Chapter 572: The ion engine is ready!

The agricultural development plan has been formulated, and Luo Jia will no longer pay attention to this matter, because agriculture, like the East China Sea Westward Project, is a long-term project to transform the earth. It can not see results in the short term, and it requires step by step and continuous investment.
As the end of the year approaches, the company is becoming more and more nervous. The reason is very simple. Both the zero space station and the first elevator will be completed at the end of the year. This is definitely of paramount importance to the science and engineering men who have the dream of a starry sea. Things.
As the largest technology group on the planet, Star Technology has too many simultaneous projects, and it is simply uncountable, and the space program is definitely the top priority.
Nearly half of the company's projects are running around the space program. Even agriculture, which seems to be out of reach with space, is actually a technology reserve for future space colonization, which proves that the space program is unique to Star Technology. .
Not long after Luo Jia left the Ministry of Agriculture, good news came from the company's largest secondary research institute, the Institute of Materials Science. Cao Yuan's electric propulsion project was ready. I hope Luo Jia will participate in technical verification in the past.
Upon hearing the news, Luo Jia was overjoyed and went immediately.
The Institute of Materials Science currently has three major topics, Ji Ming's trititanium alloy, superconductivity towards Anbang, and Cao Yuan's ion propulsion.
Among them, Chao Anbang's superconducting project, because it involves a wide range and is extremely complicated, is only advanced to the middle stage. Although it can come up with top-level superconducting materials, scientific and technological research and development are one thing, and large-scale production of scientific and technological projects is another. It is estimated that it will take some time before the superconducting technology of Xingchen Technology can be truly industrialized. At that time, Luo Jia will be able to engage in floating cars and trains on the earth.
Ji Ming's research on trititanium alloys started at the latest and is still in its infancy, but Luo Jia is not in a hurry because he knows that trititanium alloys are best placed after space mining technology.
Only a large amount of cheap and rare minerals can rejuvenate the Huaxia smelting industry. Most of the rare veins are in the hands of western giants. China is a country with a lot of resources and imports of iron ore. Clamping.
At this stage, it is quite good to produce carbon fiber and graphene materials. Although the price is a bit expensive, it is controlled by Star Technology 100%. These two materials will be used to survive the initial stage of the space program. After the space mining industry has reached scale, advanced alloy smelting Will naturally be launched on a large scale.
In any case, Cao Yuan's ion propulsion was completed in time, so Luo Jia was relieved.
Ion propulsion is too important for the space program. After all, without ion propulsion technology, the company's plan 2 can not be completed. The plan 2 is a starship. The starship will be used to travel to and from the moon and mine the precious reactor fuel helium III. In addition, a preliminary manned exploration of the solar system will be launched.
Luo Jia was thinking and came to Cao Yuan's laboratory. As soon as he entered the door, he saw two sets of electric propellers. They both belong to electrothermal propulsion. They adopted an older technical route. The one on the left is called the Resistojet, and the one on the right is. The station is called Arcjet Thruster.
In simple terms, Resistojet generates heat through resistance, propellant hydrazine expands, and sprays backward to generate power. Arcjet will continue to break through the arc of the propellant as a heat source, heating the propellant to the limit temperature, thereby achieving higher s efficiency.
The reason why the company studies the ancient electrothermal propulsion technology is mainly to deal with the stage before the ion propulsion is launched. For example, the space telescope array currently launched by Xingchen Technology uses electrothermal propulsion. Although the efficiency is relatively low, it is better than stable.
In addition to these, a series of experimental products of standard electric propulsion engines, such as standard ion propulsion, Hall propulsion, magnetic plasma propulsion, pulsed plasma propulsion, pulse induction propulsion, and so on, can be found here in Cao Yuan. Push the science museum like.
Although Cao Yuan always seemed to be awake, he still did things very seriously. After Luo Jia gave the task to him, he has been working very hard and done detailed and intensive research on the electric push system.
"This guy has researched all the electric propulsion technology routes. The workload is so exaggerated. No wonder he wears heavy dark circles every day. The talent is not terrible. The key is that the talent is high and he works hard. Such a Cao Yuan is unsuccessful. It's hard. "Luo Jia muttered, full of appreciation for Cao Yuan.
When I was thinking about it, I saw Cao Yuan screaming haha, wearing a messy hair, lazily walking towards him, such an image, he knows that he is a great scientist in the field of materials science, but he did n’t know it, but thought it was a fight. Internet addiction youth?
"Are you ready?" Luo Jia asked.
"Um." Cao Yuan nodded gently.
