Homo sapiens

Inside the Space Division's Ceylon Island headquarters building.

Dr. Mikoyan is discussing with a group of executives how to deal with the alien spacecraft.

Meng Haiyang, the head of the Interstellar Exploration Office, spread his hands helplessly: "Minister, if we want to launch another Cicada-class spacecraft, we won't have enough time!"

Chen Jianxiong, who came to observe the meeting, did not agree with Meng Haiyang's idea: "No, I suggest sending a few more Cicada-class spacecraft over, on the one hand, just in case; on the other hand, if there is no problem, then this Cicada-class spacecraft We can continue to move into deep space and explore more distant areas.”

After hearing what Chen Jianxiong said, Mikoyang thought for a while and nodded: "No problem, it's not just a few Cicada-class spacecraft, we can still squeeze out part of the production capacity."

In fact, the cost of the Cicada-class spacecraft is not high. The part that really increases the cost of the Cicada-class spacecraft is the propulsive hydrogen bomb carried by the spacecraft.

After all, the cost of producing thousands of micro-hydrogen bombs is not cheap. If the Homo sapiens company does not have heavy water to enrich seaweed, which can reduce production costs, the consumption of thousands of micro-hydrogen bombs for this Cicada-class spacecraft is really not something that ordinary forces can afford. of.

Even America, which was in its prime before, couldn't afford a Cicada-class spacecraft. After all, refining heavy water and manufacturing hydrogen bombs was a very uneconomical investment for a capital force.

Only in this way can the Homo sapiens company invest regardless of the cost.

Mikoyan and others discussed for a while and decided to launch three more Cicada-class spacecraft.

The head of the Space Equipment Office also said there was no problem.

After all, the production line of the Cicada-class spacecraft is still in production. There is currently one in stock and one is being built. The factory can produce one Cicada-class spacecraft every three months on average.

Now that the situation is urgent, they plan to increase production and change the previous one shift per day to four shifts per day, directly increasing the manpower three times. It is estimated that it will take less than two months to complete the construction of two Cicada-class spacecraft.

After discussing the production of the Cicada-class spacecraft, another agency under the Space Division, the Space Observation Office, also stood up and spoke.

The person in charge is a rare white-haired old man. It is obvious that this person was already very old before joining the Homo Sapiens Company. Even if various life extension technologies are used, they can still only increase part of the life span, and there is no way to completely rejuvenate the appearance.

The old man didn't care too much about this, especially for old-school scientists who study cosmic astronomy. They have more theoretical research in this field and rarely involve overt and covert struggles between various forces, so their ideas are more "naive".

This old man was from Lucia's side before, and he was recruited by Mikoyan.

In the space division of Homo sapiens, the proportion of employees coming from Lucia is very high, reaching about 17.3%.

Therefore, the Space Division is somewhat of a bear family style.

The old man stood up: "Dear colleagues, our Space Observation Office has some opinions on the situation of this alien spacecraft."

Everyone said nothing and waited quietly for the next step.

The old man continued: "Based on the flight direction of the alien spacecraft, we can roughly lock the other party's previous route, but within that route area, the nearest planetary system is also 18.4 light years away. With this Judging from the current speed of a spacecraft of 15 kilometers per second, it will take 368,000 years to fly. Is this possible?"

is it possible?

Everyone was lost in thought.

Even if the alien spacecraft used to be 10 times faster than it is now, it would still take 36,800 years to reach its current location.

The old man did not hide it and continued:

"From the detection data of Cicada 004, I found that this spacecraft most likely used a nuclear fission power system, but there is almost no radioactivity left in its core. In its graphite buffer layer, the magnetic field feedback of carbon 14 Equivalent to about 16% of the prediction model..."

Everyone immediately realized that the half-life of carbon 14 is about 5,700 years.

As the buffer layer of a nuclear fission reactor, carbon 14 will definitely appear in the graphite nest due to the absorption of thermal neutrons.

But now in the graphite nest in the alien spacecraft, the magnetic field feedback of carbon 14 is only equivalent to 16% of the prediction model. This can only show one conclusion: the carbon 14 in the graphite has passed about two and a half half-lives.

This also points to another fact, that is, the nuclear reactor of the alien spacecraft has stopped working for at least 13,000 years.

But the old man hadn't finished speaking yet. He continued to add:

"If carbon 14 is not found, it doesn't mean anything. But in another analysis report, I discovered the existence of another element. Although the content is already very small, Cicada No. 004 is relatively close. , we still found some weak magnetic field signals, and this element is plutonium-239."

Many people who turn their heads quickly discovered the key points in an instant.

The half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,100 years.

There is still a trace amount of plutonium-239 remaining, which means that the downtime of the spacecraft's nuclear reactor must not have exceeded 24,100 years.

Plus the carbon 14 residue found above.

It can be seen that the shutdown time of the alien spacecraft's nuclear reactor should be between 13,000 years ago and 24,100 years ago.

The old man came to a conclusion: "In other words, there is a high probability that all the creatures in this spaceship are dead."

Another executive shook his head: "Not necessarily, maybe the other party has body freezing technology, and the temperature inside the alien spacecraft is very low at this time, and the alien creatures will most likely be frozen in the spacecraft."

The old man did not refute this, because it was indeed very possible. He said another thing:

"I also made another discovery, that is, the alien spacecraft itself is very complete. According to the general rules of space navigation, when sailing in this kind of open interstellar space, if you don't actively slow down, the spacecraft will basically not slow down much."

All employees of the Space Division present were very aware of this.

"Since the speed of the spacecraft cannot slow down too much, if we use 30 kilometers per second as the limit speed, if this spacecraft flies from a planetary system 18.4 light-years away, it will take 184,000 years. The nuclear fuel of the spacecraft can support So long?"

Hearing this, everyone was thoughtful.

Even if they save money and freeze their bodies throughout the entire process, with the 8 nuclear reactors and 344 plutonium nuclear batteries discovered in the current detection data, the fuel of the spacecraft cannot sustain it for 30,000 years.

After all, only 33% of the plutonium-239 in those nuclear batteries is left as fuel, and there is still a trace amount of plutonium-239 left in the reactor residue.

This illustrates a problem. After the nuclear reactor stopped working, the nuclear battery continued to operate for a period of time.

It can be seen from this that the spacecraft flew from a certain planet toward the solar system about 43,000 to 54,100 years ago.

After determining the time range and the speed range, it is natural to determine the approximate number of light years from the other party's starting planet to the solar system.

The alien spacecraft flew for 43,000 to 54,100 years, during which the speed was between 15 kilometers per second and 30 kilometers per second.

It can be concluded that the range of the alien spacecraft may be around 20 trillion kilometers to 51 trillion kilometers.

This distance is indeed far away, but on the scale of the universe, it is almost close at hand.

After all, a light year is only 9.46 trillion kilometers.

20 trillion kilometers to 51 trillion kilometers are converted into light years, which is 2.11 light years to 5.39 light years.

This scale is indeed close at hand.

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