267: Chapter 267: Solving Three Major Project Challenges and Unlocking the Ammunition Depot!

Eric Weir and Academician Qian Zhenhua looked over at the same time.

"Don't use a one-size-fits-all approach." Su Che tapped a few spots on the screen.

"First, use a low-frequency gravitational field to strip away the outer impurity shell, then use medium frequency to separate the symbiotic layer of metal and silicon, and finally use high-frequency to precisely strike the superconducting element vein. Three-layer gradient, gradual purification."

Eric Weir stared at the screen for a few seconds, a glow spreading across his sapphire-colored skin.

"Layered gradient crushing... I hadn't thought of this approach."

"What about energy consumption?" Academician Qian Zhenhua asked.

"Lower than the one-size-fits-all approach."

Su Che pulled up a rough energy comparison on the screen.

"Low-frequency stripping of the impurity shell consumes only one-tenth the energy of high-frequency crushing.

"Using medium frequency for the middle layer also saves energy. High-frequency precision crushing, which truly has high energy consumption, is only used on the final layer. The overall energy consumption is actually 30% lower than Academician Qian's proposal."

Academician Qian Zhenhua looked at the data and said nothing more.

Eric Weir turned around and began adjusting the parameters on the control console.

"I'll run a simulation on the asteroid belt test platform first."

"Send me the data when you're done." Su Che tapped the table and turned to leave.

The second project team was in the south.

In the office of Soren Kesh's Nantianmen Fleet R&D team, a group of people sat in a circle.

Soren Kesh, Academician Sun Qiwen, Wen Bo, Academician Zhang Weide, plus a dozen Kairos experts and Longguo academicians.

Several sets of design blueprints were spread out on the table, some crumpled into balls.

"What's the situation?" Su Che pulled up a chair and sat down.

Soren Kesh pushed two sets of blueprints over.

"Two proposals for the coil design of the antimatter magnetic confinement vacuum storage."

"The design from Kairos uses a toroidal magnetic confinement configuration; it has many coil turns and good magnetic field uniformity, but it is large in volume and has high heat dissipation requirements."

"Academician Sun Qiwen's proposal uses a saddle-shaped magnetic confinement configuration; it has a small volume and good heat dissipation, but poor magnetic field uniformity, which will reduce the stability of antimatter storage."

Academician Sun Qiwen took over.

"The uniformity issue of the saddle-shaped configuration can be corrected with compensation coils. I've calculated that adding a set of auxiliary coils can bring the uniformity to over 95% of the toroidal configuration."

Soren Kesh shook his head.

"Compensation coils will increase the complexity of the system, and the failure rate will also rise. Once the antimatter storage chamber becomes unstable and the annihilation energy is released, the entire mothership will be doomed."

Both sides were at a stalemate.

After listening, Su Che didn't rush to express his opinion; he looked over both sets of blueprints.

"Use the toroidal one."

Academician Sun Qiwen frowned.

"The volume is too large. The space inside the luan bird's hull is already tight..."

"Prioritize safety first, then space." Su Che pushed the blueprints for the toroidal configuration back. "The stability of antimatter storage is the top priority. As for the volume issue, we can optimize the layout during the hull design phase."

He looked at Academician Zhang Weide.

"On the hull structure side, can you spare more space for the antimatter storage chamber?"

Academician Zhang Weide flipped through the structural drawings at hand.

"The internal space of a million-ton class hull is nearly ten times larger than that of a 100,000-ton class. If we squeeze, we can make room."

"Then that's settled. Toroidal configuration, Academician Zhang Weide will solve the space issue."

Soren Kesh and Academician Sun Qiwen didn't say anything more.

Su Che stood up and walked toward the last project team.

The problem with the lunar Dry Dock was solved via holographic communication. Talia Knox, Zhou Dehai, and Academician Chen Shian were all on the far side of the moon.

After the holographic communication connected, Talia Knox's face appeared in the projection, with the huge construction scene of the Dry Dock in the background.

"Chief Engineer Su, the stress test for the keel truss is on its third attempt, and it's still not meeting the standards."

"Where is it failing?"

"The bending strength of the middle section of the truss. The design requirement is to withstand an equivalent load of 800 tons per square meter, but the actual measurement only reaches 620."

Zhou Dehai added from the side.

"There's no problem with the materials. We're using the high-strength alloy provided by Kairos, and the performance parameters are 15% higher than the design requirements. The problem lies in the structural design."

Su Che thought for a moment.

"What about the node design of the truss?"

Talia Knox pulled up the structural drawings.

"Standard hexagonal honeycomb nodes."

"Change it." Su Che leaned closer to the holographic screen.

"Hexagonal honeycomb nodes are fine for a 100,000-ton class ship, but the load distribution for a million-ton class is completely different. The middle section bears the most force. Under this magnitude of bending moment, hexagonal nodes will cause stress concentration."

"Change to what?" Zhou Dehai asked.

"Dodecagonal composite nodes. Replace the entire middle section, and keep the hexagonal transition at both ends. The stress distribution can be leveled out, and the bending strength will increase by at least 30%."

Talia Knox pulled up the simulation data on the lunar side and ran it.

"Dodecagonal composite nodes... bending strength increased by 34%. It meets the standard."

"But the processing difficulty has also increased." Zhou Dehai frowned. "The welding process for dodecagonal nodes is several times more complex than for hexagonal ones. The construction robots will need to be reprogrammed."

