Chapter 260 Starland Project
Large mass objects can easily condense into a sphere due to gravity, which is a planet.
However, when the mass of a planet reaches a critical value, it will become a gas planet, because the huge gravity will compress the planet itself, and the lighter elements will reach the surface of the planet to become a thick atmosphere because the atmospheric pressure created by gravity is not enough to condense them into a solid state, thus forming a high-density metal core and a gaseous shell.
Yan Xia initially imagined that he could create a huge planet, which exceeded the limit of theoretical rocky planets and even had a mass of one-tenth of a star.
Every science fiction fan should have similar ideas, magnifying the living planet by several times, and the land is vast and boundless.
However, after Ella's calculations, this plan was ruthlessly thrown into the trash can.
To counter the huge gravity of the planet's material, it would take too much energy, which is completely not worth the loss, and it is impossible to achieve at this stage.
It is likely that only a level 3 civilization has the leisure to create such a giant super planet.
Therefore, the structure of the star city is still a bit particular. If the star city is spread out as a whole, the mass can be evenly distributed, so that the gravity of the star city itself can be balanced with very little resistance.
"So let's build a piece of land." Yan Xia drew a design drawing himself.
The design drawing is a three-dimensional figure, with Rigel in the center and a land about the same size as Rigel next to it.
The entire land is directly below Rigel in the design drawing, that is, standing on the land, there are stars right above your head, and around the land is the ocean. The edge of the ocean is sealed with dams. These dams are opened not to release water, but to make water into clouds and transport it to the land through the wind.
"Isn't this the ancient Chinese round sky and square earth?" Ella felt a little speechless after seeing the drawings.
"It feels a bit wasteful."
"How many star cities can be built with the resources used to build land?"
Yan Xia thought it was feasible.
"The materials of the Olive Branch Civilization inspired me. Can we also develop similar material molecules, with the main components being silicon and carbon, so that we can quickly build a piece of cosmic land."
Yan Xia called it "Star Land".
The Star Continent itself is not a simple piece of earth, but a giant gravitational energy device.
In recent years, the Federation has developed a new gravitational energy technology "gravitational piston" based on the gravitational energy technology provided by the Federation.
The principle of the gravitational piston is actually very simple, which is to use gravity instead of fuel to continuously make the piston work and generate electricity.
In order to allow the piston to be affected by the gravitational force of the star, the size of the piston is 300 kilometers. The mechanical energy generated by the huge piston is continuously divided into smaller units through the meshing of gears, and then distributed to millions of small machines to generate electricity.
Although this model still makes very little use of gravity, it is low-cost, does not use any advanced materials, and even the energy consumed in the process accounts for less than 1% of the energy generated. This looks more crude than other gravitational energy technologies that have been studied for a long time, but the power generation is slightly better. High technology is completely defeated in terms of gravitational energy.
Of course, it is not all for these.
The gravitational piston can be used as a gravitational standard and measurement to improve the system of the Gravitational Energy Development Bureau after the Star Continent.
Rigel's main job is to study how to collapse Betelgeuse into a black hole, and then develop the technology to convert gravity into electrical energy.
Gravitons have been discovered. The Federation also has the technology to convert closed strings into open strings at the Planck scale, but it consumes too much energy.
Gravity is different from strong and weak forces. Strong and weak forces are the forces that maintain atoms and quarks. Nuclear fusion and nuclear fission can be said to be the application of these two forces, but the physical properties of gravitons are completely different from the first three forces, and the energy used for mutual conversion is also more. It is 100 times more difficult to complete the direct conversion of gravity and electromagnetic force than to study nuclear fusion in the 20th century.
The Olive Branch Civilization may have mastered such technology, otherwise the energy obtained by purely using gravitational mechanical power generation is a drop in the bucket, and it is simply not enough to maintain the operation of a behemoth like Star City, and it is not even enough to consume tens of trillions of lives on it.
Yan Xia wants to overcome this difficulty later, so the solution of using black holes as gravitational energy can also be realized.
"The Starland Project requires plundering all the resources of dozens of surrounding stars and deep space to complete, and it seems to take a long time."
Ella is actually not very interested in this plan. Wouldn't it be better to build some small gravitational pistons on the Dyson cloud, which can utilize both light and heat energy and gravitational energy?
"The era of giants will definitely come. The Federation lacks the technology to build giants. This can also be regarded as a technological accumulation." Yan Xia said.
"..."
Ella doesn't believe this nonsense.
This technology has no gold content. It can be accumulated in the simulated universe. Is it necessary to accumulate it in reality?
Ella thinks that Yan Xia just likes to build a piece of land in the starry sky, just like some people like Lego toys, the pleasure of building, the happiness of men.
Fortunately, Yan Xia has not failed to consider the reality.
"The Starland Project mainly provides a space for gravitational research. If you want to study the gravity of stars, you can only observe it, but in fact, we can modify the form of Starland at will and obtain the specific gravitational data of Starland through experiments."
"The things that can be simulated in the simulated universe are actually things we know, and the simulation of unknown things is ultimately biased. These data are very important to us."
The manufacture of giant ships must take into account gravity-related issues. The structure and strength of the materials need to be carefully designed to prevent the giant ships from being compressed into a planet.
Starland itself, as a huge and adjustable source of gravity, has a certain value, which cannot be replaced by anything else.
"At the same time, Starland can actually be used as a material reserve, just like Star City. The entire Star City is a spaceship and can be used directly."
"And we need to call on a large number of resources and need to mine them, which is very troublesome. In the process of making Starland, we can develop and collect all the surrounding materials and mobilize them in a unified manner. This can also be regarded as one of the by-products."
Any major event may affect all aspects. If a big plan like Starland loses more than one thing, then of course there will be more than one thing to gain.
Ella nodded, but seeing the smile on Yan Xia's lips, it still knew that the biggest idea in this guy's heart was still to build a giant continent.
Really... man!
Fortunately, this plan itself does not waste resources, so Ella reluctantly accepted it.
The Starland plan started in the sixth year after they arrived at Rigel 7, and something finally happened in Star City.