Bright Sword starts with the grenade flat.

Chapter 385 Superconducting Ore Strategic Resources
After hearing what this person said, Liu Xiu replied:

"In fact, I have already explored the human civilization of this alien planet. The reason why they can travel several light years to the Proxima Galaxy is mainly because they have mastered antimatter technology. They use antimatter as the kinetic energy source of their spacecraft, and their speed can reach 70% of the speed of light. Apart from this, their other technologies are similar to ours. However, once they have superconducting minerals, their technology will make a qualitative leap. I believe you should also understand the importance of superconductors in our technological system."

Naturally, everyone nodded in agreement with Liu Xiu's words. After all, in real life, superconductors are of great significance wherever electricity is used. When superconductors achieve room-temperature superconductivity, their applications will penetrate into all aspects of life.

First, superconductors are materials that have the property of zero electrical resistance, a property that would greatly advance the use of existing electronic technology.

The electronic technology used in daily applications is based on circuits with resistors. Since the power consumption generated by resistors is extremely huge, humans have invested countless resources to solve the heat dissipation problem. However, if computers become superconducting computers, these problems can be solved. Imagine that your computer has no resistors, no longer needs heat dissipation, and can be lighter and thinner. Integrated circuits using superconducting transistors can directly increase the speed of computers by dozens or hundreds of times; the efficiency of electricity use is higher, and the power consumption at home is directly reduced, the light bulbs are brighter, electric cars run faster, and the use of electrical appliances becomes more convenient. More sophisticated electrical components can also be used in our lives.

The next step is to use superconductors in power generation. Superconducting generators refer to devices that use superconductors to generate electricity. There are two types of superconducting generators.

The first is to replace the copper winding of ordinary generators with superconductor windings to increase the current density and magnetic field strength, which has the advantages of large power generation capacity, small size, light weight, small reactance and high efficiency. This technology can be applied to large power plants such as hydropower plants, thermal power plants, etc., and can also be applied to small household generators such as portable solar generators, sports energy generators, etc.

The second type refers to superconducting magnetohydrodynamic generators. Superconducting magnetohydrodynamic generators have the advantages of high efficiency and large power generation capacity, but traditional magnets will produce large losses during the power generation process, while superconducting magnets have low losses themselves, which can make up for this deficiency. This technology can be applied to aerospace, military and other fields, as well as medical, industrial and other fields.

After superconducting power generation, the natural next step is to use superconducting materials to transmit electrical energy.

When both wires and transformers are made of superconducting materials, they can deliver electricity to users with almost no losses. By comparison, when copper or aluminum wires are used to transmit electricity, about 15 percent of the energy is lost along the transmission line, and even more over distance.

Of course, in addition to power generation and transmission, superconductors also have a wide range of applications in medicine. For example, a superconducting magnetic resonance imaging device is a medical device that uses superconducting materials and magnetic field forces to diagnose many important diseases. The application of this technology will bring about earth-shaking changes in the medical industry, allowing doctors to diagnose diseases more accurately and quickly, and improve treatment outcomes.

Superconducting magnetic resonance imaging uses the anti-magnetism of superconducting materials. Superconducting materials are placed in a magnetic field. Since the magnetic field lines of the magnet cannot pass through the superconductor, a repulsive force is generated, causing the superconductor to float above the magnetic field. By changing the strength and direction of the magnetic field, image information of different parts can be obtained, thereby diagnosing diseases.

Compared with traditional medical equipment, superconducting magnetic resonance imaging has many advantages. First, it can obtain high-definition and high-resolution image information, which helps doctors diagnose diseases more accurately. Second, its non-invasiveness can avoid the trauma and pain caused by surgery, making it safer and more comfortable. In addition, its rapidity also allows doctors to formulate treatment plans more quickly and improve treatment effects.

However, compared with the previous applications of superconductors in electrical appliances and medical fields!

The use of superconductors in miniature lightweight nuclear fusion reactors is the most critical. Nuclear fusion reaction is a process of combining light atomic nuclei into heavy atomic nuclei, and the energy generated is very huge. However, in nuclear fusion reactions, the material needs to be heated to extremely high temperatures to trigger the reaction, which places very high demands on the materials. Currently, no conventional material can withstand such high temperatures. The strong magnetic field generated by superconductors can be used as a "magnetic enclosure" to surround and confine the ultra-high temperature plasma in the thermonuclear reactor, thereby realizing the application of controlled nuclear fusion energy.

However, those low-temperature superconductors require a huge cooling system, which naturally delays the miniaturization of the reactor. Of course, in Liu Xiu's view, the more critical application of room-temperature superconductors is superconducting energy storage.

The principle is also very simple. Place a superconductor ring in a magnetic field, cool it down to below the critical temperature of the ring material, remove the magnetic field, and an induced current will be generated in the ring due to electromagnetic induction. As long as the temperature remains below the critical temperature, the current will continue. Experiments have shown that the decay time of this current is no less than 100,000 years. Obviously, this is an ideal energy storage device, called superconducting energy storage.

Superconducting energy storage has many advantages, mainly high power, light weight, small size, low loss, fast response, etc., so it is widely used. For example, high-power lasers need to produce thousands or even tens of thousands of joules of energy in an instant, which can be borne by superconducting energy storage devices.

Of course, in addition to lasers, the same is true for electromagnetic guns. At the moment of electromagnetic gun firing, an energy storage device such as a superconducting coil is needed that can instantly release a large amount of electricity.

Although the nuclear energy battery that Liu Qi had developed before could release one hundred kilowatts of electricity per hour, its output was still far from enough for laser weapons and electromagnetic weapons. Therefore, a superconducting energy storage device was needed to act as an intermediate discharger.

That’s right, the reason why Liu Xiu wanted to prioritize superconducting energy storage was naturally to develop weapons to deal with the humans on Blue Planet No. 2.

There is no way. Given the character of the humans on Blue Planet No. 2, it is obviously impossible to share peacefully with them. And now the fleet from Blue Planet No. 2 will take another five years to arrive, so Liu Xiu has five years of preparation period.

Therefore, in order to prevent Liu Xiu from suffering too much casualties, it is natural for him to use the mined superconducting ore to develop advanced weapons.

Of course, it is impossible for Liu Xiu to fight any ground battle with Blue Planet No. 2 because as long as he defeats the fleet of Blue Planet No. 2 and gains air supremacy, there will be no need for a ground battle.

When fighting in interstellar space, space fighters are naturally the main force.

But fighting in space is different from fighting within a planet's atmosphere.

Because of the atmosphere on the planet, fighter planes cannot fly very fast, and machine guns cannot fire very far before losing speed due to air resistance.

But it’s different in space. The lack of air means that high-speed electromagnetic projectiles and lasers can hit very far, while missiles will become outdated weapons.

(End of this chapter)