My Side Job is a Trader

Without getting too entangled in this issue, Zhao Yunchang suddenly said to Zhang Xin with a look of mystery on his face: "Mr. Zhang, come with me, and I will show you something good."

Zhang Xin's curiosity was aroused all of a sudden, so he followed Zhao Yunchang to a separate room deep in the workshop.

As soon as you enter the door, you can see a spaceship similar to the space shuttle in the center of the room. At this moment, several young engineers are busy around this spaceship, and several people beside them are constantly using computers to calculate What.

"This is the new generation of aircraft you mentioned, right? But this aircraft seems to be a bit big. There are no such large launch vehicles yet, right?"

Zhao Yunchang took Zhang Xin to visit the spacecraft, and then came to the tail of the spacecraft, and said: "This aircraft does not need rockets, and can complete the flight with its own power."

Zhang Xin asked back: "How far can it fly without a rocket launch, using only the fuel it carries? Couldn't it just fly out of the atmosphere and return?"

In order to resist the gravity of the earth, the rocket needs to carry a lot of fuel during launch, especially during the acceleration phase, the fuel can be said to be consumed visibly by the naked eye. Even if the spaceship is filled with fuel, it is estimated that it will barely break out of the atmosphere.

Zhao Yunchang said: "At present, it may be difficult to use it to fly out of the atmosphere, but it can be used to fly in the atmosphere. With this thing, even if you fly to a country on the other side of the ocean, including the preliminary preparations, you can fly within an hour at most. Arrive at your destination."

Zhang Xin suddenly said: "Oh! You mean commercial rockets to carry passengers, right? But how much money does it cost to launch this thing? Even if it can be put into use, I am afraid that the fare will be very expensive, and the rich will probably feel distressed, right?"

Zhao Yunchang explained: "It's mainly fuel costs and later maintenance costs. I made this spacecraft with the latest alloy synthesized in the laboratory. It is very durable and will not deform even if the temperature generated by friction with the atmosphere reaches tens of thousands of degrees. So it can be used repeatedly like those commercial aircraft."

Zhang Xin began to think about how to develop this technology.

Zhao Yunchang continued: "Actually, I assembled this spaceship according to the standard of an aircraft. If there is a reliable power plant, it can be used as a manned spaceship immediately with a little adjustment."

Zhang Xin could tell that Zhao Yunchang was complaining about the delay in the development of the nuclear power reactor, otherwise the world's first aircraft capable of interstellar flight would be produced.

"It's coming soon. The ignition scheme for nuclear fusion has been found over there. The problem now is how to miniaturize the tokamak device. It is estimated that there will be results in a few years."

Two years ago, the group of lunatics who studied nuclear fusion found a way to ignite. They did not use a large amount of electricity to form a high-temperature laser to ignite, nor did they heat the overall environment, so that deuterium atoms could finally undergo fusion reactions.

They proposed to use nuclear fission to artificially create high temperature instead of high-temperature laser ignition. In the past two years, they have been studying how to use the least amount of nuclear fission materials to reach the temperature required to initiate nuclear fusion reactions.

The difficulty is that nuclear fission is uncontrollable. As long as fission occurs, it cannot be stopped unless nuclear materials are consumed.

Therefore, it is necessary to slowly experiment and calculate how much nuclear material is fissioned at one time.

So in the past two years, in the depths of the desert in the northwest, there would be a small nuclear explosion from time to time. If he hadn't called the government in advance, Zhang Xin, the boss, would probably have stayed in the free house.

After many experiments, the scientists finally found out that an appropriate amount of nuclear material can be used, which can just reach the temperature required for the fusion reaction, and the nuclear fission material will just be exhausted, leaving no radioactive substances.

After the news came, Zhang Xin was excited for a long time, which means that the matrix group has entered the countdown stage to control the fusion reaction, and human civilization will enter a new level.

In the future history of human civilization, the contributions of Zhang Xin and the Matrix Group will always be remembered.

The core problem is solved, and the rest is handed over to the power plant research department.

Nuclear fusion reactors can generate enough energy, and how to convert this energy into power is what they need to study.

However, although this step is also difficult, it is not as difficult as controlling the fusion reaction. After all, the power plant is just to replace the burning fuel with a fusion reactor. The biggest difficulty is how to get the materials. After all, the fusion reaction will produce hundreds of millions of degrees. The magnetic field generated by the tokamak device is constrained, but the temperature transmitted is not low, and there are still tens of thousands of degrees, so the materials used to make the power device must be able to withstand high temperatures.

And this step has obviously been overcome by the laboratory, otherwise, where did the alloy used in the spacecraft made by Zhao Yunchang come from?

So after Zhang Xin visited the aircraft department, he went directly to the material science laboratory.

Hou Xingzhi, the person in charge of developing the new high-temperature-resistant alloy, smiled wryly and said, "Mr. Zhang, let me tell you that the most critical ingredient in the alloy is not the substance in the earth, and it is currently impossible to synthesize it artificially." .The good news is that this substance doesn't need a lot, it just acts as a primer."

Zhang Xin hurriedly asked: "Then what happened?"

Hou Xing knew: "Do you still remember the lunar soil that the National Aviation Center once sent us?"

Zhang Xin nodded. Three years ago, the National Aeronautics Center launched a lunar probe, which sucked a few kilograms of lunar soil and brought it back.

Due to Matrix's excellent scientific research capabilities, it later applied to the government for some lunar soil for research, and the government naturally agreed.

Zhang Xin also knew about this at the time, but he didn't take it to heart, and he didn't expect that there would be a more important discovery and breakthrough in his unintentional act at the beginning.

From this, Zhang Xin knew the importance of space resources, which is also an important reason why Zhang Xin vigorously developed space exploration regardless of the cost.

"Then apply again with the government!"

Hou Xingzhi shook his head and said, "The lunar soil brought back last time has been divided up."

Zhang Xin walked back and forth in the laboratory several times, and finally said: "It seems that we still have to support ourselves. If it is not possible, our company will launch a lunar probe to obtain lunar soil!"

Hou Xingzhi was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that Matrix is ​​a monster. It also owns a space exploration company, and it is said that the technology is quite advanced.

Zhang Xin thinks for a while, if he wants to complete the interstellar voyage of a manned spacecraft, he needs reliable power, and for a reliable power device, the material must be resistant to high temperatures, and the synthesis of high temperature resistant alloys requires the use of certain substances on the moon. So there is only one solution, which is to find a way to get enough lunar soil first, and then there will be a breakthrough.

So Zhang Xin came to Chaos Space Exploration Company again, and wanted to discuss with the person in charge how to allocate resources to obtain lunar soil, and this time he couldn't just get a little bit, at least he had to get hundreds of kilograms back.