Voyage of the Stars

Across the spiral arms

Humans have traveled nearly three hundred years on a two thousand light-year star path, with a warp speed ten times the speed of light. The extra time was all spent on replenishing materials and energy.

After arriving at the so-called "ferry", for the sake of safety, humans deployed the sky survey telescope array and all detectors to the direction of the Perseus spiral arm, and measured the stars on the road ahead one by one. Then the distance between each star measured was installed to plan the route.

This is a route that is more than four thousand light years long. There are indeed many stars distributed between the two spiral arms, but they are extremely sparse, even thinner than what humans have said before. Take the two stars closest to the human fleet in the direction of the Perseus spiral arm at this moment. The distance between them is 170 light years, and the further ahead the distance between the stars is, the farther they are.

The distance between some stars exceeds the limit of human navigation technology.

So although there are stars ahead, in order to avoid going to a dead end, humans must measure all the stars between the two spiral arms in this direction, and then plan as many star paths as possible.

However, the reality is not as expected. After detecting these stars one by one, humans found that there is only one feasible star road. The other routes are either too far apart from each other or are simply dead ends, that is, there is nothingness ahead without stars.

What makes humans entangled is that there is an area in this only feasible star road where the distance between the two nearest stars exceeds 500 light years, which is estimated to be about 550 light years.

It has exceeded the maximum distance that the human fleet can sail at one time, but the good news is that there is a cloud of hydrogen molecules in that area. Humans may be able to obtain some substances by collecting hydrogen molecules as energy supplements. This is theoretically feasible, but there are risks. If something unexpected happens, the human fleet may die there because of energy exhaustion.

That location is still in the second half of the star road.

In response, scientists have proposed a plan. They believe that they can first accelerate the fleet's regular speed to 50% relative to the speed of light, and then let the entire fleet move forward 50 to 60 light years by inertia, and then start the warp speed to cause the remaining distance to be crossed.

This method seems feasible, but they overlooked a problem, that is, the human fleet's own calculation method for the resource loss of the so-called one-time travel of 500 light years. You must know that it is not just about warp speed sailing, the acceleration and deceleration of conventional sailing has also been calculated.

So if you want to use inertial navigation to make up for it, it is far more than 50 or 60 light years. Counting the acceleration and deceleration consumption, it is about 100 light years. 100 light years at a relative speed of 50% is 200 years, and you have to count the needs of human life and production during this period.

This calculation is another account.

The 50 light years more than the mileage of "a tank of oil" are blocking the way forward for human beings. If this problem is not solved, human beings will not be able to complete this cross-spiral arm voyage.

This is unacceptable. The destination has been seen, and now there is only this way to go, because going further is the end of the Orion spiral arm, and it is even more impossible to cross to the Perseus spiral arm.

So if you want to find the location of the small universe marked in the star map, you can only go through here.

But how to solve the endurance problem?

The most direct way is to improve navigation technology and solve the problem thoroughly. However, technology cannot be improved just by saying it can be improved. This is a gradual and cumulative process of quantitative change leading to qualitative change. There is no way to rush.

In this regard, the new human government proposed a feasible plan, which is to sail in a relay manner, just like the aerial refueling in the Earth era to increase the range of aircraft. But there are some differences. The aerial refueling in the Earth era is still carried out within its own range of activities, and the mother aircraft can return to the ground base after refueling.

But now humans can't do that. Humans need to sail across the spiral arm. Once they go, they will not come back. Therefore, the mothership used as "aerial refueling" cannot be used. It can only be used as a "gas station" and is a disposable thing. Because bringing these motherships will only increase the energy loss of the fleet.

Therefore, humans plan to build a batch of large transport ships first, let them fill one of the two star systems 550 light years apart at the edge of the spiral arm with the antimatter produced, and then let them sail to the other side first. After about one-third of the way, let them shut down the warp engine and stop there to wait for the subsequent human fleet.

After the fleet catches up, they will use the remaining antimatter of these transport ships as "fuel" to replenish, and then set out on the star road, crossing the two most distant stars, so that they can reach the opposite star system and achieve the purpose of crossing the spiral arm.

As for those transport ships, needless to say, they will definitely be abandoned in that empty space.

This is a highly feasible plan, and it is also the only way for humans to cross the Perseus Arm at present.

Since it is feasible, let's do it.

This plan and the proposal of humans to go to the Perseus Arm next were first discussed by Yue Yuan at the new government conference. After it was determined, the entire human fleet went all the way to the sparsely populated area without saying a word.

After several delays, humans arrived at the most distant star system according to the planned route and started the relay navigation plan.

Through the data returned by the telescope array, Yue Yuan quietly looked at the stars in the holographic screen. At the same time, he also looked at the batches of large transport ships busy mining resources and loading supplies on the screen next to him. These transport ships are loading the antimatter produced in the antimatter factories onto their own ships. After loading a shipload of antimatter, they will first embark on the star journey, and then wait for the arrival of the large fleet to claim it before being abandoned by humans.

Looking at the busy factories and fleets of transport ships, Yue Yuan suddenly felt a little emotional.

"Perhaps, among the relics of civilizations, traces of alien civilizations, and artifacts of alien civilizations, there are also abandoned spaceships like ours now!" Yue Yuan muttered.

Abandoned spacecraft will become space junk, and it is not necessarily certain that such things will be discovered by other civilizations. I wonder if any civilization later discovers the spacecraft abandoned by humans here, whether they will be amazed by the efforts of humans, an unknown civilization to them, to cross the spiral arm.

Tens of thousands of transport ships loaded with antimatter set sail, and after they set sail, the human fleet continued to mine and produce antimatter to replenish fuel for the entire fleet. After the supply was completed, the fleet would then embark on the most difficult journey across the spiral arm. .

As long as we cross this star road, humans will have successfully crossed the spiral arm. After all, if we continue forward, there will be no star farther away than we would like, and humans will not have to worry about supply issues.