Chapter 74: Combat Power Increase
At the current stage of space travel, Li Qingsong was consistently hampered by an extremely serious problem.
The efficiency of chemical fuel was simply too low.
This was precisely why, during the expedition to Enemy God Star, Li Qingsong had no choice but to "toss" massive amounts of supplies and fuel over from Ceres to support the Warships in combat.
When launching the Detector to Earth, he had even been forced to construct a colossal rocket with a total mass of over seventy thousand tons.
While building such a marvel certainly brought a great sense of accomplishment, behind it lay a deeper sense of helplessness.
If there had been any other way, who would have bothered to build such a massive rocket?
Now, faced with the enormous project of developing Enemy God Star, travel between the two planets would become extremely frequent.
Although the bulk transport of basic materials could be handled by electromagnetic catapult technology, there would inevitably be a huge demand for time-sensitive cargo and personnel transport.
Continuing to use such inefficient propulsion technology was becoming unacceptable.
If things went on like this, at least 20% of the resources he produced might be wasted during transit, which was simply intolerable.
’All of that was produced through my own hard work. Just waste it like that? No way!’
But since he couldn’t yet make a breakthrough in more advanced propulsion technologies—unable to master secondary pressurized propulsion, let alone High-speed Ion Propulsion—the only option was to find ways to continue optimizing existing technology.
Fortunately, even existing chemical fuel propulsion technology had significant room for improvement, and optimizing it would be sufficient for the time being.
Through the work of tens of thousands of Clones researching propulsion technology, Li Qingsong gradually became certain of one thing.
To improve propulsion performance and fuel efficiency, he had to tackle three areas: material properties, overall structure, and the cooling system.
The materials used to build the thrusters had to withstand higher temperatures and greater pressures to achieve higher thermal efficiency and thrust.
Materials science would improve thruster performance through fundamental material properties.
Overall structure would provide improvements through design.
And the cooling system would enhance performance in terms of durability and reliability.
All three areas were being worked on for the same goal.
The research Clones, divided into three large teams, worked day and night. As a result, the hundreds of test sites at the propulsion research base roared around the clock.
Countless engines of different shapes, structures, and even some truly bizarre designs, endlessly spewed chemical fuels of various colors: methane, ethane, formaldehyde, liquid hydrogen, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine...
And so on and so forth, as all sorts of different fuels were tested in turn.
Just from conducting these experiments alone, the research base’s fuel consumption reached tens of thousands of tons per day.
For this reason, Li Qingsong had to build a dedicated railway line to transport fuel from various chemical plants, only for it to be turned into plumes of fire at the test sites.
Fortunately, all the factories had been upgraded with smart technology, greatly increasing their production efficiency. Otherwise, the added consumption from this research base would have been truly difficult to bear.
After hundreds of days and nights, and the consumption of tens of millions of tons of fuel, a new engine that met Li Qingsong’s performance requirements was finally built.
It still used methane and liquid oxygen as fuel.
This was firstly because methane has a high calorific value, and secondly because there were abundant reserves of it on Ceres.
The readily available Tolin could be processed to separate out methane.
A new type of spacecraft, propelled by the new engines, was also manufactured.
It was a Mercury-class Warship.
However, compared to the previous Mercury-class Warships, its combat capabilities were unquestionably more powerful.
The number of machine guns on it increased to six, and the number of autocannons increased to four. In addition, it could carry 12 Interstellar Missiles.
With more weapons, the ammunition reserves naturally had to increase as well.
An original Mercury-class Warship, when fully loaded, carried 400,000 rounds of ammunition, weighing 4 tons. This new Mercury-class Warship, however, could carry 1.2 million rounds when fully loaded, with the ammunition mass reaching 12 tons!
The number of shells also doubled, with a total mass reaching 6 tons.
The same went for the Interstellar Missiles, whose total mass increased from the original 4.8 tons to the current 7.2 tons.
In terms of ammunition alone, the total increase was 13.4 tons!
Obviously, more ammunition would require more internal space and larger fuel reserves, meaning the ship’s overall volume would have to be bigger.
But the fact was, it remained the same size as before, not having grown at all.
Its size hadn’t increased, and its fuel capacity had been reduced from the previous 50 tons to the current 30 tons. Its operational duration should have clearly decreased.
But the fact was, this Mercury-class Warship’s operational duration had not decreased; on the contrary, it had increased!
Because it was equipped with the new engines!
Now, at Li Qingsong’s command, the Clone responsible for piloting the new Mercury-class Warship instantly issued the order to advance.
And so, amidst a blaze of fiery exhaust, the Mercury-class Warship’s acceleration reached 20 meters per second squared. In just a few short seconds, it soared to an altitude of over a thousand meters, disappearing directly from the Clones’ naked-eye view.
Not only had its total range increased, but its maneuverability had also improved!
The previous Mercury-class Warships had a maximum acceleration of only 12 meters per second squared. This was a direct increase of 67%!
Upon reaching space, the Mercury-class Warship unleashed its power, performing all sorts of rapid accelerations and decelerations. It was as if it were afraid of having too much fuel, its engines barely stopping for a moment.
But even so, it took several hours of maneuvering before its fuel was depleted.
After slowly returning to the base on Ceres, a group of Clones immediately stepped forward and began a thorough inspection of its condition.
Finally, Li Qingsong reached a conclusion.
The new engines performed perfectly!
’Excellent. Not bad at all.’
Li Qingsong’s heart was filled with joy.
A single technological advancement always brings a series of changes, not just one.
Just like now, the improvement in propulsion technology led to the birth of the new engine.
The creation of the new engine not only laid the foundation for the future development of Enemy God Star but also greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the Mercury-class Warship.
More ammunition reserves, greater maneuverability, and a longer combat duration.
Moreover, all the spacecraft he would build in the future—whether passenger ships or cargo freighters, Warships or Scientific Research Vessels—would all benefit from the improved engine technology.
And there was another unexpected bonus from this technological leap.
The plan Li Qingsong had been dreaming of for so long—to launch a large-scale exploration of every high-mass planet in the Inner Solar System—could finally be implemented.
Because the improvement in thruster technology benefited not only spacecraft, but rockets as well.