163: Chapter 163 Full-Domain Deep Space Quantum Radar: The Eyes of a 100,000-Ton Mothership!

Alien civilization voyage timer, Day 32.

2:40 PM.

On the public dining table on the B2 level of Pangu Laboratory, Lin Waner cleared away the last empty bowl.

Su Che was still standing in front of the monitoring wall.

The view from 400 kilometers above occupied the entire wall; the keel trusses and hull of the Dry Dock gleamed with a cold, hard metallic white on the side illuminated by sunlight, while the shadowed side was pure black.

Five hundred robots worked without pause.

Since the navigation system went online, the absolute position of every robot within the Earth-Moon system had been locked within nanometer-level precision by the quantum star map.

Docking efficiency had improved significantly.

But Su Che was not looking at the construction feed.

His attention was fixed on an independent window compressed into the bottom right corner of the screen.

That was the red archive marked by the Yiren AI Core, the 0.3-second signal captured in the 1200-kilometer orbit a while ago.

A high-dimensional space anchor mark.

The navigation system could let the luan bird know where it was.

But knowing where it was wasn't enough.

It had to know where others were.

In his mind, a mechanical voice popped up.

"Ding! Deep space detection system for the 100,000-ton aerospace mothership detected as missing. Main R&D task triggered!"

"Task Name: The Universe Is No Place for the Blind!"

"Task Content: The luan bird has star map navigation, but it can't even see what's lurking right outside its own doorstep! Please develop the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar system to achieve quantum entanglement imaging, trans-atmospheric deep space penetration, omni-dimensional stealth target detection and decryption, and weak quantum signal noise reduction analysis, giving the 100,000-ton mothership all-around, no-blind-spot detection capability for the entire Solar System!"

"Task Reward: 300,000 skill points. Unlocks redemption rights for Quantum Entanglement Detection Imaging Technology, Trans-atmospheric Deep Space Penetration Technology, Omni-dimensional Stealth Target Detection and Decryption Technology, and Weak Quantum Signal Noise Reduction Analysis Technology. Redemption cost: 180,000 points."

"Current main skill point balance is sufficient. Proceed with redemption?"

300,000.

This was the largest reward the system had ever issued.

The core technology redemption cost 180,000, eating up the majority of his savings, but he couldn't skip it.

"Redeem."

"Ding! 180,000 main skill points consumed. Core technology unlocked!"

"System Prompt: Supporting auxiliary technologies/blueprints/plans have not yet been redeemed, including: Global Quantum Radar Array Assembly Blueprints (20,000 points), Deep Space Detection Algorithm Library (15,000 points), Multi-platform Ship-borne/Airborne Adaptation Plans (8,000 points), Quantum Signal Synchronization Calibration Plan (7,000 points). Total redemption points: 50,000."

"Deduct from the virtual pool."

"Ding! 50,000 virtual ecosystem independent points consumed. All auxiliary technologies unlocked!"

The four core technologies and the complete set of auxiliary plans unfolded in his consciousness.

The volume of data was more than three times larger than that of the navigation system.

Quantum Entanglement Detection Imaging—using entangled photon pairs as detection carriers, the receiving end reconstructs the target's three-dimensional spatial information through correlation measurement, completely bypassing the electromagnetic wave scattering logic of traditional radar in principle.

Trans-atmospheric Deep Space Signal Penetration—solving the attenuation problem of quantum signals under atmospheric molecular scattering and ionospheric interference.

Omni-dimensional Stealth Target Decryption—specializing in dealing with all kinds of stealth. Electromagnetic stealth, optical stealth, infrared shielding—all rendered ineffective.

Weak Quantum Signal Noise Reduction Analysis—fishing for real signals from the vast sea of cosmic ray noise.

Su Che pulled up the material list in the auxiliary plans and went through it item by item.

Quantum photon detection substrate—the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Optics and Electronics has reserves.

Superconducting signal receiving unit—Aerospace Science and Industry's superconducting laboratory can produce it.

3-nanometer quantum chips—he makes them himself, no shortage.

Quantum entanglement generator—the same homologous technology used on Quantum Communication satellites, just an amplified version.

Deep space low-noise sensor array—Academician Qian Zhenhua's optics group has done something similar.

Yiren AI high-order signal processing terminal—cut a dedicated sub-module from the core.

Everything was something that could be sourced domestically.

Su Che picked up the encrypted handheld device, and three calls connected simultaneously.

"Academician Qian, Academician Li, Dean Liu, come over here."

Two minutes later, the three of them stood in front of the console.

Academician Qian Zhenhua had a red ballpoint pen tucked into his shirt pocket, with the cap sticking out.

Academician Li Zhengyang held a thermos in his left hand, his right hand tucked into the pocket of his white lab coat.

Dean Liu Huaqiang pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, which still had fingerprints from the last time they weren't wiped clean.

Su Che projected the summary document of the technical framework onto the screen in front of the three.

"Global Deep Space Quantum Radar system."

Su Che turned the document to the architecture page.

"Four core technologies, each of you take one."

His index finger landed on the first item.

"Quantum Entanglement Detection Imaging, Dean Liu."

