Chapter 373: Beyond the Speed of Light!
At this moment, the gold element, which had lost its currency anchoring function and had simply degenerated into an industrial metal, has a special value. Wingdings: ♦︎♦︎⬧︎♦︎◆︎⌧︎♦︎♦︎□︎❍︎
Because Han Yang found through research that gold, based on its special properties, is the element that is most likely to achieve the "quark fission" process, just like uranium is most suitable for nuclear fission and deuterium and tritium are most suitable for nuclear fusion.
Of course, the simplest efficiency is usually not the highest.
The mass-energy conversion efficiency of quark fission under ideal conditions is as high as 14%, while the ideal conversion efficiency of gold is 9.5%. With human engineering capabilities at this moment, the highest can only reach about 8%. But even so, it is still more than 11 times the mass-energy conversion efficiency of ideal nuclear fusion.
This can undoubtedly be called a huge breakthrough.
Fortunately, although gold is rare, its absolute content is very large at the cosmic level, or even at the solar system level.
There are many asteroids in the solar system that contain tens of trillions of tons of gold. With human engineering capabilities at the moment, it is no big deal to directly "break up" an asteroid. No matter how deep the gold is buried, it will not hinder human mining.
After completing the uncontrollable quark fission experiment, the human scientific community, under the leadership of Han Yang, immediately started the research and development of a controllable quark fission reactor.
This puts higher demands on gravity conversion equipment. Han Yang must make the gravity conversion equipment more efficient, smaller, more stable and reliable.
Of course, this requirement is also related to the practicality of gravity conversion equipment, which is the same research topic.
In a hurry, several years have passed. With the concerted efforts of the people, the first gravity conversion equipment that can be put on board and used has finally been successfully developed.
The "Gravity No. 1" spacecraft, equipped with the latest gravity enhancement and shielding facilities, has slowly left the dock at this moment.
Its size is about the same as that of an asteroid-class battleship, but it has no weapons or equipment, and almost no defense facilities. It is just a simple engineering test spacecraft.
Because the controllable quark fission device has not yet been successfully developed, it still uses nuclear fusion to supply energy.
Hundreds of scientists and engineers gathered on this spacecraft, closely watching every movement of every part of the spacecraft. At the experimental base, there are even more people monitoring the data sent back by each sensor.
It does not have the commonly used equipment to create gravity by rotating itself, so at this moment it has no gravity at all. All people are suspended in the cabin and rely on jet backpacks and handles to move.
"The first experiment of the ship-borne artificial gravity system begins!"
With the issuance of an order, the on-site commander solemnly pressed a button. Immediately, under the huge energy supply, a series of complex and huge facilities began to work at the same time.
The next moment, a force of gravity suddenly appeared, and the people who were originally suspended in the cabin, as well as various facilities, began to fall at an acceleration of 0.9 meters per second squared, until their feet really stepped on the floor.
This gravity was still slowly increasing, and it increased to 9.8 meters per second squared, which was basically the same as the gravity of the earth.
The scientists and engineers looked solemn, and they kept walking, running, jumping, and climbing in the cabin, feeling this gravity with their bodies.
Many instruments and equipment were also carrying out close measurements.
More than three hours later, the first experiment ended.
"The second experiment, start!"
This time, it was a gravity reduction experiment.
With the start of the equipment, people began to feel that their bodies were getting lighter and lighter, as if floating in the water. Until the gravity completely disappeared, people could jump directly to the ceiling with a light jump.
During this process, many scientific researchers carefully checked the working conditions of each component of the entire set of equipment until they confirmed that each part was working properly.
After that, it was the most important part of the experiment.
First, a part of gravity was still given to make everyone stand firmly on the ground, and then the Gravity No. 1 spacecraft began to accelerate slowly.
Acceleration is equivalent to gravity, that is, if a spacecraft accelerates at a speed of 9.8 meters per square second, then people in a closed room will not be able to tell whether they are on the earth or in the spacecraft.
But at this moment, the acceleration direction of the spacecraft is different from the direction of artificial gravity.
This requires that this artificial gravity system must be able to shield gravity in one direction at the same time and enhance gravity in another direction at the same time.
The two work in opposite mechanisms, but they must run harmoniously and synchronously. This undoubtedly puts higher requirements on technology.
At this moment, the acceleration of the spacecraft reached 4.5 meters per square second. So, people who were standing firmly on the ground felt a force from behind, just like the feeling of being pushed back when sitting in a car.
"Gravity shielding, start!"
In an instant, the "pushing back feeling" disappeared instantly. People were standing firmly on the ground again, as if standing still on the ground.
The acceleration is still increasing rapidly, and at this moment, it has even reached 700 meters per square second.
This is almost the highest acceleration that a Level 3 civilization warship can achieve. Because if this acceleration is exceeded, the life of a Level 3 civilization will die in a short time.
The body structures of intelligent life in different civilizations are inconsistent, and the corresponding accelerations they can bear are also different. However, the acceleration limit of a Level 3 civilization spacecraft has little to do with the body's ability to withstand pressure, but is related to biotechnology such as anti-gravity suits, anti-stress agents, and body supplements.
With the technological level of a Level 3 civilization, the biological agents that can be produced can only reach this level at most.
But at this moment, all the personnel in the Gravity No. 1 spacecraft did not take any biological agents or drugs that could enhance their ability to withstand pressure.
Among them, there were even elderly people with weak bodies.
But at this moment, no one felt any discomfort caused by being in a high-gravity field.
Everyone was standing firmly on the ground, bearing only about half the gravity of the earth. The gravity of more than 70 times that of the earth caused by the acceleration was completely shielded, and did not cause any impact on the interior of the spacecraft!