"Is there enough time?" Su Che asked.

"There are still more than seven months left in the second phase. Reprogramming and replacing the nodes will take about three weeks." Talia Knox calculated. "It won't affect the total duration."

"Then change it."

The problems of all three project teams were solved. When Su Che came out of the development zone command center, it was already dark.

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang followed behind.

"Chief Engineer Su, how did you come up with those solutions today?"

Su Che stretched his neck.

"Forced into it. The problems were right there; someone had to make the call."

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang chuckled.

"That batch of rare minerals has arrived. I distributed it according to the needs of the three project teams: 40% to the Dyson Cloud, 30% to the Nantianmen Fleet, and 30% to the Dry Dock."

"Alright, you handle the arrangements."

Su Che walked to the edge of the tarmac and looked back at the brightly lit development zone.

The lights were still on in the workshops, and the sounds of robotic construction drifted from afar.

"Lieutenant General Peng, keep a close eye on the second phase of the three project teams."

"Rest assured."

Su Che boarded the shuttle, and the cabin door closed.

Twenty minutes later, it landed at the docking corridor on the side of the Genesis.

Su Che walked through the corridor and pushed open the door to the lounge.

The aroma of food rushed directly into his nostrils.

Lin Waner was wearing an apron, carrying plates from the bio-synthesis kitchen.

Four dishes and one soup were set on the table, the colors arranged brightly.

"Hurry up and wash your hands. Taste what I just learned." Lin Waner handed him the chopsticks.

Su Che pulled out a chair and sat down, picking up a piece of meat and putting it into his mouth.

The meat was tender and fresh, with a unique spicy flavor, completely different from the pigs, cows, and sheep raised on Earth.

"What kind of meat is this?" Su Che chewed twice.

"It's marked in the bio-synthesis kitchen as an interstellar recipe called Ares Planet Rock Sheep." Lin Waner untied her apron and sat opposite him. "I prepared it using the seasoning library that came with the system. Is it good?"

"It's delicious. Your cooking skills are almost on par with a master chef." Su Che picked up another big mouthful with his chopsticks.

Jiang Yingxue walked in from the outer room, holding a data pad in her hand.

She pulled out the chair next to Su Che and sat down, casually placing the data pad face down on the table.

"It smells so good. Waner's cooking is getting better and better." Jiang Yingxue picked up a spoon and served herself a bowl of soup.

Su Che put down his chopsticks and took a sip of soup.

"What do you have in your hand?"

"The basic mothership operation manual that Kayla gave me."

Jiang Yingxue tasted the soup in her bowl, and her eyes lit up.

"I don't have much to do regarding Earth lately, so I've been learning things about the mothership when I'm free. Su Che, I want to learn how to pilot a spaceship so I can help you out in the future."

Su Che glanced at her.

"If you want to learn, go learn. Find Kayla to arrange it, let her mentor you, just pay attention to safety."

He picked up a piece of vegetable and put it into Lin Waner's bowl, then continued, "In the future, on the mothership, do whatever you want. You are all my own people; you don't need to ask for my permission for everything. Just do what you like to do."

Jiang Yingxue's eyes curved into crescents.

"It's a deal then. I'll go report to Kayla tomorrow."

Lin Waner nodded with a smile on the side.

"I'll also tidy up the logistics side, striving to make sure everyone eats and lives well."

After the three of them finished eating, Su Che leaned back on the sofa to rest for a while.

Early the next morning.

Su Che poured all his energy into unlocking the mothership and the three major projects.

The envoy from Rosernia hadn't arrived yet, so he took advantage of this time to push the progress forward.

...

Three months, five doors.

Su Che had traveled back and forth between the Genesis and Su Family Village so many times he didn't even know how many, and the route for the shuttle was almost worn into a rut by him.

The forty-seventh door, Patrick's Group 4.

There were no fancy hints on the door panel; it threw out a pure theoretical deduction question directly.

Given a set of energy weapon ammunition energy storage parameters for a Level 3 Civilization, it required deriving the complete ammunition energy decay curve and safe storage critical value within a limited time.

Patrick and his 20-person group spent two weeks gnawing on it in the cabin.

Among this group, there were people specializing in physics, mathematics, and materials science, but none specializing in ammunition.

The energy field confinement theory involved in the question was completely unrelated to the knowledge system of any weapon system on Earth.

Patrick broke the problem down into six sub-modules and assigned them to his team members to tackle separately.

In the end, it was by relying on a document about Level 3 Civilization energy weapon basic principles retrieved from the system database that they were able to fill in the last part of the decay curve.

After the door opened, inside was a massive ammunition depot area.

Explosion-proof isolation chambers were arranged neatly, and each bay was equipped with independent electromagnetic shielding and automatic storage/retrieval devices.

Su Che transferred Olaf Kristensen and Qin Shaoqian from Group 3.

Kristensen was an energy storage technology expert, and Qin Shaoqian was the chief designer at the Longguo Lithium Energy Storage Research Institute.

As soon as the two entered the door, they began to inventory the storage bays.

"Where is the antimatter warhead storage chamber?" Kristensen flipped through the catalog.

"Row 7 in Zone C." Qin Shaoqian pointed to the right.

Su Che handed over this area to the two of them to be responsible for temporarily.

He gave a couple of instructions and turned to leave.