Super Copy of Great Power Technology

That evening, the news that the controlled nuclear fusion experimental reactor developed and built by Ruida New Energy Company successfully ignited and ran stably for 300 seconds, achieving positive power output and breaking the world record appeared on CCTV's news program and was seen by a large number of people. Some netizens then cut it out and forwarded it online, attracting more attention and comments.

"What kind of company is Ruida New Energy? Why haven't I heard of it before?"

"This company is called Ruida XX. It should be affiliated with Ruida Group, which is the business of the richest man Qiao Ruida."

"I was wondering which private enterprise was willing to invest tens of billions to develop controlled nuclear fusion. It turned out to be the enterprise of the richest man, Qiao Ruida. That's no problem. Mr. Qiao is wealthy and talented. He invested a lot of manpower and material resources to develop future technology such as controlled nuclear fusion, which fits his personality as a technology fanatic."

"Can anyone give me some scientific knowledge about the success of nuclear fusion ignition and stable operation for 300 seconds? How far is it from stable power generation?"

"Before this ignition test by Ruida New Energy, the world record for successful ignition and stable operation of controlled nuclear fusion experimental devices was 103 seconds, created by the European Joint Toroidal Reactor (JET). No one has achieved positive power output. Therefore, the performance of the fusion experimental reactor built by Ruida New Energy is absolutely the best in the world, leading its domestic and foreign counterparts by at least 20 years."

"RuiDa New Energy is indeed good at controlled nuclear fusion technology, otherwise it would not have been able to break the world record. However, 300 seconds of stable operation time is still too short, and there is still a long way to go before long-term high-power stable power generation."

"Didn't they say that controlled nuclear fusion power generation will take fifty years? From what you see, it looks like it will be realized in a few years."

“When controlled nuclear fusion power generation is realized, will the price of electricity be significantly reduced, even lower than the cost of hydropower generation?”

"Of course. After fusion power plants are built and generate electricity on a large scale, electricity prices can be reduced by at least 80%. A few cents per kilowatt-hour is no longer a dream. By then, energy freedom can be achieved, and the prices of many products can be greatly reduced. The cost of using electric vehicles will be greatly reduced, and it is just around the corner for them to completely replace fuel vehicles."

"After a large number of controlled nuclear fusion power plants are built and put into use, they will replace a large number of coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants, reduce resource consumption, reduce air pollution, and curb global warming. There are many benefits."

"I really hope that Ruida New Energy Company will continue to work hard to achieve long-term stable operation of the fusion test reactor as soon as possible, so that hundreds of millions of Chinese people can use cheap fusion nuclear power."

As if the voices of the majority of netizens were heard, in the next half month, Ruida New Energy Company conducted seven more fusion reactor ignition tests, and the stable operation time became longer and longer, from 300 seconds to minutes, half an hour, and one hour. In the last test, the fusion reactor ran stably for a full six hours. While the stable operation time continued to increase, the output power was also increasing, from kilowatts, kilowatts, to kilowatts. In the last test, it reached kilowatts, which is about the same as a small hydropower station, and is more than enough to supply the entire Ruida Space City with electricity.

The eight consecutive controlled nuclear fusion ignition tests showed that the stable operation time was visibly increasing, and the output power was also increasing. After the relevant test reports and videos were released, they caused a stir on the entire network, and countless netizens were looking forward to the arrival of the era of energy freedom. However, things did not go as planned. After the eighth ignition test, the fusion test reactor of Ruida New Energy Company died down and disappeared. For several weeks, no new ignition test information was released. Some anxious netizens went to the official Weibo of Ruida New Energy Company and left a message asking why the controlled nuclear fusion test was stopped.

The official Weibo account also responded quickly, "After multiple ignition tests, it has been proven that our controlled nuclear fusion experimental reactor has met the requirements for long-term stable operation of fusion and has reached the design standards, so there is no need to continue testing. In addition, the deuterium and tritium gases purchased by our company for fusion fuel have been used up. If we want to continue testing, we have to buy more deuterium and tritium gases. Deuterium gas can be directly extracted from seawater, and the price is relatively cheap, so it is very convenient to purchase. Tritium gas is currently mainly produced by heavy water nuclear fission reactors, with very low output and high price, so it is not easy to purchase."