Dean Liu Huaqiang scanned the parameter requirements.

"The generation rate of entangled photon pairs needs to be pushed to the order of 10 to the 12th power per second; the entanglement generators on existing Quantum Communication satellites are only at 10 to the 8th power."

Dean Liu Huaqiang circled the number with his index finger.

"I have to increase the pump laser power of the generator by four orders of magnitude, and the thermal management plan needs to be redone."

"For cooling, see Wen Bo."

Su Che flipped the document down.

"Trans-atmospheric Deep Space Signal Penetration and Omni-dimensional Stealth Target Decryption, Academician Qian."

Academician Qian Zhenhua pulled the ballpoint pen from his pocket and popped off the cap.

"I've dealt with similar penetration problems; the atmospheric refraction compensation algorithm for star trackers can be modified."

He drew an 'X' on the screen frame with his pen—a habit of doodling on any surface he could never break.

"As for the stealth decryption... the correlation extraction of the target's scattering characteristics via quantum entangled states is theoretically feasible, but I need to check the physical model with Academician Li Zhengyang."

"Weak Quantum Signal Noise Reduction Analysis, Academician Li."

Su Che closed the document.

Academician Li Zhengyang unscrewed the thermos lid and took a sip of water.

"For the noise model, I'll use the power spectral density of the cosmic microwave background radiation as the baseline."

He set the cup on the edge of the console.

"The core of the noise reduction algorithm is adaptive Kalman filtering plus quantum Bayesian estimation. The framework can be finished today, but filling in the parameters will have to wait for the actual signal-to-noise ratio test data from the entanglement generator."

Su Che pulled over a chair and sat down.

"The R&D cycle will be pre-scheduled according to the process chain."

Su Che opened a blank document and typed as he spoke.

"For the first four days, Dean Liu will work on the entanglement generator upgrade and signal processing terminal adaptation, Academician Li will produce the noise model and noise reduction algorithm framework, and Academician Qian will run the underlying optical simulations for penetration compensation and stealth decryption."

"From the fifth to the tenth day, the four core technologies will undergo joint simulation in the Mirror World's virtual orbital environment to align parameters."

"From the eleventh to the fourteenth day, full-link system integration and debugging."

"Regarding hardware..."

Su Che switched to the material list.

"I'll send this to Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang and Aerospace Science and Industry right now; existing inventory items will be directly transferred. The pump laser module for the entanglement generator needs to be custom-processed after Dean Liu provides the modification plan, and Wen Bo will be responsible for the material adaptation and thermal management solutions for all modules."

He sent the schedule document to the four people's terminals.

"Any questions?"

The three of them read through it.

No one spoke.

"Then let's get to work."

Su Che stood up.

Academician Qian Zhenhua snapped the pen cap on, stuffed it back into his pocket, and turned to walk toward the optics group.

Academician Li Zhengyang picked up his thermos, walked two steps, and looked back at Su Che.

"The symplectic integrator from last time can still be used in the new model; that elective course Wen Bo took wasn't in vain."

Wen Bo threw a remark from the material testing area, "I got high marks in every elective, you can call me Teacher Wen."

Academician Li Zhengyang ignored him.

Su Che sat back at the main console and opened the code repository for the core algorithms.

The software core of the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar was much more complex than the navigation system.

Navigation is "Where am I?", while radar is "Where are you, who are you, and what are you doing?".

The first line of code was written.

Lin Waner walked in from the side door.

She placed a bag of mandarin oranges in the empty space to the right of Su Che, opened the bag, pulled one out, and handed it to him.

Su Che took it and peeled it with one hand, orange juice splashing onto the F7 key of the keyboard.

He stuffed the whole orange into his mouth and kept typing with bulging cheeks.

Lin Waner didn't leave; she stood by and watched the screen for a while.

"You look just like the hamster I used to keep when you have your mouth stuffed with food."

Su Che gave a muffled "Hm."

Lin Waner wiped the orange juice off the F7 key with a tissue and turned to leave.

On the monitoring wall, the view of the Dry Dock was still updating in real-time.

The final sections of the keel trusses were being spliced.

The laying of the outer shell of the enclosed assembly chamber was also progressing.

Once the Dry Dock was completed, all components of the 100,000-ton luan bird would be assembled in that sealed space factory.

Su Che glanced at the receipt from Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang received on his terminal; the transfer procedures for the quantum photon detection substrate and superconducting signal receiving unit had been approved, and the first batch of hardware components would arrive at Pangu Laboratory within three days.

He closed the receipt window.

In the status bar of the Yiren AI Core in the bottom left corner of the screen, that red archive mark was still quietly glowing.

1200 kilometers, 0.3 seconds, high-dimensional space anchor.

Once the radar was installed, those invisible things would have nowhere left to hide.

Su Che spat out an orange seed, which stuck to the bottom frame of the screen.

He ignored it.

His fingers returned to the keyboard.

In the core code repository of the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar, the file was named "Clairvoyant".

The heating pipes in the corner of the B2 level emitted a faint sound of flowing water.

This sound would continue to resonate.

Just like the flashes from the welding torches of the five hundred robots in orbit, it continued day and night.