Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 888 Discussion
Indeed, in the second half of the 20th century, NASA proposed the concept of "nuclear rocket", which is nothing more than "using the reactor to directly heat the propellant" and "push out the reacted spent fuel as propellant after ionization".

It's just that this set has never had any chance of application.

Mainly...

Pollution is horrible.

Spent fuel is a deadly thing.Unlike most radioactive elements that react instantly after a nuclear explosion and are clean, spent fuel can really be poisonous for thousands of years.

Even if it wasn't the direct discharge of spent fuel, but the discharge of propellant directly through the reactor, it would be scary enough.

But if the propellant is not directly heated by the reactor, but indirectly heated, the thrust-to-weight ratio of the reactor has no advantage compared with the chemical energy rocket.

But this is not a problem for "Ogun" at all.

This alien spacecraft has been navigating in deep space. The distance between two stars is several light years, and no one would report that its radiation emissions exceeded the standard.

In fact, the initial application scenario of nuclear rockets was "launching outside the earth".On the Moon or on a space station far from Earth.

The astronauts of that era were quite blindly optimistic about the future of mankind.They feel that human beings are only a short distance away from going to space, so even "rockets that can only be used in space" are conceived.

After Xiang Shan thought for a while, he pondered: "Then can we trace the origin of 'Ogun' based on these high-radiation wakes? If it really used spent fuel as propellant."

After thinking about it carefully, Xiang Shan felt that this might really work.Most of the spent fuel is a radioactive element with a relatively large mass, and it does have a good effect if it is ejected.

David continued to sip Coke: "Not necessarily, maybe people just threw it away. Besides, even if people really use this thing as a propellant, I can only say that you have a good idea. The radiation of the propellant Even the most precise astronomical telescope of mankind cannot see the dose."

When talking about the "earth environment", spent fuel propellant is "a thing with a terrible amount of radiation".But when it comes to talking about the "universe," radiation from spent fuel is nothing.

The universe is simply too big.

"That's another small problem." Xiang Shan continued to think: "Why did they cast uranium-235 and other things into a whole?"

"Save it."

"I know we need to preserve it, but..." Xiang Yamate gestured twice, "As far as the preservation methods on our earth are concerned, right, whether it's mixed with ceramics or mixed with other alloys..."

David said: "I have to correct it. Although the specific identification results have not yet come out, judging from the amount of radiation, the treasures we found are ordinary enriched uranium, which cannot be highly enriched. They must have been mixed with other things. .And judging by the volume, the purity will not be very high, otherwise the radiation would be more than that..."

Xiang Shan looked up the formula, did some mental calculations, and nodded: "That's right...so, why do you want to make it into a whole piece? Isn't it good to store it in batches? Make it such a large piece, and accidentally exceed the critical value." What about the volume?"

"Not necessarily?" David said: "If I guess, it will be detected in the end. The distribution of elements in that large stone is very uneven, and the uranium is enriched into clusters. Then the uranium block and the uranium block Space is a neutron-absorbing material, like graphite or lead."

"Then, the difference in strength and toughness between the neutron absorbing material and the enriched uranium block is so large that aliens can easily separate it by some means. Perhaps in our concept, this is a whole rock-like thing, But from the perspective of aliens, this may be the fuel block buried in the sand of neutron absorbing material."

"Then why not just use sand? Or a mount or something."

David shrugged: "I don't know either. Perhaps some kind of processing technology of the aliens can easily separate the fuel blocks, so their ideas on this issue are obviously different from ours on Earth, and it is possible that they simply It's a cultural difference, a cognitive difference."

Xiang Shan murmured: "Well... Speaking of which, you think Ogun should not have the function of carrying people, right?"

David nodded: "If it is a technology similar to that of the earth, the size of the core of 'Ogun' cannot accommodate a complete sanitation system, unless those aliens are much smaller than humans—not monkeys, but rats." However, you also know, right, that if it is too much smaller than a human, the number of nerve cells that can be integrated in the brain is very limited...or "tissue similar to nerve tissue"? In short, the basic unit of the thinking organ is over If there is less, it will be difficult to form a complex structure. If the structure is too simple, it will limit the development of intelligence."

Xiang Shan said: "But I think that 'ingenious structure' should be greater than 'absolute number of neurons', right—what about hibernation?"

"Are you kidding? Ogun's builders have the same level of technology as humans. Even if their spaceships come from Proxima Centauri, it would take hundreds of thousands of years. Even if this alien is naturally good at suspended animation and hibernation, they It is also impossible to spend thousands of times longer than their normal life cycle in a state of suspended animation. If it is assisted by machines, they will not be able to create a hibernation device that can last thousands of years."

"In other words, those fuel block reserves are basically used by machines?"

Since there is no one in "Ogun", there must be something that can manipulate and use resources including fuel blocks.

Then it must be a robot.

"If you can't make a hibernation device that can last thousands of years, then you can't make a robot that can last thousands of years, which means they must be updated." Xiang Shan thought deeply: "One generation of robots continues to manufacture the next generation. And repeat all the way to Earth."

David nodded: "Hmm, that's probably true. But if you say that... a person carries a small amount of supplies, and then comes out of the dormant cabin every 100 years for a period of rehabilitation training, feeding the dormant cabin Go back to sleep after updating a wave of parts... no, that area is still too small."

Xiang Shan pondered: "That is to say, such a small place can definitely accommodate a complete production equipment... But there is still a problem, how to store the technical data for the production of those parts? The deterioration of the hard disk is still very fatal. Relying on continuous renovation Storage device? What kind of material recycling technology can this thing develop? Also, it can guarantee that there will be no deterioration after countless copies..."

Xiang Shan couldn't understand this question.

Of course, the answer soon appeared in front of him in an unexpected and reasonable form.

Humans have found many... crystalline plates of carbon wrapped in copper alloys within the core layers of Ogun.

(End of this chapter)