cosmic hegemony

Chapter 360, Expensive Degenerate Materials

The space city where the Imperial Institute of Materials Science is located is very lively. Because of the emergence of magnetic energy technology, imperial scientists have opened a brand new door, and atomic materials science has officially entered the vision of imperial scientists.

Numerous scientists who study materials science have started research in the field of atomic materials as if they had found a treasure. Countless new materials have begun to emerge continuously. The data of various aspects such as high temperature began to be refreshed continuously.

Hardness 1000, hardness 2000, 3000, a variety of new materials made of atomic materials will continuously refresh the previously owned material hardness data with unprecedented data; high temperature resistance 10000 degrees, 20000 million degrees, 30000 degrees, high temperature resistant materials field It is also the emergence of countless powerful materials that will refresh the record over and over again.

It was like a flood breaking a levee, and like being enlightened by others, the development of the field of materials science in the empire has been continuously achieving one after another surprising results at an unprecedented speed.

Xu Xingsi Laboratory, with its outstanding contributions in the field of materials science, Xu Xingsi has now become a giant in the field of material science in the empire and a pioneer in the field of atomic materials.

At this time, Xu Xingsi was staring at a monitor, and from time to time he looked towards the middle of the laboratory. A strange machine was constantly working. On the monitor, things with the same atomic structure were being combined continuously to form one three-dimensional structure.

Atomic material science, using a powerful magnetic field confinement device, of course, this power must have been carefully calculated by scientists, and the situation like last time will not happen again. The power of the magnetic energy cannon has amazed countless people, but it is used to create atomic materials. It only needs a small amount of power.

The machine is constantly running. If it is not through the monitor, it is impossible to know the changes in the materials in the laboratory at this time, because with the naked eye, there is nothing in the middle of the laboratory except for the machine that is constantly running. It seems to be empty.

But Xu Xingsi knew that not long ago, there were several tons of steel inside, but now all the steel has disappeared.

Of course, this kind of disappearance is not really disappearing, but it can no longer be seen with the naked eye, because it is rearranged from the perspective of a very small atom, so the unit density has been increased by many times, as if it is a huge mass. The cotton looks like a lot, but if squeezed together, it will become a very small, very small ball.

Or it is like air, the volume of the compressed air is less than one ten thousandth or one hundred thousandth of the original air volume. If you compress and arrange it from the atomic point of view, the volume will be even smaller. , A few tons of steel disappeared like this.

It's not really disappearing, but these steels are rearranged and built from the atomic point of view by atomic material machines, so now they can't be seen with the naked eye at all, and only an electron microscope can see that they have become very small, A very small piece of new material.

"Didi, there are not enough raw materials!"

The sound of the siren interrupted Xu Xingsi's contemplation. Several tons of steel were sent in, and he watched the steel slowly disappear, but until now he hadn't even seen a shadow of it.

"Send another ten tons of steel in."

Xu Xingsi ordered very decisively, as if he was already used to all this. Degenerate materials are very powerful, but the same degenerate materials are also very difficult to create.

Several tons of steel are reshaped by atoms, and the new material created is invisible to the naked eye. One can imagine how much steel will be consumed if one wants to obtain a usable piece of material.

Soon, the machine sent the material in again, and the atomic material machine started to work again. On the display, under the guidance of a powerful magnetic field beam, countless iron atoms were superimposed on the display in a very clever manner according to the set position. These atoms They are continuously combined into a three-dimensional geometric pattern. If you look carefully, you will find that these atoms form a regular hexagonal three-dimensional geometric pattern.

Scientists of the Empire studied graphite, coke and diamond, and knew that they are essentially composed of the same atoms, all of which are composed of carbon atoms. The properties of coke and diamond are more than tens of millions of times different, and their own value cannot be compared at all.

Therefore, once the science of atomic materials was born, the scientists of the empire were very keen on changing the distribution of different atomic materials, thus obtaining countless new materials that had never been obtained before.

The same is true for Xu Xingsi at this time, he is trying to use iron atoms to form a three-dimensional assembly structure similar to diamond, hoping to obtain a powerful atomic material strong enough to support the warp speed engine.

