190: Chapter 190 The Giant Beast Gets a Heart Transformation, High-Level Fusion Reshapes the Power Core!
Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 116.
8:10 AM, Pangu Laboratory, Level B2.
Su Che turned off the monitoring panel for the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar.
The luan bird had a brain, nerves, shields, and stealth.
But the energy system was still stuck on the foundation of first-generation Controlled Nuclear Fusion.
A 100,000-ton hull coupled with a barely adequate heart was no longer enough.
It needed a heart that would let it run a marathon across the Solar System.
A mechanical voice rang out in the consciousness space right on time.
[Ding! Energy reserves for the space carrier are detected to be insufficient to support deep space combat requirements. Main line R&D mission triggered!]
[Mission Name: Give the Beast a Heart to Run a Marathon!]
[Mission Content: Conventional Controlled Nuclear Fusion can only allow the carrier to loiter in Near-Earth Orbit.]
[Please develop high-order iteration technology for Controlled Nuclear Fusion, achieving high-order tokamak confinement, efficient fusion energy conversion, and fusion-mass-energy conversion, providing the only core energy source for the 100,000-ton class luan bird for long-duration endurance within the Solar System!]
[Mission Rewards: 750,000 skill points, unlock exchange permissions for high-order tokamak confinement technology, efficient fusion energy conversion technology, fusion-mass-energy conversion technology, and miniaturized long-endurance fusion reactor technology. Exchange cost: 380,000.]
[Current host main skill point balance is sufficient. Exchange?]
"Exchange."
Su Che issued the command.
[Ding! 380,000 main skill points consumed. Core technology unlocked!]
[System Prompt: Supporting auxiliary technologies have not yet been exchanged, including: high-order fusion reactor blueprints, mass-energy conversion module design, energy regulation scheme, fusion fuel recycling scheme. Total exchange cost: 80,000.]
"Exchange all."
[Ding! 80,000 main skill points consumed.]
A massive stream of technical data poured into his mind.
Su Che closed his eyes and digested it for three minutes.
He opened his eyes, dismantled the core architecture documents of the high-order fusion reactor, and pushed them onto the public big screen.
"Academician Li, Academician Sun." Su Che spoke up.
Academician Li Zhengyang walked over, clutching his thermos.
Academician Sun Qiwen followed behind, holding an enamel mug printed with "Commemorating the Xichang Satellite Launch Center."
"High-order iteration of Controlled Nuclear Fusion, starting today." Su Che enlarged a blueprint. "The R&D cycle is eight days."
Academician Li Zhengyang placed his thermos on the console and leaned forward to look at the screen.
"High-order tokamak confinement technology." He read the title on the blueprint, reached out, and swiped across the screen. "The plasma temperature needs to be raised by two times, and the strength of the confinement magnetic field needs to be tripled."
"Conventional superconducting coils can't handle this magnetic field strength." Academician Sun Qiwen chimed in. "The thermal load will burn right through the coils."
Su Che pulled up the material requirements list.
"Find Wen Bo." He circled the parameters for the high-order superconducting magnetic confinement coils on the list. "New high-carbon-based superconducting composite material. The tensile strength and critical current density must meet this standard."
Wen Bo walked out of the materials area, holding his enamel mug.
He glanced at the parameters and slammed his cup onto the table.
"Is this parameter set something for a human to work on?" Wen Bo picked up a neutral pen from the table and jotted down a few numbers on the back of his hand.
"The Zhulong Production Line can do it." Su Che tapped the keyboard. "I'll send the process parameters to Zhou Dehai."
"I'm heading to Kaitian Base right now." Wen Bo turned and walked out.
Academician Li Zhengyang picked up his thermos again, the clasp clicking shut.
"I'll calculate the neutron shielding layer for the fusion-mass-energy conversion module. Academician Sun Qiwen, the thermodynamic closed-loop for the efficient energy conversion part is up to you."
"No problem." Academician Sun Qiwen carried his large mug back to the U-shaped array area.
Beside him, Zhao Mingyuan grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the table.
"I'll take the underlying logic for the energy regulation scheme. Give me 10% of the main god ai computing pool."
"15%." Su Che's fingers returned to the keyboard. "Run the simulation for the fuel recycling scheme at the same time."
The entire Level B2 entered a state of high-speed operation once again.
Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 117.
9:00 AM.
The screen in the bottom left corner of the monitoring wall refreshed.
Lunar Development Base.
Fifty autonomous construction robots were busy on the south side of the crater.
The third building, the communication relay station, was basically finished, and the robotic arm was installing the Quantum Communication antenna array on top.
The radiation-proof outer wall built with lunar soil bricks was smooth and solid.
In the screen on the right, the Dry Dock manufacturing bay was brightly lit, and the main skeleton of the 100,000-ton luan bird was basically filled in.
The stealth film shimmered with a cold light under the cabin lighting.
A huge cavity was reserved in the belly of the carrier; that was the spot left for the high-order fusion reactor.
Su Che withdrew his gaze and pushed the first version of the energy regulation scheme code into the test chamber.
Zhao Mingyuan was typing away at the workstation next door.
"The concurrent data stream for the mass-energy conversion module has been cleaned." Zhao Mingyuan sent the data packet over.
Su Che received the data and merged it into the main framework.
On the east side of the hall, the holographic projection of Kaitian Base lit up.
Zhou Dehai was wearing an anti-static suit, holding a black ring-shaped component in his hand.
Wen Bo stood beside him, holding a gaussmeter.
"New high-carbon-based superconducting magnetic confinement coil, first sample." Zhou Dehai placed the component on the test bench.
