Chapter 91: Magnetic Confinement
Although Secondary Pressurization Propulsion Technology could not match High-speed Ion Propulsion, it held an incomparable advantage over traditional chemical fuel propulsion.
In terms of basic principles, it was actually quite simple.
First, it also used traditional chemical fuels as propellant, such as liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, or methane and liquid oxygen.
After these chemical fuels burned in the combustion chamber, their temperature and pressure would rise sharply. This was the so-called first pressurization.
Traditional propulsion involved directly expelling the high-temperature, high-pressure gas to generate thrust.
But with Secondary Pressurization Propulsion Technology, after the first combustion and pressurization, the gas was not expelled. Instead, it was channeled into another chamber.
A nuclear fission reactor was positioned next to this chamber.
The nuclear fission process releases an unimaginable amount of heat. Since temperature is related to pressure, the higher the temperature, the higher the pressure.
Thus, the energy from the nuclear fission reactor would then pressurize the gas in this chamber a second time—gas that had already undergone the first pressurization and was already at extremely high pressure.
This was the secondary pressurization.
After the secondary pressurization, the internal energy of the gas would swell to a level far beyond that of ordinary chemical combustion. The velocity of the gas expelled from the nozzle would also far exceed the limits of normal chemical combustion.
The magnitude of the thrust is directly proportional to the propellant’s exhaust velocity.
With ordinary chemical combustion, the propellant’s exhaust velocity would not exceed five kilometers per second. After secondary pressurization, the velocity could increase to over 30 kilometers per second—a full six-fold increase!
As a result, the utilization efficiency of the propellant was also increased six times over.
A journey that originally required 60 tons of fuel could now be completed with just 10 tons!
With the 50 tons of mass allotment saved, how much more cargo or how many more people could be carried? Even if no extra cargo was added, if the ship still carried 60 tons of fuel, by how much would the spacecraft’s speed increase using secondary pressurization technology? How much would its maneuverability improve?
Therein lay the advantage of Secondary Pressurization Propulsion Technology.
It was safe to say that without this technology, relying solely on chemical fuel propulsion, it would have been utterly impossible for Li Qingsong to complete the long journey of over ten billion kilometers from Ceres to the Inner Solar System.
Now, the task of miniaturizing the nuclear fission reactor was preliminarily complete.
Although it could not yet be miniaturized enough to fit into a Warship or a small spacecraft, it was at least no problem for a large cargo ship.
That being the case, it was time to begin research on Secondary Pressurization Propulsion Technology.
Li Qingsong treated this with the utmost gravity. Going all-out, he once again mobilized all the forces at his disposal to launch this key research project, the most important one of the current stage.
Although the basic principle of this technology was simple, applying it in reality was even more difficult than miniaturizing the nuclear fission reactor.
The reason was simple: Secondary Pressurization Propulsion Technology placed extremely high demands on material performance.
The combustion of chemical fuels already released extremely high temperatures, requiring highly advanced heat-resistant materials for containment.
After secondary pressurization, the temperature would skyrocket again, reaching tens of thousands of degrees Celsius.
At such temperatures, what kind of material could possibly withstand it?
Li Qingsong’s knowledge of physics and chemistry told him that no material could.
This meant Li Qingsong could not use any traditional method of containment, such as building a sturdy container, to confine the gas after its secondary pressurization.
A new method of confinement had to be introduced.
Fortunately, Li Qingsong had another method he could use.
After undergoing the secondary pressurization process and being heated by the nuclear fission reactor to tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, the carbon dioxide and water produced from the combustion of methane and oxygen could no longer remain in a gaseous state.
Their constituent molecules would be directly decomposed, and electrons would be stripped from the atoms, forming a plasma.
Since it was a plasma, it would be affected by a magnetic field, which gave Li Qingsong a suitable method of confinement.
Magnetic confinement.
Powered by the nuclear fission reactor, a powerful magnetic confinement system could be constructed using electrical energy. This would allow the high-temperature, high-pressure plasma to be contained without any physical vessel, preventing it from blowing apart inside the Thrust Device.
Then, the magnetic field would guide and eject this plasma from the rear of the spacecraft at extremely high speeds, thus completing the secondary pressurization process and drastically increasing the propellant’s utilization efficiency.
However, even with the use of a magnetic confinement apparatus, the housing for these devices would still be subjected to intense radiation and extreme heat, thus still requiring materials with exceptionally high performance to withstand the conditions.
At the same time, various pieces of equipment had to operate under extremely harsh conditions while maintaining sufficient stability and reliability, placing even higher demands on material performance.
This was another project with no shortcuts, one that required patient and dedicated research.
As he pushed the work forward, Li Qingsong mused to himself, ’As expected, technological developments are all interconnected, like links in a chain.
’Prerequisite technologies are the foundation for more advanced ones to follow. Without them, later technologies can’t just appear out of thin air.
’For example, the core technology of the Secondary Pressurization Propulsion I’m working on now—magnetic confinement—is very likely the key to future controlled nuclear fusion. At the same time, the electromagnetic conversion technology is also very likely the key to future High-speed Ion Propulsion.
’Once I’ve mastered Secondary Pressurization Propulsion Technology, I’ll have the foundation to tackle these two crucial technological challenges in the future.’
With Li Qingsong giving it his all, the first propulsion experiment soon began in a basin somewhere on Ceres, inside the newly built Propulsion Laboratory.
The modular nuclear fission reactor and a traditional chemical combustion engine were placed on the left and right, respectively, connected by heavy-duty pipes. Behind the nuclear fission reactor was a massive nozzle.
Following the ignition command, large amounts of liquid oxygen and methane were fed into the chemical combustion chamber. Through violent combustion, they turned into gaseous carbon dioxide and water, which were then channeled into the nuclear fission reactor module.
The nuclear fission reactor module initiated a fission reaction simultaneously. Through the fission of uranium-235, the immense energy hidden deep within matter was released. Part of this energy heated the gaseous carbon dioxide and water, causing their temperature to soar to tens of thousands of degrees Celsius and transforming them into plasma. The other part of the energy was converted into electricity to generate a powerful magnetic field to confine the plasma.
Then, the next moment, with a BANG, it exploded.
The ground shook violently, and everything within a radius of dozens of meters was razed to the ground.