"What materials do you use for working fluids?" Luo Jia began to ask himself technical questions.
Cao Yuan explained: "We now have two designs. Traditional ion propulsion uses argon as the working medium, while nuclear fusion direct push uses deuterium."
"The working substance is actually indifferent. Anyway, it is a temporary strategy. When the moon base is established, we will definitely use helium three. To go further, we must develop antimatter engines, curved engines, and even space jump engines. "
Luo Jia couldn't help shaking his head. "The space jump engine, you really dare to think, don't say so much, let me see how you plan to send us to Mars."
Cao Yuan smiled and led Luo Jia into the monitoring room next to the test room.
There are many ways to move in space. In addition to those mentioned by Cao Yuan just now, there are also solar sail propulsion, nuclear pulse propulsion, etc. These technical routes have advantages and disadvantages, and the implementation difficulties are also different. At this stage of earth civilization, As long as ion propulsion can be done, it is enough.
Ion propulsion is divided into electric propulsion and direct propulsion. The former does not require a fusion reactor. It can sail as long as there is electricity. Fusion direct propulsion is very powerful. It releases the ultra-high temperature plasma generated by the fusion of the reactor and generates thrust. The effect is extremely amazing. .
Of course, the fusion reactor has a fast direct pushing speed, but the technical requirements are also high. For example, a powerful electron beam needs to be manufactured to neutralize the charge released by the engine to avoid serious interference caused by the charge.
In terms of speed, the current maximum speed of conventional electric push is about 300 kilometers per second.
For nuclear fusion using deuterium and tritium as reactants, the maximum speed is 1,200 kilometers per second.
When deuterium and helium III react, it can even reach an astonishing speed of 3,100 kilometers per second.
It is not difficult to see that direct push is much faster than electric push, but even so, Cao Yuan has developed two sets of schemes, mainly to save money.
Regardless of deuterium or helium three, they are rare and expensive. Some space detectors, such as space telescopes, do not require much speed. In this case, the advantages of conventional electric power saving can be reflected. Out.
"In any case, we have to go to the moon to mine helium III, because the reaction between helium three and deuterium can not only enhance the fusion reactor efficiency, but also the fastest speed." Cao Yuan muttered while preparing: "But every second It ’s 3,100 kilometers. In theory, starting from Earth, you can reach Mars in as short as five hours. "
"Come on." Luo Jia said disapprovingly: "Theoretical data never represents reality. The closest distance between Mars and us is 55 million kilometers, but the longest distance is more than 400 million kilometers. The distance is not a measure, so you It cannot always be calculated based on the shortest distance. "
"And the theoretical maximum speed is not reliable. Considering the efficiency of starships and reactors, a starship powertrain capable of 70% efficiency is already a very, very good design. slow down."
"If all factors are considered, if we can control the average range to Mars within one week, it is a great feat. Of course, before developing Mars, we must first build the moon base and successfully mine it. To helium three. "
Cao Yuan dismissed his disapproval and thought Luo Jia was too stable. As an optimist, he liked to estimate the most optimistic results. This also meant that although he was a great scientist, he could never lead the tough guys.
Boom ~
With Luo Jia's order, the ion thruster quickly ignited, emitting a dazzling blue flame, argon was ionized quickly under the action of the electrostatic field, and the reverse jet was accelerated, thus generating a huge thrust.
Unsurprisingly Luo Jia expected that the system operation consumed about one third of the energy, and the final number on the screen was fixed at 200 kilometers per second.
Theoretically ~ EbookFREE.me ~ The top speed of two hundred kilometers per second can already shorten the time it takes for the earth to reach Mars to about one week. However, considering the acceleration and deceleration, and the movement of the astral body, the actual time is probably afraid. It takes three weeks.
Then Luo Jia and Cao Yuan kept rushing to Sichuan to go to the nuclear fusion center to test how fast the limit speed could be reached if the reactor was pushed directly with deuterium as the working medium.
The answers we got this time made everyone feel incredibly excited. The results of the direct push test of the fusion reactor reached 800 kilometers per second, which is a full four times that of conventional electric pushers!
That is to say, even considering the loss, acceleration and deceleration, and considering all factors that are not conducive to navigation, the starship can sail from Earth to Mars within one week.
You know, the most successful Mars lander in human history is NASA's Curiosity. Curiosity set off in October 2011 and arrived in Mars in August 2012. It took ten months and a range of 56 million kilometers.
And Star Technology uses fusion reactors to push straight, as long as one week to Mars, the gap is really too big.
When the lunar base is established, the injection medium is changed to a more efficient helium III, and the sailing time can even be shortened to three days!