When this experiment was also a complete success, the entire test process was completed. Warm cheers and applause rang out again in the command center.
After the artificial gravity system achieved a major breakthrough, the controllable quark fission device also achieved a major breakthrough.
With the support of a more precise, efficient, smaller and more compact artificial gravity system, people created a quark fission device that can be precisely controlled and output energy smoothly for the first time in the fission laboratory.
The first quark fission device was large in size and mass, and it was not yet capable of being equipped on a spacecraft. But it doesn't matter, it will continue to be optimized later.
Han Yang invested his computing power in another more important field.
Superluminal navigation technology.
Among the several iconic technologies of the fourth-level civilization, the one that Han Yang valued most and was also the most important was superluminal navigation technology.
The significance of this technology is so great that it cannot be overstated.
Superluminal travel is a technology that many generations of human scientists have dreamed of and pursued tirelessly, but they have failed again and again. I don’t know how many people have spent their entire lives and energy without making any breakthroughs...
At this moment, after mastering the M theory and achieving a certain degree of controllable quark fission, gravitational shielding and enhancement technology for practical application at the engineering level, human civilization finally has the qualifications to launch an impact on this epoch-making technology.
Now Han Yang has clearly known that the technical key to superluminal travel lies in the influence of gravitational control technology on space.
That is, superluminal travel does not violate the theory of relativity and the deeper M theory. Because it is the movement of space, not the movement of matter.
This phenomenon of space movement achieving superluminal speed exists in many places in the universe. One of the most typical examples is the Big Bang.
Even at this moment, the universe is still expanding at a speed faster than the speed of light.
There is a very important concept in the theory of cosmic inflation, redshift.
Redshift is the speed at which distant stars move away from the earth. Through observation, people have confirmed that the farther away a star is from the earth, the faster it moves away from the earth.
There is a corresponding relationship between distance and speed of moving away, which leads to another constant, the Hubble constant.
By measuring redshift, people can even confirm the distance between distant stars and the earth.
Then there is a question, since the farther away a star is from the earth, the faster it moves away from the earth, is there a distance beyond which the speed of the star moving away from the earth is so fast that it even exceeds the speed of light, causing the light emitted by the star to never reach the earth?
The answer is that this distance exists. Its length is about 46.5 billion light years.
The universe with a radius of 46.5 billion light years is named the observable universe. The universe beyond this distance is named the unobservable universe.
The speed of light is the highest speed of conventional motion. Beyond this distance, the information of the universe will never reach the earth, and it is of course unobservable.
Unless you use superluminal navigation technology to get there, no civilization can know what exactly exists in the unobservable universe.
After clarifying the principle of superluminal navigation technology, which is to achieve the influence on space through gravity control technology, the test site for superluminal navigation is very clear.
The answer is far away from any massive star.
Because if it is located in the gravitational field of a massive star, the gravity of the star will affect the curvature of space, causing the curvature of space to fail to meet the requirements for superluminal navigation, and even form disorder, resulting in abnormal curvature of space.
If the curvature of space is abnormal, it is not a trivial matter. It may even cause the hull to distort, the energy of the equipment to overload, and it may cause the spacecraft to explode directly, and the ship will be destroyed and people will die.
Through calculations, Han Yang confirmed that for a star with the mass of the sun, with the current technology, the maximum distance for superluminal navigation is 1 trillion kilometers away.
Of course, in order to be safe, this distance should be farther, preferably 2 trillion kilometers.
In the future, when technology is advanced and the control of space curvature is more precise and stable, this distance can be shortened.
So, in the distant space 2 trillion kilometers away from the sun, far away from any massive stars, and in an environment where there is no star with a mass greater than Ceres within almost 1 trillion kilometers, a huge space experimental base was quickly built.
In this base, people first tested the operation of high-intensity gravity enhancement facilities, and then tested the space curvature controller, high-power nuclear fusion power station cluster and a series of other facilities.
Originally, the energy-intensive technology of superluminal navigation required the support of quark fission technology. However, quark fission technology is not yet mature, and it can only be replaced by nuclear fusion power station clusters.
A total of 120,000 engineers, scientists, project managers and logistics personnel work in this huge base. Even Han Yang has invested up to 16% of the computing power to participate in the construction of this base and subsequent experiments.
After a few years, all the preparatory work in the early stage was finally completed.
In a huge factory building covering an area of more than 10,000 square meters, a long pipeline runs through both sides of the factory building. In this pipeline, a small metal ball is quietly suspended.
With the activation of many huge devices, the small metal ball instantly entered a state invisible to the naked eye and disappeared from the observation equipment.
At the same time, a laser was also emitted and fired to the other side of the pipe.
However, before this laser beam was received by the receiver on the other side of the pipe, the small ball suddenly appeared on the other side of the pipe.
It arrived at the destination faster than the laser beam!
Superluminal navigation has truly become a reality at this moment!
The command center was instantly filled with warm applause and cheers.
Subsequent studies have shown that under the precise control of the gravity control device, a "space bubble" is instantly generated around the small ball. This space bubble "suspends" in three-dimensional space, and with the help of the movement of space, it completes superluminal movement without any momentum.
Although the superluminal navigation at this moment is completed with the joint efforts of many super-large devices, and is located outside the small ball, not inside the small ball, and does not have the ability to be practical on the spacecraft, but, it is still the same sentence, it is nothing more than subsequent optimization.
After completing the breakthrough from zero to one, then, from one to one hundred, or even ten thousand, it is not far away.
At this point, Han Yang can finally say that sentence in a down-to-earth manner.
Whether from the basic theoretical level or the iconic technical level, human civilization is already a real, true fourth-level civilization without any falsehood. (End of this chapter)