Wen Bo turned on the power to the test bench.
The numbers on the gaussmeter climbed rapidly.
"Magnetic field strength meets the standard." He looked at the reading. "The critical current density exceeds the design value by 5%."
"Send it to Jiuquan Launch Base, arrange for an in-flight test." Liu Huaqiang signed off on his end of the projection.
Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 118.
2:00 PM.
Academician Sun Qiwen walked to the main console with a stack of printed paper.
"The thermodynamic model for the efficient fusion energy conversion module is finished." He placed the paper next to the keyboard.
Su Che opened the first page.
"Thermoelectric conversion efficiency increased by 45%." Academician Sun Qiwen took a gulp of water. "The waste heat recovery system is connected to a liquid-cooled interlayer, directly powering the shield energy storage unit."
Su Che picked up a pen, drew a circle on a pipeline node on the blueprint, and wrote down a set of modification parameters next to it.
"The flow resistance here is too high. Widen the pipe diameter by two millimeters and nano-polish the inner wall."
Academician Sun Qiwen looked at the parameters.
"I'll go change it." He picked up his large enamel mug and turned back to his workstation.
Academician Li Zhengyang handed a report to Su Che.
"The thickness of the neutron shielding layer has been calculated. We used a high-purity beryllium-copper alloy plus a boron-containing polyethylene composite layer."
Su Che looked at the report, scanning the core data.
"The weight is 20% heavier than the shielding layer of the first-generation fusion reactor."
"But the protective performance has increased by four times. People are living inside the carrier; the radiation leakage rate must be kept at an absolute zero value." Academician Li Zhengyang said.
"Archive it and send it to Zhou Dehai for production scheduling." Su Che set the report aside.
Lin Waner walked in from the side door.
She was carrying a thermal container, which she placed to the right of Su Che.
"Chicken soup." Lin Waner opened the lid, and steam rose.
She didn't say much and left with the empty bag.
Zhao Mingyuan slid his chair over and picked up a bowl of instant noodles.
"You drink chicken soup, I'll eat instant noodles." Zhao Mingyuan slurped a mouthful of noodles.
Su Che picked up a spoon and took a sip of the soup.
The temperature was just right.
He typed with his left hand, continuing to write the underlying code for the fuel recycling scheme.
Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 119.
10:00 AM.
An orange alert box popped up in the bottom right corner of the main screen.
Sender: Deep Space Main God AI.
Su Che clicked on the alert log.
An energy cliff occurred during the simulation run of the fusion-mass-energy conversion technology.
"Zhao Mingyuan." Su Che called out.
Zhao Mingyuan put down half an energy bar and slid over.
"The output power suddenly dropped offline at peak state." Su Che pointed to the curve on the screen. "The main god ai ran 300 simulations, and every time it cut off at the same point."
Zhao Mingyuan stared at the code for two minutes.
"It's not a code logic problem; it's a hardware response latency."
He pulled the keyboard over and pulled up the sensor data from the high-energy particle detector.
"The sampling frequency of the detector cannot keep up with the speed of the plasma density change. By the time the data is transmitted to the control center, the actual state has already changed."
Su Che cut out the material requirements list. "Find Academician Qian."
Academician Qian Zhenhua walked over from the optical inspection station.
"The sampling frequency of the high-energy particle detector needs to be increased." Su Che pushed the data to the secondary screen. "It's one microsecond now; I want nanosecond-level."
Academician Qian Zhenhua glanced at the parameters, pulled a red ballpoint pen from his pocket, and drew a line on his palm.
"Switch to a quantum-sensitive medium for the probe, and use a sub-nanometer lithography machine to re-etch a set of sensor arrays."
"How long until it's done?"
"Twelve hours." Academician Qian Zhenhua turned and walked to the east side.
10:00 PM.
Academician Qian Zhenhua returned to the main console with a chip the size of a fingernail and placed it on the table.
"Nanosecond-level high-energy particle detector, sampling frequency increased by 1,000 times."
Su Che entered the chip parameters into the main god ai.
The simulation restarted.
The output power curve passed through the peak smoothly.
The energy cliff disappeared.
"Finalize it." He pressed Enter.
Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 120.
3:00 PM.
Pangu Laboratory, Level B2.
Several people gathered around the main console, and Su Che rested his hands on the keyboard.
All auxiliary modules for the high-order fusion reactor were completed.
High-order tokamak confinement technology, mass-energy conversion module, energy regulation scheme, long-term fusion fuel storage module.
All blueprints and code had been packaged and merged into the total system.
Liu Huaqiang walked to the side of the main console and pushed up his black-rimmed glasses.
"The prefabricated parts from Kaitian Base have all been loaded and sent to Jiuquan Launch Base, and the Near-Earth Orbit Base is ready to receive them."
The screen on the right side of the monitoring wall zoomed in.
In the Dry Dock manufacturing bay, a huge silver-gray cylinder was slowly lifted by a robotic arm.
That was the main structure of the high-order fusion reactor.
It would be stuffed into the cavity reserved in the belly of the luan bird.
"Prepare for the first cold test." Su Che issued the command.
The command was transmitted to an altitude of 400 kilometers via the Quantum Communication network.
The robotic arm pushed the fusion reactor precisely into the slot.
Pipeline docking was completed.
The high-order superconducting magnetic confinement coil was energized.
The data panel on the main screen began to jump.
The confinement magnetic field strength reading climbed all the way up.
It broke through the limit of the first-generation fusion reactor.
It was still climbing.
Su Che watched the curve that kept rising, his fingers hovering above the Enter key.