The rise of nanometers

Lin Guangzong, who returned from the Chitie base, drove an electric off-road vehicle to the western suburbs of Guanghan Palace City, about 33 kilometers away from the main urban area.

A tramway is being laid to connect the main city with this area.

The area in front of him is undergoing large-scale infrastructure construction. Next to him is Huang Ning, the chief engineer of the project, a senior researcher at the Academy of Engineering, whose main research direction is electromagnetic catapults, and one of Academician Ma's students.

"General Manager Huang, are you still getting used to life?"

Huang Ning smiled and replied: "It's okay. I've done adaptive training at the Tiangong Space Station before. In fact, the moon is a little better. It still has at least one-sixth of the gravity intensity."

Lin Guangzong, who also trained at the Tiangong Space Station for a period of time before, also knows that there are differences between the moon and the Tiangong Space Station.

He asked another question: "Director Huang, is the project going well?"

"Yeah! It went pretty well." Huang Ning paused: "But this is just an experimental model. If it is to be put into practical use in the future, electric energy is probably a problem."

"That's true." Although Lin Guangzong is in charge of administrative management, he is not a complete novice. At least he still understands the basic principles of electromagnetic catapults.

The principle of the electromagnetic catapult, to put it bluntly, is to use electrical energy to generate Lorentz force to push the slider to move quickly on the guide rail.

The project Huang Ning is currently responsible for is to build a small electromagnetic catapult here for technical verification.

The maximum load of this electromagnetic catapult, according to the design plan of the experimental model, is estimated to be about 60 tons, the guide rail length is 15 kilometers, and the maximum derailment speed is 1.3 kilometers per second.

It seems that this maximum speed is not much.

But don't forget the environment of the moon. With one-sixth of the gravitational strength of a blue star and an almost nonexistent surface atmosphere, even a speed of 1.3 kilometers per second is enough to escape the shackles of the moon's gravity.

If it were launched at 1.3 kilometers per second on the surface of the Blue Star, it would be less than four times the speed of sound, and it would be difficult to break through the atmosphere and the gravity of the Blue Star.

What's more, electromagnetic catapults have another advantage, that is, the length of the guide rail can be continuously extended.

The current 15 kilometers of electromagnetic guide rail will cause the slider to accelerate too high and still feel obvious G force. What if the length is 30 kilometers? Even longer.

Moreover, electromagnetic ejection has another advantage, that is, the upper limit of derailment speed is very high. As long as the electromagnetic intensity is strong enough and the guide rail length is long enough, the derailment speed can reach tens of kilometers per second, which is quite easy.

You must know that the upper limit of the electromagnetic gun can reach about 20% of the speed of light, which is about 60,000 kilometers per second.

Even though the current human materials and supporting technologies cannot reach the theoretical 20% speed of light, 1% of the speed of light should be achievable.

However, Huang Ning is not too ambitious. The front side of the moon is constantly facing the Blue Star due to tidal locking. Therefore, the electromagnetic catapult built on the front side of the moon can only be used for the low-Earth orbit to the Blue Star.

Since it can only be used to return to Blue Star, there is no need to develop an electromagnetic catapult that is too fast. The upper limit is estimated to be about 8 to 9 kilometers per second.

Because the speed is too fast, on the one hand it will be difficult to control the spacecraft, and on the other hand it will lead to a decrease in cost performance.

Between the moon and the blue star, if the speed of the spacecraft is too fast and it reaches near the low-Earth orbit, it will have to perform reverse thrust braking. Otherwise, it will not be able to brake, and it will directly rush into the atmosphere, or pass by the blue star and fly away. to outer space in other directions.

Since there is such a restriction, there is no need to race at all. Just make the speed just right and reach low-Earth orbit. Only in this way can the electromagnetic catapult be as cost-effective as possible.

And Huang Ning has another concern, which is the recoil problem of the electromagnetic catapult. On the moon, although there is no high gravity and high concentration atmosphere, there is another problem here.

The moon and Blue Star are essentially a planetary system. The moon is the natural satellite of Blue Star. Don’t think that the moon is insignificant to Blue Star. In fact, the existence of the moon is crucial to Blue Star.

If the moon is lost, the Blue Star's magnetic field axis and planet's tilt angle will undergo earth-shaking changes, and may even directly trigger a mass extinction of life.

Moreover, the moon often acts as a shield for Blue Star, protecting Blue Star from numerous asteroids.

Without the protection of the moon, the probability of Blue Star being hit by a large asteroid will increase by more than 10 times.

If you look at the dense craters on the front and back of the moon, you will know how many asteroids the moon has blocked for Blue Star over the past few billion years.

In fact, the development of Blue Star to this day is all due to the structure of the solar system. Jupiter is the first defender of Blue Star, and the moon is the second defender, plus the super strong magnetic field and dense atmosphere of Blue Star itself.

Even so, Blue Star's ecosystem has not been smooth sailing over the past few billion years, and extinction events, large and small, have occurred one after another.

Such as the asteroid impact 65 million years ago.

If Blue Star suddenly loses its moon now, the consequences will be disastrous.

The construction of an electromagnetic catapult on the moon is likely to cause the moon to accelerate away from the Blue Star. When the Moon moves away to a certain distance, it is very likely to break away from the Blue Star and become a wandering planet.

A small electromagnetic catapult may not seem obvious now, but it may not be obvious in the future.

Huang Ning's current work is to verify the technology on the one hand, and to study the side effects of electromagnetic catapults on the other.

Finally, it can be calculated how much reaction force will be produced on the moon during the electromagnetic ejection process, and how far this reaction force will push the moon away from the blue star.

Of course, Greater China will not stop eating because of choking.

Electromagnetic catapults have huge advantages on rocky planets in low gravity and sub-vacuum environments.

To sum it up in one sentence:

The nuclear-powered ion engine spacecraft is suitable for the early stages of space exploration, that is, to explore planets without industrial foundations.

Traditional chemically powered spacecraft can only be used for unmanned exploration within planetary systems or star systems.

The electromagnetic catapult is the necessary infrastructure for comprehensive space immigration within the star system.

The moon can be used, and so can Mars. Although the gas giant planets do not have the conditions to build electromagnetic catapults, they have a large number of natural satellites. Among these natural satellites, there are many relatively stable rocky planets.

The electromagnetic catapult that Huang Ning is currently planning to build will be the core vehicle for returning to the Blue Star from the moon in the future, so experiments are definitely indispensable.

Although there is a risk of pushing the moon away, this risk is not unsolvable.

Since building large-scale electromagnetic catapults on the front of the moon will cause the moon to move away from the Blue Star, the solution is to also build a number of large-scale electromagnetic catapults on the back of the moon.

As long as the reaction forces generated by the electromagnetic catapults on the front and back are similar, the distance between the moon and the blue star will not change suddenly.

Lin Guangzong talked with Huang Ning for a while, finalized some work, and was about to leave when his communicator rang.

After taking a look at the letter, Lin Guangzong frowned, then turned around and apologized: "General Manager Huang, I have something urgent. Let's talk next time."

"Okay, you go ahead." Huang Ning nodded understandingly.

Lin Guangzong left in a hurry, got into the off-road vehicle, activated the autonomous driving system, and returned to the headquarters base in Guanghan Palace City as quickly as possible.

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