Son of the Stars

Chapter 209 Relaxation
Saving the world has never been an easy task. Even the protagonist of a fictional literary work needs to spend tens of millions of words to fill the writer's stomach and save the world at the same time.

But Zheng Yan only had a few hours left. Considering the time it takes to go back and forth to Earth, as well as the intense situation on Earth, it was impossible for them to pick up the microphone and call for help from Earth.

There is no savior, you have to rely on yourself for everything.

"The situation is exactly as the AI ​​said." After briefly summarizing the "intelligence" at hand, Zheng Yan sighed. Although the AI's words were a bit harsh, every word he said was true - a group of people, relying on the assets that the coalition government almost sold their underwear to get to Mars. In the end, there was not even a chance to put it to use. Zheng Yan sighed. In just a few minutes, she sighed to the point that she felt it was not appropriate, but Zheng Yan didn't know what else to do to relieve her frustration.

She was also sad about the deaths of her two colleagues, but compared to their deaths, Zheng Yan hoped in her heart that the two colleagues could die a little further away from the fusion reactor.

Now there is only one fusion reactor left, and it is impossible to complete the mission of saving mankind.

"How far is Dawn-6 from orbit? Can we speed up the orbit change and send down the fusion reactor on board through the escape capsule?" As the commander of the space mission, Zheng Yan can think of most of the solutions based on her professional knowledge. "Recalculating the orbit" should be feasible in theory - although it would consume a lot of fuel, directly shorten the mission time and even make the orbital capsule unable to maintain altitude and crash directly. But it is indeed a feasible solution.

"Not enough time. They are too close - it takes time to slow down." Field, who was squatting next to the computer center, gave a negative answer. "Even if they can accept the outcome of being thrown out of the solar system, it will take two days for Dawn 6 to arrive even if it accelerates at full speed from now on."

The way to get another fusion reactor was blocked. Zheng Yan thought for a while and asked, "Can we use the moored space station as a platform to re-accelerate or launch accelerated electrons to the earth?"

"The coalition government is still in the Durkheim dilemma, and the aerospace department is basically in a state of dysfunction." Stephen shook his head. He used to work in the aerospace planning department and had a better understanding of the situation in this regard. "The Durkheim target time of the Space Administration is 36 hours. Ideally, it will take at least 24 hours to resume operations. Even if they can launch a fusion reactor or something else into orbit as soon as they resume work, they will not be able to make it in time."

Jin Yuzhe raised his head, as if he wanted to join the conversation, but as an expert in chemistry, he was of no use here.

If this happened at Chung-Ang University or Northeast Asia University, it would lead to at least twenty jokes mocking chemists for being of no use to the world.

"Can the energy core in our landing module be used for the mission?" Zheng Yan proposed a plan again. "The power output level of the landing module is also very high. Can it be used here?"

Jin Yuzhe was immediately excited when he heard this. "Oh my god, that won't work. In order to back up power during the cruise phase, the landing module consumes all the energy stored in advance - metal hydrogen - generated by fuel cells. Although the power generation capacity is specifically emphasized, the power generation capacity of the entire system is only 5 megawatts..." Jin Yuzhe's excited voice became smaller and smaller, and his tone became lower and lower, "...Even if all are connected to the system, the power generation capacity is not enough."

"Okay, thank you for your explanation." Zheng Yan sighed again, "What about using other alternative energy sources? I remember that there is a Mars geothermal power generation in our landing experiment project. Can that power station be put into use?"

"That project is in the charge of Silva and Ruan Hongying." Field shook his head sadly. "Although we can let the construction AI robot give it a try, I don't think such a facility can catch up on time. Moreover, it is also an experimental power generation device, and the power may not be enough."

Zheng Yan's body swayed slightly. She supported herself on the control panel in front of her, closed her eyes and remained silent for a few seconds, then continued to put forward her ideas, "We have eight more Dawn ships in synchronous orbit, each of which can generate 5 megawatts of electricity, and together they can generate 40 megawatts."

"Let alone how to achieve such a large amount of wireless power transmission in space, it is an impossible task to bring these orbiting Dawn together within the specified time." The figure of Wu Hou suddenly appeared on the screen that originally displayed the landing inclination of the landing module. He nodded at Zheng Yan and said, "But your idea is very good, continue."

Zheng Yan looked at Wu Hou coldly. After a while, she suddenly asked Wu Hou, "What do you think?"

"I'm just a tactical AI..." Wu Hou shook his fan and said, "In order to survive, I chose to project myself onto Mars."

"Then you are dead now." Zheng Yan did not respond, but exerted pressure on Wu Hou, "If you don't want to die, then play a role."

Wu Hou was silent for a while and then said, "I don't have any evidence or theory, but my intuition tells me that you can come up with a solution."

"Intuition? You, an AI, still have intuition?" Zheng Yan snorted coldly, "Your intuition..." She suddenly stopped mocking Wu Hou, frowned and began to quickly search for data on the screen in front of her.

"My computing core is the human brain, and the human brain is very good at capturing the vague connections between things beyond strict and precise calculations." Wu Hou explained, "My calculation results show that you have the possibility of success, but I am not sure how you can succeed."

Zheng Yan stopped what she was doing. She didn't continue to talk to Wu Hou, but asked Stephen, "Is there something wrong with this data? I see that the theoretical output power of the fusion reactor is one thousand megawatts. Isn't this power enough?"

"That's the theoretical power of fusing deuterium and tritium." Stephen explained. "The design fuel of the fusion reactor is all elements lighter than iron. The fuel on the surface of Mars is mainly silicon and calcium. The energy released by these two substances during fusion is much weaker - that's why there is a difference between the theoretical power of 1,000 megawatts and the actual power of 500 megawatts."

"That is to say, if the fuel for nuclear fusion is hydrogen, one fusion reactor can replace two." Zheng Yan was overjoyed. "Doesn't this solve the problem? We have several hundred kilograms of metallic hydrogen, which should be able to react for a while, right?"

Stephen Field and Jin Yuzhe's expressions became visibly excited. They had never really considered replacing the fuel to increase the power of the fusion reactor.

However, their excited expressions did not last for a few seconds, and Wu Hou's cold water directly hit the corners of their mouths again.

"Even if we use hydrogen as fuel to ignite the fusion furnace, we can't achieve continuous output. The fusion furnace will be forced to stop when releasing fusion products." Wu Hou waved the feather fan in his hand, pointed at the control panel in front of Zheng Yan and said, "Using hydrogen will make the process of releasing products more frequent and the interval time will be shorter. Although releasing helium takes less time, this problem cannot be solved."

Field suddenly stood up, but he stood up for a few seconds and then sat back down without saying a word.

"If you have something to say, just say it." Stephen secretly kicked Field. "It's already this late, just say whatever you think."

"...There is a way to solve it. As long as there is an energy storage device that can release electricity in a short period of time when the fusion reactor releases byproducts, it can make up for the energy release space." Field said after a long period of inner struggle, "Tear down the landing module and use the buffer capacitor group of the fuel cell station. The design department has left a lot of buffer redundancy for the capacitor. With the boost plate, it can achieve an output voltage of 10,000 volts... 48,000 farads of capacitors are enough."

Zheng Yan did not respond directly. She thought for a moment and asked, "The price is that the forward base will be completely disabled?"

Field nodded.

"Including life support?"

Field nodded again.

"The personal pressure suits and the Mars rover can only last for 48 hours at most. We can't last until Dawn 6 lands, right?"

Field forced out a smile that was uglier than crying.

"Yes."

Zheng Yan nodded easily, "Then this is not a difficult problem - as long as the problem can be solved."

(End of this chapter)