Voyage of the Stars

"Yes," before the Chinese fleet reached the deceleration position, the chief scientist of Kuntai Civilization slowly explained to Pierce:

"When it comes to researching the path to realizing controllable nuclear fusion, our Kuntai civilization considered there to be three possible paths. First of all, the path that must exist in physics and was the first to be understood by us, and perhaps the first to be known to all civilizations, is Gravitational constraints.”

"As we all know, gravitational constraints are the selfless display of the universe to every intelligent life. Whenever we look up at the sky, we will see the miracles created by the most basic laws of the universe. Our parent star and even the millions of species in the universe Stars are like this.

The universe uses strong gravity to gather dust and matter together. Through strong internal pressure and huge gravity, the nuclear fuel is tightly bound together. In an extremely high temperature and pressure environment, the nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fusion.

However, our Kuntai civilization does not have the ability to create objects of such large mass, not to mention that we have not even understood the nature of gravity, and there is no way to build a gravity machine. Therefore, although gravity-constrained fusion is a selfless demonstration of the laws of the universe, But it can only be a patent of nature. "

The chief scientist of Kuntai Civilization seemed to be sighing at the majesty of nature. After a pause, she continued to say with emotion: "Not only our Kuntai Civilization, but other civilizations must also be like this. All civilizations can understand the way the universe is displayed, but But they can't do it.

So we could only find another way, so during the long research process, we found two other feasible routes, one is inertial constraint and the other is magnetic constraint. "

The so-called inertial confinement is a method that uses the inertia of particles to constrain the particles themselves to achieve nuclear fusion reactions.

The basic idea is to use the energy provided by the driver to form a plasma from the nuclear fusion fuel in the target pellet, and then compress it to a high temperature and high temperature through centripetal explosion in a short period of time before the plasma can fly around due to its own inertia. High-density state, resulting in nuclear fusion reaction.

The method is generally to use multiple ultra-high-power lasers to aim at the nuclear fuel pellet and excite the laser at the same time, causing the surface of the pellet to instantly vaporize outwards, generating a reaction force inside and violently squeezing the nuclear fuel. Because the time is very short, the amount of nuclear fuel obtained Before the speed could take them away, they were pushed together and a nuclear fusion reaction occurred.

The chief scientist of Kuntai Civilization not only has high academic achievements, but also has a clear understanding of the scientific development history of Kuntai Civilization. She continued to use ultrasound to tell Pierce on the communication channel: "More than five thousand years ago, our great Kuntai Civilization Scientists discovered these two possible paths almost at the same time.

However, in the long historical process, our Kuntai civilization seems to have unparalleled talents in inertial constraint-related technologies. In just a hundred years, our research on inertial constraints has left magnetic constraints far behind.

You know, that era, the appeal of inexhaustible energy. Due to the rapid progress of inertial constraints, people have placed most of their investment and expectations on it.

The scientists of Kuntai civilization lived up to expectations. It took less than a hundred years to achieve controllable nuclear fusion through inertial constraint, and the research and technology in this area are advancing rapidly. As a result, our Kuntai civilization finally Set foot on the long-awaited sea of ​​stars. "

"After we have succeeded with inertial confinement fusion, only that set of magnetic confinement fusion can achieve a breakthrough where the input energy is greater than the output energy. You should know what this means, Mr. Pierce."

Pierce followed the chief scientist and replied: "Yes, that means that all investments will be sent to inertial constraints. Since we have already obtained inexhaustible energy, there is no need to waste energy on Let’s look into another route.”

"Yes!" the chief scientist said with emotion: "At that time, after our Kuntai civilization achieved controllable nuclear fusion with inertial constraint, we indeed threw magnetic constraint into the garbage heap of history, and then concentrated on digging into various aspects of the inertial constraint route. derivative technology

After all, we have lived up to expectations. After a long period of research, we used the derivative technology of the inertial constraint route combined with condensed matter physics to finally overcome the final difficulty of cold nuclear fusion.

However, since then, our progress in nuclear fusion technology has slowed down, especially for the heavy nuclear fusion that can theoretically be achieved, and we have nothing to do. "

"In that case, scientists racked their brains and tried their best, but still made little progress, until a scientific team picked up the magnetic confinement route that had been thrown into the garbage heap of history, and based on the magnetic confinement route Published some very successful papers on

It was then that our scientists realized that it was possible that we had not been able to achieve a breakthrough in heavy nuclear fusion, perhaps because we were missing the puzzle pieces of derivative technologies on the magnetic confinement route.

So, from that time on, our Kuntai civilization returned to the route of re-researching the path of magnetic confinement. However, the good times did not last long. Just when we were on the right track of magnetic confinement and various derivative theories were vigorously emerging, we encountered the Quill civilization. . "

Hearing this, Pierce also understood, so she said: "You mean, the way human civilization achieves controllable nuclear fusion is the so-called magnetic confinement?"

"Yes, Mr. Pierce, only magnetic confinement can explain why they can have positron cannons, because only an extremely powerful and complex magnetic field can confine positrons in space without touching any matter. And it is so powerful and complex The magnetic field environment can only be achieved by the derivative technology of magnetic confinement fusion." The chief scientist of Kuntai Civilization was a little embarrassed, perhaps because she was afraid that Pierce would not know what magnetic confinement was, so she went on to explain:

"Oh, Mr. Pierce, you may not know much about magnetic confinement. The so-called magnetic confinement, simply put, is to use a super strong magnetic field to restrain the charged plasma, causing it to undergo nuclear fusion reactions at an ever-increasing temperature and rapid motion. "

Pierce nodded secretly. Of course she knew the charged plasma the chief scientist was talking about. After heating nuclear fuel, such as protium, deuterium, and tritium, into plasma, its protons are no longer wrapped by electrons, but are "naked" in high-speed motion.

The chief scientist of Kuntai Civilization did not know what she was thinking, so he continued: "And precisely because of the research on magnetic confinement during that period, we saw the prospects of some magnetic confinement fusion-derived technologies. One of them is to convert positrons into The idea of ​​restraining and then releasing it after reaching a certain concentration.

Naihe encountered the Quill civilization, and then we lost our home planet, so that so far, we still have not mastered this technology."

A Kuntai person asked unwillingly on the channel: "Can't we use our inertial restraint device instead?"

The chief scientist replied directly: "No, the magnetic confinement route will give rise to many detailed magnetic field technologies, such as the magnetic confinement linear configuration and ring configuration we discovered during the research process.

And these will derive many technical details that we are still in theory, which are extremely complex magnetic field technologies. Without completing the magnetic confinement route from beginning to end, we cannot have such sophisticated magnetic field palm-air technology. "

Hearing what the chief scientist said, all the Kuntai people in the bridge of Kuntai Civilization's flagship fell silent. They did not expect that the differences in technical routes would actually bring such a big gap to the naval guns.