"For the above reasons, we plan to use a new fuel, helium-3, for our second-stage controlled fusion test. Helium- fusion is considered to be one of the important candidates for future clean energy due to its high energy output, no neutron production, no radioactivity, and easy control. It is especially suitable for space exploration and long-term energy supply. The only drawback is that the content of helium- on Earth is very low and almost impossible to mine. In contrast, the surface of the moon has been blown by solar wind for a long time, and the lunar soil contains a large amount of helium- atoms, which is an ideal place to collect helium- fuel. It just so happens that our sister company, Ruida Aerospace, is promoting a manned lunar landing project. The technology for extracting helium- from lunar soil has also been successfully developed and tested by an unmanned lunar probe. Next, we have to wait patiently for the manned spacecraft to successfully land on the moon and bring back the helium- gas needed for fusion testing."

After reading this long reply on Weibo, all netizens suddenly realized.

"It turns out that the deuterium and tritium fuel has run out and there is no place to buy it, so the fusion reactor ignition test was stopped."

"Aren't there tritium self-sustaining devices in fusion test reactors? Why is there still a problem of insufficient tritium gas?"

"The tritium self-sustaining device uses high-energy neutrons produced by fusion reactions to collide with lithium atoms to produce tritium atoms, thereby achieving tritium self-sustaining or even tritium appreciation. However, these are theoretical data. It is very difficult to achieve 100% tritium self-sustaining in actual engineering implementation, let alone tritium appreciation." "I was wondering why Ruida Aerospace was in a hurry to invest huge amounts of money in manned space flight, which is a waste of money and a thankless task. It turns out that they wanted to go to the moon to collect helium- for controlled nuclear fusion."

"It would take at least tens of billions of dollars to develop a controlled nuclear fusion test reactor, and it would take no less to carry out a manned lunar landing. Ruida Group has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in research and development in just one year. They are really wealthy."

"I found that our richest man Qiao really made a good move. He first established Ruida Automobile Company to develop and produce electric vehicles. Then he invested in the research and development of controlled nuclear fusion to reduce electricity prices, reduce the cost of using electric vehicles, and increase market share. At the same time, Ruida Aerospace was established to invest in manned lunar landings to collect helium-3 on the moon to provide fuel for fusion reactors. If the entire industrial chain is opened up, Ruida Group can span the three fields of aerospace, power generation, and automobiles, develop in a coordinated manner, occupy a large market, and even achieve monopoly in some fields."

"Some time ago, there was a news report saying that Ruida Aerospace and the National Manned Spaceflight Office were cooperating to explore the moon. Could it be that they were going to the moon to collect helium-3?"

"There are many minerals on the moon, including iron ore, titanium ore, rare earth ore, etc., not just helium-3."

"Since the resources on the moon are so rich, why didn't the United States continue to develop them after it achieved manned lunar landing last century, but instead stopped lunar exploration?"

"It was a different time. In the last century, the level of science and technology was relatively low. Manned lunar landing required the efforts of the entire country and was very costly. What we got from the moon was only a small amount of lunar rock and lunar soil samples, which were only of research value when brought back to Earth. The effort and reward were not proportional, and the loss outweighed the gain, so it was naturally impossible to continue. Now, half a century has passed, and science and technology have made great progress. The cost of manned lunar landing can be greatly reduced. Lunar minerals, especially helium-3, have more important uses. As long as they are collected in large quantities and transported back to Earth, the profit can be several times that of the original. Naturally, major companies and organizations are flocking to them."

……

No matter how lively the online discussions are, Qiao Ruida rarely pays attention to them. He has been staying in Ruida Space City recently to promote the production progress of the commercial space station and the test flight progress of the lunar exploration version of the space shuttle. The energy module, experimental module, and living module of the commercial space station have been produced and will be launched on the Star Rocket carrier rocket. The planting module, sightseeing module, and guest room module have been designed and are in the intense production process. It is expected that all of them will be completed before the end of the year, launched into space, and assembled into a complete test version of the commercial space station in low-Earth orbit. After the space station is fully built, its volume will be more than 30% larger than the International Space Station. It can meet the long-term stationing needs of six astronauts and can receive more than space tourists in a short period of time, becoming the largest space creation built by humans.

