Chapter 89: Resource Crisis
A brand-new nuclear fission power plant had been built by the Clones under Li Qingsong’s control.
But unlike the other nuclear fission power plants, this one wasn’t divided into multiple structures, such as a reaction chamber, cooling chamber, exchange chamber, and motor room.
It was a single, integrated unit.
All the components that made up a nuclear fission power plant had been integrated by Li Qingsong into a single, holistic structure.
Inside the massive workshop, this nuclear power plant was running smoothly.
It stood around 16 meters tall, was over 40 meters long, and 25 meters wide, with a total volume exceeding 14,000 cubic meters and a total mass of over 4,000 tons.
Its surface was not smooth. Instead, it was a dense network of pipes and numerous, somewhat chaotic protrusions and indentations. As a whole, it looked like a scaled-up version of a car engine.
Though it seemed enormous, when compared to the other nuclear power plants he had built, the total mass of all their components combined was likely more than ten times that of this single plant.
Moreover, it possessed an advantage that the other nuclear power plants couldn’t match.
It was mobile!
With sufficient transport capacity, it could be lifted and moved anywhere, ready to perform nuclear fission operations and continuously convert nuclear energy into electrical or thermal energy as needed!
Looking at the power station before him—enormous on its own, yet tiny compared to its "peers"—Li Qingsong knew he had overcome the first major hurdle in miniaturizing nuclear fission power plants.
As it was now, it was already capable of being installed in a spaceship to serve as its power and energy source.
Of course, that spaceship would have to be colossal, with a mass of at least 20,000 tons.
But for a spaceship with a mass of over 20,000 tons, the current power output of this nuclear fission plant was a bit too low.
Its maximum output was only 10,000 kilowatts, which was still insufficient for such a massive vessel.
’Hmm... To be practical, its mass and volume need to be reduced by more than half, and at the same time, its power output needs to double.’
’That way, its volume would drop to around 7,000 cubic meters, its mass to about 2,000 tons, and its power output would be 20,000 kilowatts... then it would be truly viable.’
But... reviewing the research, development, and manufacturing process of this nuclear fission plant, Li Qingsong sighed softly. ’This is hard.’
In order to cram an entire nuclear power plant into such a small metal shell while ensuring its stability and reliability, tens of thousands of Clones had toiled away for the past few years, working tirelessly day and night.
In the course of conducting various experiments, searching for better materials and structures, and achieving higher processing precision, hundreds of Clones had even died in engineering or experimental accidents.
It was only built successfully thanks to vast amounts of resources and immense effort. The difficulty of shrinking it by half while doubling its power output was so great that even Li Qingsong felt at a loss for where to begin.
’Everything I can think of, every area that could be optimized, has already been optimized. What else can be changed?’
The Deep Space Spaceship certainly had a sample of a small, ship-borne nuclear fission plant, but...
Reverse engineering was certainly useful, but it was hard to say how useful it could ultimately be.
Take a car from the Earth era, for example. In theory, if you disassembled it piece by piece, replicated each part exactly, and then reassembled them, could you learn to manufacture a car without understanding the underlying principles of how it works?
The answer was obviously no.
Because this ignored two extremely important factors.
One, materials. Two, tolerance.
Reverse engineering can’t crack material formulas. If you can’t produce materials that meet the required specifications, how can you guarantee performance?
And then there was the matter of tolerance.
There are always errors in the casting of any component, but as long as these errors are kept within a certain range, they won’t affect the whole.
Simple measurement can indeed confirm the dimensions of a component, but how would you know its tolerance?
Without knowing the tolerance, and with new tolerances introduced during the replication process, the accumulated error in the final assembly of all the parts would become too large to ignore, making it completely incomparable to the original.
Not to mention all the complex issues like the various torques, the connection methods for different fasteners, the principles of cable layout, and so on—none of which could be solved by reverse engineering.
For these reasons, even with the Deep Space Spaceship right in front of him, Li Qingsong still couldn’t build a sufficiently small and efficient nuclear fission plant. Similarly, having access to the Blutuk Civilization’s mothership didn’t allow him to acquire much of their technology.
But... Li Qingsong glanced worriedly in the direction of Enemy God Star.
’At the rate I’m mining, the resources on Enemy God Star probably won’t last much longer.’
’Once Enemy God Star’s resources are depleted, there are no other planets nearby. Where will I get energy and resources then?’
’I have to get to the Inner Solar System before the resources run out.’
’But such a large-scale migration is inseparable from the miniaturization of nuclear fission plants and secondary-pressure propulsion technology.’
’Without these two technologies, a mass interstellar migration is impossible.’
’And secondary-pressure propulsion technology is developed from miniaturized nuclear fission plant technology. The root of the problem is still the miniaturization of the plant.’
Staring at the massive beast before him, Li Qingsong felt a headache coming on.
If he could, Li Qingsong wished he could just crush it with his bare hands until it was small enough to fit in a spaceship.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t Superman; he couldn’t just squeeze it into shape.
’Sigh... no other choice. Let’s just keep researching.’
Li Qingsong directed his numerous Clones to continue the research on miniaturization. In the process, he even brought in the engineering-related Blutuk People, much to their dismay.
And so, after a full year of this high-intensity research, one of the Blutuk engineers involved in the project couldn’t take it anymore.
He disregarded the potential punishment and sought out one of Li Qingsong’s Clones.
"Honorable Earthling."
He looked at the Clone cautiously.
This Earthling’s attire was slightly different from the other Earthlings, which seemed to imply he held a higher status.
It couldn’t be helped; every Earthling looked exactly the same—at least, they did to him. Aside from their clothes, he really couldn’t tell one from another.
And he didn’t dare ask, because being unable to distinguish between Earthlings’ faces seemed to be an offense to them, one punishable by penalty.
"I request that you relay some of our thoughts to the project director."
"Our view on this project is that this isn’t a problem that can be solved with some clever structural design or a flash of inspiration."
"It requires advancements in fundamental science. Fundamental science, do you understand?"
...