Beneath Deep Space

After letting go of this worry, Yu Yifeng turned his attention to another major event: the development of gas giant planets.

The scientific investigation of Auriga 2 went smoothly, and the industry on Auriga 4 was not particularly difficult. The only thing was the development of the gas planet "Auriga 5", which was the first time.

"The theoretical difficulty is not high."

The development of gas giant planets is an important link in the industrial chain. It involves the energy problem of the entire new human industrial chain, and people cannot help but be cautious.

Everyone knows that eating up the mountain is not enough. It is impossible to persist indefinitely relying on the helium-3 reserves in Noah.

Therefore, the relevant gas collection spacecraft is being built in a big way.

"If we can successfully develop this gas planet, we will get almost endless nuclear fuel. There is too much energy... We can even build a luxurious antimatter production base to consume this part of the extra energy."

A group of scientists were eating and chatting in the cafeteria, led by Professor Ding Yidong.

He is not only a weapons expert, but also a very famous nuclear physicist who knows a lot about the reactions between atoms.

Ding Yidong said in his usual loud voice: "We can now use specific laser collisions to produce antimatter... We need to study the conversion rate in this area more and improve the energy utilization rate as much as possible. If we work hard and can only produce a few micrograms of antimatter, it will definitely not work."

To be honest, people did not pay much attention to the research on antimatter in the past.

Because compared with positive matter, antimatter has almost the same properties except for the opposite electrical properties. In other words, it is not particularly meaningful to spend a huge price to study antimatter with similar properties.

"But the main value of antimatter is...it is an important secondary energy source, the main trading unit of interstellar civilization, and can also be used to make weapons beyond nuclear bombs-antimatter missiles."

The energy density of antimatter is two orders of magnitude higher than that of nuclear fuel, which means that the power of this weapon is also two orders of magnitude higher than that of nuclear weapons.

There may be some unique antimatter fountains in the Milky Way, but this kind of antimatter fountain requires a very strange geographical environment. They are often near black holes and require extremely high technological levels to collect.

The vast majority of antimatter is produced by interstellar civilizations themselves.

So, scientists are discussing how to use excess energy to produce antimatter.

"...so that when we trade in the future, we will be left with nothing in our pockets, like a poor man. We always have to deal with interstellar civilizations, and we can't trade with cheap helium-3...this thing must be worthless." A scientist said with a smile. He is also a responsible person in the Ministry of Industry. They have discussed this matter many times. There are many ways to produce antimatter. The simplest one is, of course, to generate high-energy particles through an accelerator, hit a fixed target to produce antiparticles, and then synthesize them through deceleration. However, the energy required for this process is much greater than the energy released by annihilation, and the rate of generating antimatter is extremely low. The second method is, of course, to use lasers. When electrons and positrons meet, an annihilation reaction will occur to form two high-energy photons. This is the energy release principle of antimatter. In fact, this process is reversible, that is, after two strong laser beams collide, the collision between photons can also forcibly convert energy into matter. If at this moment, a larger magnetic field is used to quickly separate the positive and antimatter with different charges, people can get a considerable amount of antimatter. "It's just that the current mass-energy conversion efficiency is extremely low. It's not that any two lasers collide to produce matter, and it's not that the greater the energy, the better... We must find a more suitable laser... Research in this area needs to be accelerated."

However, scientists are not worried. According to the current level, a small amount of antimatter can definitely be produced. It's just a matter of energy utilization. This utilization rate should be able to be improved with the growth of experience.

After solving the manufacturing problem, there is also preservation...

The preservation of antimatter is of course inseparable from vacuum and magnetic field.

"I still suggest that we only produce the simplest antimatter, 'positrons'. The vacuum technology of our accelerator is relatively mature, and the beam tube can achieve extremely high vacuum, which can be preserved for a long time." Professor Ding Yidong calculated a few data in his head and said: "In addition, annihilation does not happen as soon as it touches. There is also the problem of annihilation cross section. In a high vacuum environment, high-energy electrons can run very far before annihilation occurs. Let's do a simple calculation. The specific formula for annihilation reaction is... N=sigma*rho*velocity..." "So we'd better make a device like a superconducting tokamak to magnetically confine antimatter... In terms of difficulty... there should be no problem." After this discussion, people suddenly realized that the technology for producing and preserving antimatter has quietly matured, but it still lacks a little practical experience. This fact can't help but make people sigh secretly that the technological progress of mankind in the past few hundred years is really too great. Scientific development sometimes requires gradual progress, and sometimes it is leapfrog. The reason for this is not only because of the alien garbage picked up, but also because of the social system, material wealth, and materialistic thinking that worships natural science, which have greatly advanced the progress of science.

Think about it, scientists in the Earth Age have very limited resources at hand. If they want to conduct experiments, especially high-energy experiments, they need various approvals and are subject to various funding constraints.

But now there is no such thing. Every scientist has gained great freedom, and the consumption of scientific research has long been far greater than the consumption of ordinary life.

For the Noah society, the degree of attention paid to natural science is far greater than any other aspect, including various entertainment products, military industries... It is an era when almost everyone advocates science. Such an academic atmosphere is unprecedented for any country in the earth's era. , unmatched by any university.

In this case, if science cannot progress rapidly, there is only one situation: this civilization has reached its upper limit...

Soon, six months passed quietly, and the first nuclear fuel collection spacecraft was officially completed. It was already sailing on the road to the gaseous planet "Auriga 5".

Today is the day when the spacecraft officially arrives at the gas planet. Under the huge control room, more than 300 staff members are sitting solemnly.

There were engineers and scientists among them. They had serious expressions and were staring at the big screen nervously.

The spacecraft is about three hundred meters long and looks like a barrel-like cylinder. Facing the approaching gaseous planet, "Auriga 5" is as small as a mosquito.

"As for the antimatter you are talking about... will it be safe after it is produced? My main concern is the storage issue. The magnetic confinement alone seems a bit thin and requires a superconducting ring for continuous power supply..."

"What if there is a power outage and it is accidentally released and explodes?"

Yu Yifeng asked with a frown as he listened to Professor Ding Yidong's next plan.

Although he also desires various anti-matter weapons, he has to worry about more important security issues.

The Cavan phenomenon is extremely serious... I want to take a break during May Day. . .