Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 660 New Ship Manufacturing Plan

Antimatter factories can be built.

After the grand unified theory was realized, humans began planning this, and construction has already begun. The materials used to build the factory come from human inventory and the leftover materials from the construction of the astronomical-grade particle collider.

Although factories can be built, antimatter production has not reached a large-scale level. The reason is that humans now have little material left, or in other words, there are few materials that humans can use in this space. The rocky planets in the eight star systems have basically been hollowed out by humans, and the resources that humans can use now are the remaining gaseous planets and the remaining materials.

However, the production process of antimatter is not very efficient, and a large amount of material energy is required to be converted into a small amount of antimatter through an antimatter factory. For this situation, humans currently have no other solution because they have not found other more efficient ways to produce antimatter.

According to the efficiency of the antimatter factory designed by humans, it often takes more than 10,000 tons of matter to produce one ton of antimatter, which includes the consumption of fuel and antimatter production. It should be said that the energy system of the antimatter factory is actually provided by nuclear fusion, a cheap and easily accessible energy source. Energy is generated by nuclear fusion reactions, and then converted into antimatter needed by humans through antimatter factories.

They have already entered the fourth level of civilization, and they still use nuclear fusion energy. This may seem a bit unpresentable, but we need to understand that energy and energy are different concepts.

Nuclear fusion is an energy source that is easily available in the universe. Antimatter is a higher energy aggregate. It is not everywhere in the universe like nuclear fusion. It will not be produced spontaneously, so there is naturally a need for an energy system to power the factory. Of course, the produced antimatter can also be used as fuel to drive the antimatter factory, but doing so will undoubtedly consume more energy.

This is not a question of whether human technology is advanced, but a result of the second law of thermodynamics and the law of increasing entropy.

For this reason, humans have no plans to build antimatter factories on a large scale. At this stage, humans plan to use the remaining resources to build a factory and a warship that uses antimatter as fuel and can achieve warp speed.

After that, you have to find a way to leave this space.

Although this space is safe, the remaining materials are not enough for human beings to upgrade comprehensively. It is true that there are many gas planets, but the development of gas planets is many times more difficult than that of rocky planets. There are so many star systems in the Milky Way, and there is really no need for humans to fight here.

Humans will not do such a thankless task unless they cannot find a way out and have to do so in order to survive.

Of course, humans are not without any contingency plans. If no exit can be found in a short period of time, then humans will have to start developing the gas planets inside the eight stars. Although they can only obtain fusion fuel, it is better than nothing.

However, at this stage, what humans need most are still heavy elements.

As humans who have just stepped into the fourth-level civilization, the way to obtain heavy elements is actually no different from that of lower-level civilizations, which can only be obtained through the development of rocky planets. This is also the case for many civilizations, unless technology has reached the point where supernovas can be created by hand. From this, it can be seen that galaxies in the universe are still the main place for civilization activities. Even if humans reach the fourth-level civilization, they will still have to plan their navigation in the future like the third-level civilization, using star systems as their port of call in the vast sea of ​​stars.

As time goes by, relying on powerful industrial capabilities, mankind's antimatter factory has gradually appeared in the starry sky from scratch. Next to the factory is the astronomical-grade particle collider that is more than 6,000 astronomical units long.

This newly formed antimatter factory seems a little small here, but in fact it is also a behemoth. It is larger than the largest battleship of mankind, the Lyra, and is a space fortress with a length and width of more than 20 kilometers.

The antimatter factory adheres to the consistent design ideas of mankind. It is composed of many parts. Each part has specially reserved thruster installation slots by human engineers. The purpose is to allow it to be modularly separated and then set foot into the starry sky with the human fleet.

Such demand undoubtedly increases the difficulty of building antimatter factories, but humans have sufficient technical accumulation in mechanical aspects, so the problem is not serious.

While the antimatter factory was being built in full swing, another plan was also being carried out at the same time - a new ship manufacturing plan.

Human engineers are ambitious, and they hope that the new warship of mankind will be a warship of the fourth-level civilization in the absolute sense. Then the requirements of the warship are obvious. First of all, the warship must have a weapon system that matches the fourth-level civilization level. Secondly, the fuel technology of the warship must also use antimatter annihilation to provide energy. Finally, the warship must have the ability to travel at warp speed.

This is the most basic requirement. On this basis, the new warship must also have the new shield technology of the fourth-level civilization, that is, the force field shield developed based on the grand unified force field. Then the warship must also have conventional navigation methods, that is, the magnetic propulsion system of the third-level civilization must also be installed.

Conventional navigation is mainly used for navigation in areas near various planets within the star system, because human scientists have found that in areas close to stars, the gravitational environment of the stars will have a certain impact on the warp speed, and forcibly entering the warp speed in these areas is prone to accidents. However, the specific impact range and the consequences of forcibly entering the warp speed, etc., have to wait for scientists to use spacecraft equipped with warp engines to conduct field experiments to get accurate numbers.

These must definitely be studied and data acquired in advance so that humans can safely use warp travel in various gravity environments in the future.

Compared to new warships, experimental spacecraft are much easier to make. You only need to use the old spacecraft as the frame, modify it, and install a warp engine and various testing equipment.

For some time, countless humans have devoted themselves to the great construction of advancing to the fourth-level civilization. Many new projects have been launched at the same time, new creations have continued to appear, and the starry sky where humans live has become a busy scene.

Warp engine power experiment, warp spacecraft test under gravity environment, antimatter factory, force field shield test platform, tachyon communication test, tachyon detection test, gravitational potential well technology application and large ship related research, antimatter-driven large magnetic thruster test, antimatter kinetic weapon project research, antimatter warp missile research, gravitational potential well technology related weapon research
From theory to technology, and then from technology to technological creations, mankind is transforming itself into a true fourth-level civilization.

(End of this chapter)