrogen molecules into hydrogen ions, and these are extremely hot hydrogen ions.

Hot and fast hydrogen ions rapidly approach sub-light speed.

In less than 36 seconds, the temperature and speed of the hydrogen ions in the Levi's ring reached the critical point.

The next second.

The hydrogen ion fluid begins to undergo a nuclear fusion reaction. This reaction is very intense and rapid. The amount of hydrogen injected has been calculated, just to keep the nuclear fusion level at a controllable level, and the nuclear fusion reaction will not destroy the equipment. .

As chain reaction nuclear fusion began to occur inside the Levi's ring, the heat energy in its ring-shaped pipe soared rapidly, and at the same time, some high-energy neutrons were ejected in all directions.

At this time, the neutron absorption layer wrapped inside the pipe begins to receive these high-energy neutrons. This is a nano-absorption layer composed of lithium carbon material. Although it is only 12 centimeters thick, it contains layers of graphene, two layers There is another layer of lithium nanofilm sandwiched between the graphene.

High-energy neutrons cannot break through this neutron absorption layer. These high-energy neutrons ejected by nuclear fusion will convert part of the carbon and lithium into radioactive isotopes.

Therefore, the lithium carbon neutron absorbing layer has a service life. It can usually only be used for about 75 days before it must be replaced.

This is not a problem on Earth, but on a spacecraft, replacement issues and the supply of lithium carbon materials must be considered.

As for how to replenish lithium carbon materials, Carl's team created a set of secondary recycling technologies for nuclear reaction products.

The principle is very simple. During the multiple nuclear fusion reaction of the Levis ring, lithium and carbon will be produced at different stages, so this part of lithium and carbon can be recycled.

The recovery system is in the spiral magnetic field device.

Three minutes later, all six Levi's rings completed the nuclear fusion cycle. Through the gold-based thermoelectric conversion system, the temperature inside the Levi's rings was tightly controlled at 1.27 billion degrees Celsius.

A large amount of thermal energy is converted into electrical energy, part of which is used for the magnetic field, wake field, and plasma maintenance of the system, and part of which is converted into power.

This is the function of the composite spiral magnetic field device.

The auxiliary system continuously injects various material powders into one of the open spirals. These powders are quickly ionized into plasma, and are accelerated by magnetic fields and wake fields.

Plasma is accelerated to 25% to 30% of the speed of light.

The blocking ceramic wall set up behind the prototype, 1,000 meters away from the nozzle of the prototype, still emitted dense sparks, and the surface temperature soared crazily.

Obviously this is the high-heat, high-speed plasma ejected from the engine nozzle, which acts on the barrier wall.

In less than 10 minutes, the surface temperature of the first barrier wall had exceeded 5,000 degrees Celsius. Coupled with the impact of a large amount of high-energy plasma, even high-temperature-resistant ceramic materials began to melt.

Inside the control room of the test platform.

Mikoyan took a look at the power data. The power of this engine was amazing. The high-energy plasma injected brought a very strong reaction force to the engine itself.

And these reaction forces are the driving force that propels the spacecraft forward.

Mikoyan was very happy: "Karl, it seems you succeeded."

However, Karl did not open the champagne at halftime. He smiled and shook his head: "We haven't passed 24 hours yet. It's hard to say now."

Mikoyan believes that this prototype has been successful. After all, this is the first one. Even if it does not last for 24 hours, it can continue to be improved in the future.

He touched the stubble on his chin: "This power is so powerful. If installed on a Qinglong-class space battleship, the speed is estimated to soar to 6,000 kilometers per second."

"2% light speed is no problem." Karl is very clear about the upper limit of this engine.

According to the combination of nuclear fusion power and sub-light speed plasma engine, the theoretical upper limit of the speed of this system can reach 5% of the speed of light, and there is no way to go higher.

It is not too difficult to reach 2% of the speed of light at this time.

"Report, the reaction products can be recycled..."

Karl quickly ordered: "Start recycling immediately."

At this time, among the six Levis rings of the prototype, the nuclear fusion reaction in the Levis ring that was the first to start injecting nuclear fuel has reached the lithium stage.

Therefore, the system began to automatically open the magnetic field connection device. After the magnetic field was adjusted, the lithium element turned into plasma was quickly sucked into another closed spiral magnetic field device.

The high-temperature and high-speed spiral magnetic field that enters the spiral magnetic field is quickly absorbed by the gold-based thermoelectric system and then sucked into the recovery device by the electric field.

In this way, the spacecraft can continuously produce lithium carbon from hydrogen and helium through nuclear fusion reactions.

Although the lithium carbon produced in this way also contains some radioactive isotopes, the two can be separated.

This system is not very useful for spacecraft operating in the inner solar system.

But for a spacecraft flying in this interstellar space, this system is indeed crucial, because it can ensure that the spacecraft itself can obtain a continuous supply of lithium carbon to maintain the neutron absorption layer of the nuclear fusion power generation system.

As for why the neutron absorption layer does not use other elements but lithium carbon nanomaterials?

The reason is very simple. It is not that other elements cannot create neutron absorbing layers, but that other elements cannot be manufactured artificially.

Metal materials such as tungsten and platinum can also be used as raw materials for the neutron absorption layer. The problem is that tungsten and platinum are rare elements and their content in interstellar space is very small. It is difficult to obtain supplies by collecting stardust and asteroids.

Lithium carbon is different. Lithium carbon can be produced through controlled nuclear fusion. Its raw material is hydrogen, helium, and beryllium boron. As long as there is hydrogen, it can be continuously produced.

This is why the Carr team chose lithium carbon as the material for the neutron absorber layer.

Hydrogen is the most readily available raw material in interstellar space.

It is entirely possible to install a stardust collecting pot on the nose of the spacecraft, or to search for water-containing asteroids along the way.

In this way, the spacecraft can obtain a large amount of hydrogen, and through the nuclear fusion of hydrogen, it can also obtain helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, and carbon.

Therefore, many of the internal consumables in future interplanetary spacecraft should be mainly helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, and carbon.

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