Deep Space Fleet

A month passed quickly. The scientific investigation on the Taipu civilization has already made preliminary progress.

"Is this civilization still using fossil fuels? "Popular Survey on Fossil Fuels", "Possibility Survey on Global Atmospheric Warming"..."

On this day, Zhang Yuan was sorting out the materials in the captain's room, and there were all kinds of messy reports. He has also heard voices from the people for tourism, including the topic of bionic transformation of himself has been brought up again.

If robot VR technology is used as a substitute for tourism, the effect will be much worse. It will take at least five or ten years to reproduce using virtual world technology. How can it be so fast? It is impossible for human's frail body to adapt to 3 times the gravity, no matter how hard it is to exercise, the only way to experience it in person is bionic transformation.

Of course, with regard to the voice of the people, no matter what, it is impossible to realize it immediately. If you want to reform yourself, you have to go through some legal procedures.

Li Cheng from the secretariat replied: "Some of them use fossil fuels. This planet is very rich in fossil resources. According to our geologist's estimate, it is at least 20 times that of the earth! Because of the large size of the planet... And some are renewable biofuels."

"Oh? Biofuel?" Zhang Yuan asked in confusion.

"Yes, this civilization generally grows an annual herbaceous plant called 'Alk', which can extract industrial alcohol and methane very simply and efficiently. Most of the fuel for airship engines is provided by this plant. Only a small amount Military weapons need fuel with a high calorific value, so oil can be used."

"It is indeed a very nice plant. This is a surprise."

Many chemical raw materials in Kunlun Mountain are also provided by plants. Therefore, biologists in Kunlun Mountain are thinking that if this plant is really excellent, they can try to introduce it into the entire industrial system.

Zhang Yuan pondered for a while, then frowned and asked, "Has the Taipu civilization considered renewable energy so early? Are they so far-sighted? Humans only vigorously developed controllable nuclear fusion when the oil crisis really happened. , most of the oil was simply burned. Could there be a deeper reason, such as..."

"Not really, it's mainly because of economic reasons." Dr. Li Cheng said with a smile: "Because for this civilization, although there is oil, it is too difficult to dig. In a high-gravity environment, shallow oil is very scarce, and it needs to Only with greater pressure can it be extracted. Oil extraction depends on artificially supplemented energy such as oil pumps and gas lifts, and it is more difficult in a high-gravity environment.”

"The higher-quality oil is at a much deeper level on the surface, making it expensive to extract."

This is also true. In a high-gravity environment, the deeper the surface, the harder the stone, and it is more difficult to extract the oil.

Just like the shale oil on the earth, the reserves are about 11 trillion to 13 trillion tons, far exceeding the oil reserves, but it is extremely difficult to develop, and only a small part can be really utilized.

Dr. Li Cheng continued: "This planet is sparsely populated, its surface area is four to five times that of the earth, and the birth rate of the population is not high, about less than four billion. Therefore, these farmers choose to plant this planet on a large scale in the plains. A class of plants, economical and affordable."

"So that's how it is." Zhang Yuan asked after hearing this: "Then do you think that this kind of excellent energy plant was deliberately left behind by the enlightener civilization? Petroleum, no matter how much it is in quantity, will be used up. , but renewable energy is completely different and can be sustainable for a long time.”

Finding the traces of the Enlightenment civilization has always been the key goal of this scientific expedition. People have been looking for so-called evidence, and it is impossible to think that any turmoil or coincidence is left by the enlightener civilization, that would be too ridiculous.

Facing Zhang Yuan's question, Li Cheng replied: "It depends on the time point '150,000 years ago', whether this plant named 'Ark' was the same as the 'World Tree' of the Riley Civilization. large-scale genetic mutation. If there is, it can basically be concluded that it is the behavior of the enlightener civilization."

"...Analyzing this civilization from an innate perspective, it is indeed very difficult to enter space. If controllable nuclear fusion cannot be achieved, even if there is no energy crisis now, there will be one in the future."

"Now that this plant appears, the energy crisis will undoubtedly be greatly alleviated and more development time can be provided."

Zhang Yuan nodded and said: "However, this does not seem to be in line with the philosophy of the enlightener civilization. If this civilization gradually stops making progress in the next few thousand years and keeps using this plant to survive, wouldn't it be the same as the Riley civilization? It will continue forever." What's the point of going down? So I think, because of this reason, the probability of deliberately making this kind of plant is not high."

"According to my personal thinking: If a civilization runs out of fossil fuels but does not ignite the spark of nuclear fusion and leaves the planet, then it will die as soon as it dies, and there is nothing to regret."

Li Cheng replied: "I don't quite agree with your idea. I think that we also need to consider the technical difficulty of leaving the planet itself. If the gravity of a planet is ten times that of the earth, then the creatures on this planet can leave the planet Impossible, even our spaceships are difficult to take off and land on. Then there is a kind of energy, so that these lives can have a breathing space, it can be regarded as a kind of kindness."

"Our scientists are deducing, according to the level of human science and technology at the end of the 20th century, if we continue to develop step by step in this way, is it possible to leave the planet with three times the gravity and start the era of great interstellar."

"Relevant mathematical modeling work is still in progress. Some scientists think it is possible, while others believe that it is difficult for traditional rocket technology to help the Tep people leave the planet step by step."

"If it really can't, it means that the innate environment of this civilization is flawed and needs some help. The enlightener civilization with a vision may try to do something in this regard..."

"This idea makes sense." Zhang Yuan saw a picture on the screen of anthropologists visiting a museum.

This civilization also has its own archaeology, and is also studying its own origin. This may be the commonality of technological thinking. Everything wants to trace the source, rather than confusingly attribute its own existence to the gods.

Therefore, the current research direction is divided into two parts, one is archeology, focusing on the history of 150,000 years ago.

The other part is to investigate whether the Taipu civilization has technological defects, environmental defects, whether there is hidden help from the enlightener, and so on.

"There are no particularly good discoveries yet... A series of complex evolutions have been formed in 150,000 years. If we do not rely on the power of the Taipu civilization itself, it is too slow for us to conduct scientific research. .”

"Our diplomatic team is considering whether we can directly make such a scientific research request to the other party. Or, it would be better if we can directly read the other party's archaeological documents... After all, the other party's information has not been fully disclosed to us."

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "That's not a problem... The content we can trade is in this form, and the corresponding prices are clearly marked."