It is worth mentioning that the researchers of Ruida Aerospace have developed a gravity generator based on the anti-gravity engine. It can create 0.5 times, 1 times, and 2 times the gravity in a gravity-free space environment. This gravity generator has been installed in the three space station modules that have been manufactured. As long as there is sufficient power supply, the same gravity as the surface of the earth can be generated in the space station modules. In this way, astronauts work and live in the space station, just like on the ground. This move can greatly improve the work efficiency of astronauts, solve a variety of diseases caused by long-term weightlessness, and effectively extend the astronauts' time in orbit.

Unfortunately, this gravity generator is a bit large and consumes a lot of energy, so it cannot be installed on aerospace planes. Of course, this gravity generator can also be used on Earth to create zero-gravity space for training astronauts, or to create gravity chambers for physical exercise and to improve pilots' ability to resist overload, which are all good application directions.

On July 20, the sky was clear and sunny near Ruida Space City, which was a perfect day for space activities. At 8:00 a.m., the energy warehouse, one of the core modules of the space station, was launched on the Xingjian super-heavy carrier rocket. The launch was broadcast live in the official live broadcast room of Ruida Space, attracting nearly 20 million netizens around the world to watch, which was very lively.

After the successful development of the Star Rocket launch vehicle, it has gone through dozens of launches, achieving a 100% launch success rate and a 95% recovery success rate. The mission of transporting the energy capsule to low-Earth orbit is close to the capacity limit of the Star Rocket. If the energy capsule is heavier or larger, the Star Rocket may not be able to be recovered due to insufficient fuel. Fortunately, the energy capsule was strictly limited in weight at the beginning of its design, so no accidents occurred.

The entire rocket launch process was smooth and without any accidents. After more than ten minutes, the energy capsule successfully entered a low-Earth circular orbit 450 kilometers from the ground, and the mission was perfectly completed. A few minutes later, the recovery of the first and second stage rockets was also successfully completed. So far, today's rocket launch mission has been a complete success.

In the following days, the Star Rocket was launched twice, sending the experimental module and the living module into low-Earth orbit. In the next two days, under the remote control of the ground control center, the three modules carried out a series of orbit adjustments and flight attitude adjustments, and finally completed the rendezvous and docking in a unified orbit of 450 kilometers, forming the primary three-module configuration of the commercial space station.

The next day, Ruida Aerospace dispatched three astronauts on the Xuannv space shuttle into space, docked with the space station, and delivered a large amount of equipment and supplies. After the three astronauts entered the space station, they carried out post-construction work, including connecting lines and pipelines, installing and debugging equipment, and conducting some simple on-orbit experiments.

A month later, three more modules were launched into space one after another. Then came a larger-scale rendezvous and docking, with the six modules perfectly combined to form the complete form of the test version of the space station. In the following days, there were one to several flights of space shuttles carrying various cargoes from Ruida Aerospace City to the space station every day. Every day, at least a dozen astronauts were busy sorting cargo, installing equipment, and conducting various space experiments in the space station. Ruida Aerospace Company was established not long ago, lacked foundation, and had a limited number of astronauts. Sometimes there was too much work inside the space station, and the number of astronauts was not enough, so some ordinary engineers or experts would be sent into space to complete the installation and debugging of equipment. Because there is artificial gravity inside the space station, the gas composition is exactly the same as that on the ground, and some untrained engineers and experts can quickly adapt to work in the space station.

At the same time, Ruida Aerospace's space tourism project was officially launched and accepted registration from tourists. There are two space tourism routes given on the official website. One is to take a passenger version of the space shuttle, enter space, circle the earth twice and then return. The whole journey takes about five hours and costs 99999 yuan. The other is to take a space shuttle into space, dock with the commercial space station, and enter the guest cabin of the space station. (End of this chapter)