154: Space elevator!

“Lin, Lin, are you not joking?”

Zhao Zizhen came back to his senses, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and spoke with difficulty.

Building a Space Elevator, this was too astonishing.

“Dean Zhao, on serious matters, I never joke, you know.”

Lin Yang smiled as he looked at Zhao Zizhen, and then emphasized, “I’m serious.”

“Ser-serious? You really want to build a Space Elevator?”

Zhao Zizhen and Dr. Chu couldn't help but exchange glances again, both startled by Lin Yang’s words.

Although the concept of a Space Elevator had been around for many years, it was almost impossible to achieve.

One must know that over the past few decades to a century, various countries had been able to build spacecraft, but the Space Elevator remained an untouchable field.

The difficulty of building a Space Elevator was too great.

A Space Elevator, as it was called, was an elevator built between the ground and a Space Station, used to transport materials and even people between the ground and space.

According to the conceptual design, the Space Elevator would not require a large amount of fuel to operate, thus saving much, much more on transportation costs than launch rockets.

Most importantly, it could operate twenty-four hours a day, which was extremely convenient.

However, the distance from the ground to the Space Station in Blue Star’s geosynchronous orbit was nearly forty thousand kilometers.

Nearly forty thousand kilometers of elevator transport was a huge test for elevator materials.

Firstly, the most important part, the cable, had no material that could meet the requirements.

Even the arresting cables on aircraft carriers, which could hook fighter jets, still could not meet the standards for being modified into Space Elevator cables.

It could even be said that they were still miles and miles away.

The elevator cable carried the weight of the elevator and ensured its operational safety.

To maintain the operation of an elevator nearly forty thousand kilometers long, the cable was of utmost importance.

For ordinary building elevators, the total distance traveled by the cable from service to replacement might not even be enough for a single round trip of a Space Elevator.

As for a Space Elevator, from the ground to the Space Station, it also had to consider the issue of passing through the atmosphere.

Shuttling back and forth between extremely high and extremely low temperatures, any material could easily malfunction.

And it was impossible for the Space Elevator’s cable to be replaced after every single use.

That would be more costly, more troublesome, and would lose the convenience envisioned at the very beginning of the Space Elevator concept.

Therefore, the cable problem became the biggest obstacle.

Besides the cable, other hardware materials also faced significant difficulties at present.

And in addition to the problems with hardware materials, other issues such as the stability of the Space Elevator structure and space radiation also needed to be considered.

For example, if solar winds applied pressure to the Space Elevator, the gravitational force from the sun could cause the cable to sway.

Once the Space Elevator started to sway, it could collide with artificial satellites or space debris, and a collision could cause the cable to break, leading to a Space Elevator accident.

If it were an ordinary building, if an elevator malfunctioned, as long as emergency methods were appropriate, one could maximize their own safety.

But if an elevator lost control in space, the consequences would be unimaginably severe.

Therefore, absolute safety must be ensured.

Hence, the difficulty of building a Space Elevator was extremely, extremely great.

In fact, after rough estimation, a Space Elevator might need to be as high as ninety thousand kilometers to maintain normal operation to the greatest extent.

Doubling the distance would multiply the difficulty by several times.

Zhao Zizhen did not doubt Lin Yang’s technical capabilities, but a Space Elevator involved too many issues from various aspects.

So many that even when Lin Yang said he wanted to build a Space Elevator, he felt it would be extremely difficult to achieve.

Lin Yang looked at the expressions of Zhao Zizhen and Dr. Chu, understanding what they were thinking, and immediately smiled:

“While the difficulty of building a Space Elevator is great, the benefits and convenience it can bring once successfully built are also immense.”

“Firstly, it saves enormous transportation costs. Compared to launching a carrier rocket once, the cost of operating a Space Elevator once might only be one percent of launching a carrier rocket.”

“Secondly, the convenience goes without saying; it leaves carrier rockets far behind.”

“And we are destined to enter the interstellar era. In the near future, we may be able to mine resources on other nearby planets. By then, the frequency of transportation will only become more frequent. If we can still only rely on carrier rockets, efficiency will be extremely low.”

“So a Space Elevator is almost inevitable.”

These words made Zhao Zizhen and Dr. Chu pause for a moment, then they began to think seriously.

A moment later, the two exchanged glances, and Zhao Zizhen said, “From a long-term perspective, building a Space Elevator is indeed very necessary. Since Lin has brought it up, he must have solutions for the materials and other issues concerning the Space Elevator, right?”

“Yes.” Lin Yang nodded.

“As expected!”

Zhao Zizhen immediately smiled, “I should have thought of it earlier. Since Lin proposed the idea, he must have a complete plan. I was worrying needlessly just now.”

Then, his tone softened, “It’s just that building a Space Elevator is definitely a massive project that can’t be kept secret from the public. I’m worried that Western Countries will take the opportunity to cause trouble.”

Lin Yang also smiled, “If we can’t hide it, then we won’t. As for Western Countries, firstly, they don’t have the energy now, and secondly, they probably don’t have the guts.”

“Once the resources exchanged with the Moon are in place, we will directly officially announce that we already possess all the resources and technology to build a Sky Carrier. As long as they don’t want to be held accountable afterwards, they won’t dare to have any ideas about this.”

Zhao Zizhen was somewhat surprised, while Dr. Chu burst out laughing, “Lin really has a good idea. With the pressure of the Sky Carrier hanging over their heads, as long as they’re not fools, they won’t dare to easily cause destruction.”

“Yes, that’s what I thought.” Lin Yang smiled.

Dr. Chu immediately said, “Hey, Lin, why don’t you come to our Armed Forces Department to guide our work? When the resources arrive, building a Sky Carrier will be a first for our Armed Forces Department. How about you come and guide us then?”

As he finished speaking, Zhao Zizhen immediately reacted, glaring at Dr. Chu and saying, “Lin just arrived at our Great Science Academy, and you’re already thinking of poaching him. Don’t you have any shame?”

Dr. Chu completely ignored him.

He specifically ran from the Armed Forces Department just now to poach him!

Otherwise, why would he bother running to the Great Science Academy for something that could be discussed in a video conference?

Seeing this, Lin Yang said with a wry smile, “Dean Chu, I’ll still help them with the Space Elevator matter at the Great Science Academy first. It won’t be too late for me to go over if there are problems with the Sky Carrier’s construction.”

“Well… alright then, it’s a deal.” Although Dr. Chu was a bit disappointed, he didn’t say anything more.

“Lin, you rest for a while. We’ll go have a meeting with Elder Ye. If there are no issues from above, we’ll announce that we’re building the Space Elevator.” Zhao Zizhen was somewhat impatient.

“Okay.”

Lin Yang responded.

Ten minutes later.

The Great Science Academy’s official account issued a notice.

“Our academy will begin construction of Blue Star’s first Space Elevator soon. This project is technically supported by Fellow Student Big Shot. Please look forward to it!”

As soon as this announcement was made, it instantly ignited the entire internet.

Netizens looked at the news pushes from various media outlets, their minds going blank.

What did they just see?

The country was going to build a Space Elevator?