The rise of nanometers

The waters near Darwin.

A ship of the same class as the Qin Qiong class, the Cheng Yaojin, was silently lurking on the seabed more than 300 meters away, and it was directly attached to the seabed.

The submarine was stuck to the seabed, and there was no movement on the surface. However, there was a drilling equipment working silently at the contact point between the submarine and the seabed.

In order to avoid noise, traditional drilling technology must not be used. Fortunately, in the previous Five Ding Plan, a chemical corrosion method was developed, which can achieve rapid drilling through chemical corrosion.

This drilling technology has obtained rich technical verifications in seabed and surface drilling many times, and the technology is currently relatively mature.

Moreover, this technology has great advantages in digging large-diameter drilling wells. At least traditional drilling technology will be very laborious and slow when facing drilling holes with a diameter of more than 1 meter.

Chu Xuan and several researchers were in the engineering ship on the sea, communicating directly with the submarine through optical fiber lines.

"Dr. Xu! How long do you expect it will take to dig it out?"

The gentle Dr. Xu replied with a smile: "This underground river has a rock formation thickness of 385 meters in this area. The chemical corrosion method can dig 50 to 80 meters deep in one day, and it can be dug through in about a week."

"This speed is not bad." Chu Xuan nodded.

The submarine is hidden on the seabed. If it remains motionless, it is difficult to be detected by sonar due to the new sound absorption and silencing technology. Even if it is detected, due to the interference of seabed obstacles, it will most likely be thought to be a reef or the like.

For a nuclear submarine, being anchored on the seabed for a week is nothing more than child's play.

While digging the boreholes, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation is also modifying the submersible to make it more suitable for the underground river environment.

Since underground rivers are naturally formed, there must be irregular terrains of different sizes. Some areas may be very open and some areas may be very narrow.

Therefore, preparations must be made in this regard, such as compounds that can quickly corrode the surrounding rock walls, and when necessary, widening the narrow underground river to ensure that the submarine can pass safely.

In addition, even optical fiber lines must use special surface packaging materials to ensure strength while ensuring corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and high temperature resistance.

Because the water temperature in some underground rivers may be as high as several hundred degrees Celsius, because there is heat seeping up from the magma layer underground.

Researchers will fully consider these situations when making plans. If they can avoid underground high-temperature geothermal areas, they will try to avoid them. If not, they can only use high-temperature-resistant materials.

Seven days later, the submarine's drilling system successfully opened up the underground river under the sea.

However, opening up the underground river does not mean that the submarine test can be carried out immediately. Drilling sealing modifications are also required.

If no modifications are made, seawater may flow back into the underground river and destroy the ecology of the underground river.

The staff used shale gas mining technology to casing the pipe wall layer by layer, and then injected rock-forming agent bit by bit between the pipe wall and the well wall to form hard artificial rock.

This work lasted for three days, and a deep submarine well with a radius of 0.7 meters appeared here.

Finally, the staff arranged mechanical gates at the wellhead, middle and lower wellhead, and also arranged a mechanically sliding artificial coral reef at the wellhead as a cover for the wellhead.

The time came half a month later.

Three modified submarines and special optical fiber lines were finally airlifted to Darwin.

The experiment started in full swing.

Submarine No. 1 was sent into the deep well on the seabed. The staff in the submarine carefully controlled the submersible. There were three operators, one to read the sonar detection data, one to be the driver, and one to be responsible for placing the optical fiber.

This submarine weighs only 2.3 tons, is also powered by nuclear decay batteries, and can carry up to 500 kilograms of optical fiber.

The weight of the special optical fiber is 0.5 kilogram per kilometer, and 500 kilograms is 1,000 kilometers in length.

However, considering the irregular topography of the underground river, there is definitely no way to achieve a straight-line distance of 1,000 kilometers.

Moreover, return to home, backup lines, relay interfaces, etc. need to be taken into consideration. It is estimated that the straight-line distance can be extended to 200 to 300 kilometers.

In the dark river, the submarine's searchlight was like a morning star in the dark night. In the engineering ship above the submarine, Chu Xuan and Dr. Xu also watched quietly.

Although it is a dark underground river, there are still creatures in it, such as blind fish of different sizes. These small fish are usually small in size and their entire bodies are translucent.

The searchlight of the submarine seemed to disturb this paradise, and the blind fish fled around the light source.

Time passed by, and the speed of the submarine was not very fast. The speed was less than 5 kilometers per hour, which was about the same as the walking speed of ordinary people.

The optical fiber line was also dropped bit by bit, until 12 hours later, the fiber optic line was finally dropped to a length of 50 kilometers, which also meant that the submarine traveled 50 kilometers.

Judging from the surface terrain detected by sonar, the submarine is just underground near Darwin City.

At this moment, the staff operated the submersible, and a special optical fiber connector appeared on the optical fiber line. A special small mechanical arm nailed the optical fiber connector to the bottom of the underground river.

Then moving forward, the role of the fiber optic connector is, firstly, to facilitate maintenance, secondly, to facilitate the return of the submarine, and thirdly, to lay branch lines.

In three days, the submarine advanced 327 kilometers, and the straight-line distance from the ground was about 186 kilometers.

During this period, tests such as rock formation erosion channel opening, interface insertion and line replacement, and branch line laying were also conducted.

After receiving the test report, Chu Xuan couldn't help but show a hint of joy. Apparently, he had gained a lot of experience in the underground river optical fiber, submarine navigation, and underground space detection tested underground in Darwin.

This proves that this solution has great feasibility. The Dark River optical fiber system and the Shunfeng Ear system can place sonar monitoring under the eyes of the opponent. This is definitely a weapon for obtaining intelligence.

If there happens to be an underground river passing by near the base, you can monitor it with your face close to your face.

The key is that this method is difficult to be discovered by the other party. Although there are often underground vibration sensors in underground bases, the problem is that these vibration sensors are specifically designed for tunnel excavation intrusions and cannot prevent this natural underground vibration at all. underground river.

Chu Xuan flipped through the North American groundwater system report from the Solomon Data Center. It showed the groundwater system conditions near the west coast and south coast of North America.

There are too many places to start. There are more than a dozen large underground rivers on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico alone. These underground rivers connect the Mississippi River Basin in the southern plains of North America.

There are also many underground lakes and caves.

For example, in the Rocky Mountains of northern Mexico, there is a natural cave hidden about 1,200 to 1,500 meters underground. This underground cave extends northward into the Rocky Mountains of California.

If it is repaired, it can even be turned into an underground passage, leading directly from Mexico through underground caves into the hinterland of California.

However, this kind of thing is just an idea. Chu Xuan's current concern is how to use the underground rivers of North America to deploy downwind ear sonar devices.

He formed a special working group to analyze which locations are suitable for placing downwind ear sonar devices to ensure that detailed information about the Noah Club can be obtained to the maximum extent possible.

Thank you for your support (ω｀)