Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Beijing, in a conference room.
There were a lot of people sitting in this conference room. There were officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology, military officers with badges on their chests, academicians from the Academy of Engineering, as well as experts from the aerospace field.
An inch-thick conference material was handed to each person.
The cover of the conference material was a title.
[Application Prospects and Technical Feasibility of Controllable Fusion Miniaturization Technology in the Aerospace Field]
This thesis contained a certain amount of information regarding the application of the miniaturized controllable fusion reactor as well as the Hall-effect thruster in the aerospace field. It also contained rigorous calculations, which demonstrated its feasibility possibility.
However, the argument for its feasibility was subjective.
Not to mention, this was a highly-advanced concept…
“Complete gibberish!”
Academician Wu slammed the thesis in his hand and shook his head. He said impolitely, “Just looking at the specific impulse alone, the ion thruster is indeed much stronger than the chemical thruster. However, it isn’t without weakness!”
“Ignoring everything else, even the VX-200SS ion engine that we completed the trial run for last year can only achieve 200KW, and total thrust is only 5N! Even if we multiply this by a hundred times, a thousand times, there would be no way we could use this power to send a spacecraft to low-Earth orbit! We can’t even send an egg to space with this power!”
“I think the person that wrote this thesis is mental!”
“Pigs will start flying before this thing can send satellites to outer space!”
When Old Wu was speaking, there was an awkward atmosphere in the conference room.
However, this was just how elderly scientists were.
But did he really have to compare it to…
Pigs flying?
The leadership team from the Ministry of Science and Technology couldn’t take it anymore, but the president didn’t seem to mind. He thoughtfully said, “Is it not solvable?”
Academician Wu shook his head and said, “Unsolvable!”
As for the miniaturization of controllable fusion, he wasn’t well versed in the field, so he didn’t want to comment too much.
No one knew what kind of technology the future would bring.
In the beginning, the nuclear fission batteries were the size of a house, no one had hopes of putting it on a spacecraft.
However, in just a few years, around the 1970s, the miniaturization problem was solved. As of now, the smallest battery was as small as a coin1.
However, the demonstration reactor at Haizhou was only three months old. Planning to put the reactor on a spacecraft now was kind of laughable.
When Ren Changming heard this thesis being criticized, he had an awkward look on his face, and he tried to diffuse the situation.
“The ideas presented in this thesis are indeed somewhat optimistic. I agree that it is really difficult to achieve the technology mentioned in this thesis, but I don’t think it’s impossible, right?”
“You’ve been away from scientific research for a long time. I’m not going to argue with a layman.” Academician Wu waved his hand and pointed at the thesis as he said, “Who wrote this thesis? Find the person, I’m going to have a conversation with them!”
Ren Changming didn’t know what to do.
The Ministry of Science and Technology leadership team exchanged glances with Xu Yuanming, who coughed and said, “Chief Designer Lu wrote it.”
The conference room went silent for a second.
The silence was scary.
Old Wu had an awkward look on his face, and he picked up the thesis again.
“Let me read it again.”
After a while, he had a moment of realization. He began to mutter about the miniaturization of controllable fusion.
“Umm, I seemed to have missed a few points. The thing with ion thrusters is that the thrust strength depends on the power. Traditional batteries cannot provide this power, electricity is a bottleneck. But with fusion batteries, it might be possible, I don’t know…”
Xu Yuanming: “…”
Everyone in the conference room: “…”
Every proposed project was subject to be reviewed by an expert team, even if the proposer was a Nobel Prize winner and Ling Yun medalist.
However, it was difficult to find someone to review a proposal written by an academic big name like Lu Zhou.
The boundaries and levels within the academic community were obvious. No one wanted to publicly comment on someone that had a higher academic status and prestige than themselves.
Because they were worried that this would happen, they intentionally removed Lu Zhou’s name from the thesis.
However, no one expected that Academician Wu, former chief designer of the lunar exploration project, suddenly put his head down after hearing Professor Lu’s name.
However, judging from his previous reaction, this technology was indeed quite difficult to achieve.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had such a strong reaction.
Suddenly, a man with an epaulet on his shoulder spoke calmly.
“Can I give my opinion?”
President: “Please do.”
The man paused for a second before he said, “I don’t know a lot about the aerospace industry, so I won’t comment on that side. However, even if we don’t consider the Hall-effect thruster and the ion thruster, miniaturization of controllable fusion is quite necessary.
“According to this thesis, if controllable fusion miniaturization technology can really be invented, its application might not only be in the aerospace field, it can also be applied in our submarines or even our aircraft carriers.”
A lot of the people sitting around the table had a serious look on their faces.
The president went silent for a while and then nodded.Visit on our NovelFull
“You’re right, regardless of whether or not this technology can be achieved, regardless of its aerospace applications, this project is worth attempting.”
He paused for a second and picked up a fountain pen. He slowly wrote on the meeting document.
“Project approved.”
He thought for a bit and felt like it wasn’t enough, so he wrote another line.
“All relevant departments must fully cooperate.”
The president looked at these two sentences and nodded with satisfaction.
However, he suddenly remembered something, so he spoke.
“Oh yeah, ask Professor Lu, if he doesn’t mind, we should publish this thesis.”
He smiled and said, “We’ve already thrown a smoke bomb at America, we should let them know we’re getting to work.”
…
Jin Ling University.
Lecture hall No.1.
After the class bell rang, Lu Zhou closed the textbook in his hand and turned around before walking out of the classroom.
Ever since his number theory class began, his lectures had been completely filled with students. Not only were the undergraduate students from other classes attending this class, but some master’s students, doctoral students, and even mathematics professors occasionally came to listen.
As for Lu Zhou, he loved to talk about problems with these students.
Thinking about simple problems was a unique way for him to relax his mind.
After the lecture was over, if he wasn’t busy, he would spend twenty minutes to half an hour of class time to answer the students’ questions.
Unfortunately, he had to attend a conference on the miniaturization of controllable fusion today, so he didn’t have time for the after-class questions.
Lu Zhou was walking toward the mathematics research building before he suddenly returned to the Institute for Advanced Study. He wanted to return the textbook to his office and help out some of his graduate students.
However, his phone in his pocket suddenly began to ring.
Lu Zhou took out his phone and saw it was Yang Xu who was calling. He picked up the call and placed it next to his ear.
“Hello?”
Yang Xu: “There’s an old man who claims to be an academician from the engineering department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences… Do you know him?”
He’s here already?
When Lu Zhou heard that the academician had arrived, he had a strange look on his face. The conference was going to begin at five o’clock, and he thought that the experts he invited would arrive at four-thirty. He didn’t expect this old gentleman to come so early.
It seemed like he didn’t have time to go to his mathematics research building office.
“I invited him. Bring him to the C1 Institute of Physics conference room.”
Yang Xu: “Okay.”
Lu Zhou hung up the call and opened his contact list. He then called Wang Peng.
“Where are you now?”
Wang Peng: “Near the campus entrance, do you need a ride?”
Lu Zhou: “Yeah, come find me at the lecture hall building.”
