Chapter 309 - 302 You Are Breaking the Law_1

Ye Changsi: "Achieving controlled nuclear fusion within this century should be the goal of the entire scientific community, although it is difficult, we must do it.

Think about it from another perspective; without the third-generation helium-3 fusion technology, people wouldn’t have much incentive to develop the Moon, nor the capability to explore the stars."

Lin Ju: "..."

What Ye Changsi said was correct; fusion technology is not only a significant milestone in human history but also an important milestone in aerospace technology.

With just a small amount of nuclear fuel, we can maintain the consumption of a spaceship for hundreds to thousands of years. If applied to the current electric propulsion technology, we have already begun to possess the capability for interstellar travel."

For instance, an unmanned probe weighing a hundred tons using a 0.1-ton thrust Hall Thruster, powered by a fusion device, could reach one-thousandth of the speed of light with continuous acceleration over a year, something that traditional aerospace technology cannot achieve.

Then there are the development and exploration missions within the Solar System; nuclear fusion could bring unimaginable efficiency improvements, allowing for the construction of extraterrestrial colonies at a lower cost."

But... with New Yuan’s constitution, I’m afraid it might not hold up.

Lin Ju’s concerns were clearly seen by Ye Changsi, who chuckled:

"The research we are planning to undertake is not about constructing experimental facilities like EAST or ITER, which are actually unnecessary. The focus of controlled nuclear fusion lies in how to sustain the fusion reaction continuously, not in how to achieve fusion.

The first five years should remain in the theoretical research stage; there might be some small experiments, but they can all rely on Qingshan Base, which won’t cost much."

"Theoretical research, eh? That’s easy to handle. Projects under one billion don’t need to be reported." Lin Ju finally breathed a sigh of relief; simply the preliminary theoretical research... shouldn’t cost much, right?

"Old Ye, which method do you think is most likely to succeed? Tokamak? Or inertial confinement?"

Ye Changsi: "Personally, I favor inertial confinement; I think that’s the way to maintain a self-sustaining reaction, but magnetic confinement is also a useful auxiliary method. In fact, the two can be done together under high pressure and high temperature..."

After attending a free class on fusion from a frontier physicist, Lin Ju resolutely decided to end the topic.

Fusion and all that is still too high-end for me; compared to that, robots and rockets are closer to daily life.

Ye Changsi, noticing Lin Ju’s discomfort, smiled and said: "There’s one more thing; Qingshan Base will need an exceptionally powerful supercomputer, even stronger than Stellar No.2. I need the production capacity of a chip production line for five months and to develop a dedicated processor."

"No problem with that. Xie Liaofu just needs to coordinate. The X32055 should be in development, which is meant for server use."

...

"Wow, this cockpit view is amazing, and the port windows are much larger than H1’s. I feel like this is more like a spaceship."

Li Sheng sat in the pilot seat of the Vanguard, imagining himself pushing the throttle while gently tapping the buttons on the console to ensure the autopilot system was online.

Deng Lei, Zhang Zhiguang, Hu Dong, Liu Ming, Li Sheng; the five of them formed the first crew to ride the Vanguard to carry out the installation of the first three radiating cabins and the truss for March.

Because March’s orbital position was higher, the Vanguard, sent to low orbit, needed to fly on its own for a while to reach the destination, with a two-hour glide time in between.

So Li Sheng and Zhang Zhiguang switched places to sit in the pilot seat and experienced the feeling of driving this behemoth.

"It’s so spacious, the pilot position could actually fit three people. Two positions are too generous."

Li Sheng’s left hand brushed over a complex array of buttons, which gave him a reliable feeling.

The internal control system of the Pioneer was divided into two sets, one consisted of a HUD mask display integrated into the astronauts’ suits and projections only visible to the pilot and co-pilot, aimed at assisting with flight, with a greater interface to SC09.

The second set was purely physical interaction, designed with all buttons and aviation switches to avoid accidental activation, featuring a dense array of buttons and flashing status indicators, exuding a strong sense of mechanical beauty.

Zhang Zhiguang floated in a corner, watching the screen on the inner wall of the crew cabin while moving his slightly uncoordinated and somewhat stiff right arm.

This was the latest generation of gesture control system for the mechanical arm, which had replaced the previous joystick operation.

Some joints and sensors had been added to the right arm segment of his spacesuit to enable more flexible capture operations through gesture learning.

This system could also be used with VR, but Zhang Zhiguang preferred to watch the images composed of several cameras; as operations were external, the naked eye could still serve as the final confirmation method.

As a large spaceplane with a maximum weight of over 130 tons, H2M had many improvements in its functions and structure, and the five astronauts were actively familiarizing themselves with the environment here, until Deng Lei returned to the pilot’s seat:

"30 minutes to go, everyone secure yourselves, Zhiguang, check the cargo bay nodes when you have a moment."

Only when everyone was seated and confirmed that no objects were still floating did Deng Lei confirm the last orbit change command planned by SC09, and the engines at the rear ignited again.

The acceleration during the Pioneer’s orbit change was very small, the experienced overload almost negligible, but it was still rapidly approaching the March, and about half an hour later, the flight computer popped up a prompt, ending the automatic pilot state.

Deng Lei looked up through the porthole, the sunlight shining on the huge assembly above; from over a hundred meters away on the Pioneer, he couldn’t even see its full extent.

The three radiating cabins launched by Rocket No. 3 a few days ago were still fixed on movable brackets, which were now docked to one side of the axial cabin section, and needed to be separated one by one after the astronauts’ arrival, and then installed.

This made the connected assembly exceed 150 meters in length, twice the length of an H2M.

The cargo bay of the Pioneer carried more than 20 tons of steel truss, and during the construction of the March, these trusses launched continuously with the spaceplanes would gradually wrap around the entire space station, making the segments adhere to the trusses, in order to achieve an extremely high level of overall strength.

Deng Lei, fine-tuning the RCS as he approached the space station, could already see the structures on the surfaces of these giant cabin segments, and couldn’t help but worry about the workload of his crew.

Today was the 24th; the expected construction time was 15 days, with 5 days to complete the installation of a radiating cabin and the trusses. Now, he suddenly felt the schedule might even be a bit tight.

Maybe... should we skip the Spring Festival? Working on the space station even on New Year’s Eve?

As he thought this, Hu Dong’s voice came from the back:

"Ground control did well this time, bringing us over thirty kinds of food and even some baijiu. I always said, what’s so good about wine.

Hey? Is it illegal to drive a spaceplane under the influence?"

Zhang Zhiguang: "..."

Li Sheng: "Maybe not? A spaceplane is an orbital aircraft, not a plane."

Liu Ming: "The five of us together have less than 20 milliliters; even if we drank it, a blood test wouldn’t show it, right?"

"Pioneer, this is ground control, please watch your language. It is illegal to operate any motorized equipment while under the influence!"