Chapter 655 - 639: The Development of Industry Chain

As the key material bearing the future energy needs of humanity, helium-3 fusion is mainly divided into two types:

helium-3 with deuterium fusion, and helium-3 with helium-3 fusion.

The former is known as Second-Generation Nuclear Fusion Technology, and the latter as Third-Generation Nuclear Fusion Technology.

Deuterium and tritium are both isotopes of hydrogen, with only one proton, while helium-3 has two protons; thus, the more advanced the fusion technology, the greater the mass of the reactants.

But don’t underestimate the difference in mass of just one proton; the conditions required for ignition are completely different, and the difference is tremendous.

The lighter the nucleon, the easier the reaction; conversely, the difficulty dramatically increases.

External media often deliberately emphasize the ignition temperature of controlled nuclear fusion test reactors; this is actually just one aspect and it isn’t the absolute condition for successful ignition.

Nuclear fusion is, in simple terms, the process of squeezing two independent atomic nuclei together, mainly relying on high temperatures and high pressures.

High temperatures make their energy levels unstable and lively, making them easier to ignite, while high pressures press them together tightly; neither of these has a particularly stringent boundary.

Just as the sun’s core is only 15 million Celsius degrees, which is not as high as the temperature at the center of a hydrogen bomb explosion, but by relying on the sun’s own mass, which accounts for 99.86% of the Solar System, it creates a horrific high pressure through its powerful gravity, continuously maintaining a fusion chain reaction.

Humanity has not yet been able to create pressure as high as that of the sun, so we can only increase the temperature; as long as the temperature is high enough, it will ignite.

With current technology, it’s quite difficult to ignite a helium-3 with helium-3 reaction. A significant quantity of helium-3 is produced during a hydrogen bomb explosion, but they almost do not undergo fusion reactions, showing how difficult the conditions are.

Helium-3 with deuterium is somewhat easier, releasing even more energy, but there are still no successful precedents, even uncontrolled ones.

Of course, there are not absolutely no ways to do it; if helium-3 is liquefied to increase the density during the reaction, the success rate can be greatly improved. The world’s first hydrogen bomb used a similar method with liquid deuterium, and to provide sufficiently low temperatures, the bomb weighed a whopping 82 tons.

Obtaining helium-3 is not difficult; after the decay of tritium from a third-generation hydrogen bomb, it becomes helium-3, and generally enters the medical market for the use of lung CT scans in nuclear magnetic resonance equipment, with an annual demand of up to ten thousand liters (about 1 kilogram).

So, naturally, the country that produces the most helium-3 in the world is America; compared to it, China has much less, but over the years, we’ve accumulated some as well.

The reason we don’t extract helium-3 from the Moon is that the cost efficiency ratio does not match up; although there is evidence that the Moon’s surface has considerable quantities of helium-3, the cost of extracting and refining them into a liquid form is too high, and not much is needed for a single experiment.

The two gradually merging nuclear science research teams hope to find a way to facilitate a successful helium-3 with deuterium, or helium-3 with helium-3 fusion, in order to develop the miniature technology anticipated for fourth and fifth-generation hydrogen bombs, making hydrogen bombs with yields of tens of millions of tons, or even hundreds of millions of tons, practical.

The only way to achieve this is to use a hydrogen bomb as a trigger; only the terrifying high temperatures and pressures at the moment of a hydrogen bomb explosion, combined with various optimized arrangements made in advance, might lead to success.

As long as they succeed once and collect the relevant data, researchers are confident they can start designing super hydrogen bombs.

But this is still an extremely difficult process; after all, the world’s nuclear scientists of the last century were not short of talented individuals. Many have tried to some extent and clearly none succeeded.

They don’t have much time left; the deadline is only two months. Work on the theoretical configurations started a month ago, and then, led by Fu Mingdong and Yu Min, two main directions were developed, which after detailed refinement yielded a total of seven plans.

China plans to use up all of its stored helium-3 for experiments, but the inventory is only enough to support four plans; during the following time, they must design schemes and develop experimental devices simultaneously.

...

Moon, Black Rabbit Space Station.

Nine days after the end of the Skylight Three mission, Chapter 9, refueled and docked at the space station, disengaged its electrical systems, ready to detach for another landing mission.

All four astronauts were already strapped into their seats, with Deng Lei, the commander, carefully tapping through the electronic catalog’s item list, checking if there was anything else needed to be taken down.

The nine payload specialists each completed their tasks in just a few days, but the four astronauts’ next scheduled return date to lunar orbit is March 6, meaning they must stay on the Moon for at least 30 days after this landing.

But in reality, Deng Lei was prepared to stay for 50 days, or even 60 days, right up until the first hydrogen bomb test explosion.

This is the only major project that might be underway soon; other plans would require more time for adjustments and preparations, and most would need to avoid the period of the hydrogen bomb explosion.

This time, the supplies they were bringing down, in addition to almost all the space station’s drinking water, instant food, and other materials, included two living modules and three updated lunar rovers.

These new batch of three lunar rovers were completely different from all previous types; two of them were equipped with truck-like cargo beds and mechanical arms for ease of construction.

The third rover was particularly special because it had an enclosed cockpit—one in which helmets could be removed.

The three lunar rovers no longer used individual names but were instead more systematically designated with letters and numbers, identified as T3 and T7, with the numbers essentially representing their weight class and complexity level.

Other rover series with different serial numbers were still under research, such as the motorcycle, strongly proposed after firsthand experience, codenamed T1.

The official name of the T7 Lunar Rover was "Multifunctional Mobile Exploration Base," with a total mass of 7.8 tons, equipped with six 32-inch hubs, paired with 60-inch diameter low-pressure inflatable tires, capable of reaching speeds of up to 45 kilometers per hour, with unprecedented off-road capabilities.

The highly important feature of the T7’s sealed cockpit wasn’t a brand-new development but made full use of the spirit of recycling; a "Full Moon" lander’s command cabin from ground testing was dismantled, all the equipment removed, and after redesigning, directly repurposed as the forefront of the rover.

The other parts were also cobbled together; the enclosed cargo bay of similar size actually housed a nuclear reactor, directly transplanted from an existing nuclear-power vehicle, with reduced power and added protective measures.

Though the chassis was newly developed, fundamentally it was designed for future ore transport vehicle tugs and was repurposed for the T7 Lunar Rover.

The T-series Lunar Rovers were simply a standardized measure organized by the Aerospace Development Committee, aiming for better planning and uniformity for Moon equipment; T7 was merely one simple concept among others, but to everyone’s surprise, New Yuan and the closely associated Fifth Institute found parts everywhere, and managed to assemble such a contraption, pulling ahead of schedule by at least half a year.

However, people did not underestimate the T7 because of this; instead, they realized one fact: China’s aerospace industry chain and various projects are incredibly rich and cover a wide technological range.

So much so that when a certain piece of equipment is needed, various mature components can be quickly assembled and produced instead of starting individual projects for each component’s technological breakthrough, and that is where the significance lies.