The content on the monitor remains unchanged, but the ten tons of steel sent into the laboratory are constantly disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if missing for no reason. As long as the atomic material machine passes by these steels, the steel It will drop off quickly.

Ten tons of steel, hundred tons of steel, thousand tons of steel...

As more and more steel is sent into the laboratory, in the middle of the laboratory, materials that were previously invisible to the naked eye can finally be seen with the naked eye. Thousands of tons of steel, after being made of atomic materials, become a single piece. Only fingernail-sized material.

This material is a rectangular piece, very thin, completely black, and faintly emitting light. Although it is small, this piece of material is made of thousands of tons of steel, and its weight is also several thousand tons. They had to shut down the gravity production device, otherwise, such a small volume and such a heavy weight would be enough to crush and deform the steel in the laboratory.

"Haha, it finally succeeded. More than 6000 tons of steel, but only such a small piece was obtained in the end. Tsk tsk, this degenerate material is really expensive."

Xu Xingsi was very happy on the one hand, and at the same time sighed on the other side, more than 6000 tons of steel, even now that the empire's interstellar mining is very popular, and there are a lot of asteroids mined, but there are many places that need to use steel in the interstellar era.

The steel consumed by these spaceships and space battleships is calculated in terms of tons or billions of tons, so the price of this steel has always remained high in the empire, and the interstellar mining industry has also made a lot of money because of this. This market demand is too hot, and there are many places that need to use steel.

A meal of steel costs about 1000 yuan in the empire. The 6000 tons of steel cost about 600 million yuan. It doesn’t seem that expensive, but you must know that this is the currency of the empire, a constant value energy currency, and the most important thing is The material made of steel worth more than 600 million yuan is only the size of a fingernail.

Such a small size is useless at all. You must know that if such a material is used to build a spaceship or a space battleship, even if the empire is now rich and powerful, it will still go bankrupt. I can't bear it.

Even if it is only used to build the engine of the space battleship, that is, it is used to make the warp speed engine. With the size of the spaceship, the degenerate materials that will be consumed by then will be very terrifying, because the spaceship and the warp speed of the space battleship The speed engine is also very large.

"Degenerate materials have been manufactured, but to manufacture a warp drive, the cost is 12345..."

Xu Xingsi looked at the computer. The computer was constantly calculating how much money would be spent on the degenerate materials required to manufacture a warp drive. Counting zeroes one by one, the series of numbers were simply astronomical.

"100 trillion!"

At the end of the count, Xu Xingsi couldn't help but widen his eyes. Based on the size of the anti-gravity engine on the existing Imperial space battleship, it would cost a lot of money to manufacture a warp engine of the same size with degenerate materials. will reach a staggering 100 trillion yuan.

100 trillion yuan, what is this concept? The empire has developed to the present, with more than 30 galaxies and nearly 40 living planets, but the annual financial revenue of the empire is only less than 1000 trillion yuan. That is to say, the annual financial income of the empire It's barely enough to build 10 warp engines.

From here, we can know how expensive these degenerate materials are. If the national power is weak, even if the technology for manufacturing degenerate materials can be researched, it is fundamental to not have strong national power to really apply degenerate materials. Impossible.

Of course, this is only calculated based on the current situation of the empire. The technology of mining asteroids has been continuously developing, the price of steel within the empire is also slowly declining, and the economy of the empire is also developing very rapidly. In a few decades, The empire can do a job with ease.

But now, for the empire, facing such an astronomical price, even if the empire has the strength to manufacture the warp speed engine, the prime minister of the imperial cabinet, Tu Xueli, can't help shaking his hands when he signs it. The minister of finance of the imperial cabinet The whole face will turn black.

Because in order to manufacture a warp speed engine, the empire's already ample finances will suddenly become stretched. As the Minister of Finance, he will have a very difficult life in the future. There are holes everywhere to fill, and it is hard to save If you order your belongings, you will consume them all at once.

But the money that needs to be spent still needs to be spent, especially when it comes to the design of scientific research funds, and it is related to the national security of the empire and the improvement of military power.

(End of this chapter)