78: Chapter 78 Jump Engine 2

"The Eight Planets" are the inner planets of the Solar System. Arranged by their distance from the Sun from nearest to farthest, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

It seems there used to be a Pluto, but it was later expelled by scientists.

It was downgraded to a "dwarf planet."

Taking Pluto as an example, the average distance between Pluto and the Sun is 39.956 astronomical units. It takes about 5.6 hours for sunlight to travel from the Sun to Pluto. When Pluto is closest to Earth, it is about 38 astronomical units away. Light traveling from Earth to Pluto, minus the 8 minutes it takes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth, is approximately 5 hours and 27 minutes.

If there were no Jump Engine, and given that the maximum speed of the Aerospace Aircraft Carrier's main engine is 25% the speed of light per second, Chu Ge calculated that it would take 5 hours and 27 minutes multiplied by 4 to travel from Earth to Pluto at one-quarter the speed of light, which is a little over 21 hours.

Less than a day. It looks fast on the surface, but compared to a Jump Engine, it's incomparable.

Chu Ge was in a dilemma, unable to advance or retreat.

"Forget it, rather than having a headache here myself, I might as well leave it to the leaders."

Chu Ge made up his mind, quickly stood up, and headed toward Academician Chen's office again.

"Old Chen, I'm here again!"

Chu Ge flopped onto the sofa, picked up an apple from the fruit plate on the table, and started eating it on his own.

"Hmm, Little Chu, eat slowly. That apple didn't offend you, did it?"

Academician Chen glanced at the ravenous Chu Ge and said with a smile.

"Old Chen, the Aerospace Aircraft Carrier has a bit of a problem. The engine part is hard to reach the state I envisioned."

Chu Ge paused, wondering how to express his current dilemma.

"Hmm? Tell me specifically."

As soon as Academician Chen heard about the aerospace carrier, his expression became serious.

"It's mainly the Jump Engine. It requires a key medium, which is dark matter. It seems we can't solve that in the short term."

"Oh, no wonder you came to ask me about dark matter early in the morning. And then?"

"Without the Jump Engine, our aerospace carrier's maximum speed is only about one-quarter the speed of light per second. This is far from my original vision!"

"One-quarter the speed of light per second? That fast?"

"Hmm?"

Chu Ge didn't expect Academician Chen to answer like that and was a bit confused.

"Haha, Little Chu, one cannot become fat in one bite. We need to look at some problems relatively, or re-examine some problems from other perspectives. It seems you came to the right place today."

"But, the fact is that it really didn't reach my original design intent."

Chu Ge even started to blame himself.

"Then let me tell you some data now. Do you know the speed of the fastest aircraft currently built by humans?"

"I don't know."

Chu Ge hadn't paid much attention to data in that area.

"73,000 meters per second. It's a probe of the United States in deep space. That is the maximum speed it can reach after escaping planetary gravity."

"This, it seems not very fast."

"Hmm, then you know how much the speed of light is, right?"

"I know that. The speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 meters per second."

"If the aerospace carrier reaches its theoretical speed, you calculate it yourself."

After Academician Chen finished speaking, he took a sip of tea and looked at Chu Ge with a smile.

"But, but..."

Chu Ge "butted" for a long time but couldn't say the rest.

"Also, it's not like we've given up on this engine. We can continue to research it. A new type of warship doesn't have all its subsystems as the most advanced, especially for the aerospace carrier, which is a blank field for humanity."

"The first aerospace carrier, strictly speaking, can only be considered experimental. Ah, just like our first aircraft carrier. You aren't planning to build just one and then stop, are you?"

"No, according to the plan, at least three are needed to meet normal scientific research and exploration needs."

"Exactly, that's it."

Academician Chen replied unhurriedly.

"Moreover, Little Chu, the intention from above is that even if the aerospace carrier enters service, there is a high probability that it won't be allowed to go too far. I need to tell you this in advance."

"Uh, this time, even if it wanted to run too far, it couldn't go too far. The Solar System alone takes a day, let alone the Milky Way!"

"Where else do you want to go?"

Academician Chen had a black line on his face.

Chu Ge's vision was at least to make a round trip in the Milky Way in a day—go fishing in the Sagittarius constellation in the morning, drink tea in Gemini in the afternoon, and watch Errenzhuan in Vulpecula in the evening.

Now it's fine, it's a bit like the plot in "iPartment," Diao Chan is always on the road...

After coming out of Academician Chen's office, Chu Ge returned straight to his office. Since Academician Chen had given his affirmation, he would no longer dwell on these issues.

Solve the problem of existence first. As for what comes later, as the old saying goes, there will be a way when the car reaches the mountain. Maybe one day, System Big Brother will have a sudden realization and just reward him with a Jump Engine.

Thinking of this, a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in Chu Ge's mind. In fact, he always had a vague guess in his heart that System Big Brother was leading him to a certain place. This feeling was getting stronger and stronger, but he hadn't guessed where it was yet.

Without any constraints, Chu Ge began to devote himself entirely to the blueprint design of the Nuclear Fusion Engine. Through the data, Chu Ge could already feel the behemoth nature of this engine. He really didn't know what it would look like when it was installed on the aerospace carrier. Thinking of that scene, Chu Ge was filled with strength.

Two days later,

Chu Ge took Yan Tianhao to Academician Huang's office. Academician Huang's office looked like a battlefield, with all kinds of data and drawings flying everywhere.

The thin and small Academician Huang was surrounded by this pile of drawings, recording something. The two of them, Chu Ge and Yan Tianhao, had to "trek over mountains and rivers," almost having to push aside the drawings to pull him out of the paper pile.

"Old Huang, busy?"

Chu Ge and Yan Tianhao had been in for a long time, but Academician Huang hadn't noticed them at all. Having no choice, Chu Ge had to speak up.

"Hmm? Oh, Little Chu, why are you here? This is rare. Haha, come, come, sit, sit. Uh, it seems there's nowhere to sit. Let's just stand and chat for a while..."

"..."

"Um, Academician Huang, I know you are busy. I have a blueprint report related to the Nuclear Fusion Engine that I need to hand to you personally."

"Also, this is Yan Tianhao, a top student in astrophysics. Let him follow you in the future, help you, uh, tidy up the office, that works too, haha."

Chu Ge pointed at the messy office.

"Hello, Academician Huang, Yan Tianhao reporting for duty!"

"Hmm, hmm, good young man, just looking at him makes one like him."

Old Huang put on his glasses, looked at Yan Tianhao carefully, and said, then turned around and took the engine report handed over by Chu Ge.

"Nuclear Fusion Engine? Little Chu, did you develop this?"

"Hmm, uh, you could say that."

"Really? That's great. Sigh, your controllable nuclear fusion technology has already been converted into many practical results, but in the field of aviation engines, although we have been working hard, we are still at a loss. Our foundation is still a bit weak."