I live in the Martian wilderness!

"Kuafu..." Chief Engineer Zhang Zixuan murmured, "Isn't that the Deep Space Strike project, which is still in the highest level of secrecy? It's already ready for actual combat?"

"Yes, that's fine," Academician Wang said succinctly.

"Its principle is no longer simply nuclear thermal, but a more violent 'dual-mode electric propulsion-liquid oxygen afterburning nuclear thermal propulsion mode'."

"At its core is a 40-gigawatt (GW) ultra-high temperature particle bed reactor (PBR) with an extremely advanced design and a full hafnium-rhenium carbide alloy skeleton."

Upon hearing this power figure, the knowledgeable engineer gasped in shock.

40 gigawatts, which is equivalent to the total heating power of a large city being compressed into an engine.

Hafnium carbide is one of the substances with the highest known melting point, close to 4200K.

In 2047, with the latest graphene heat exchange network, it has become the cornerstone for nuclear thermal rockets to challenge the limits of thermodynamics.

Academician Wang pointed to the engine structure diagram on the screen, which was filled with complex pipes and nozzles:

"In pursuit of ultimate heat capacity and structural strength, we have completely abandoned the dream of lightweight design."

"The entire engine employs an extreme heavy-duty shielding and heat dissipation design, with a dry weight of 150 tons! This is the most extreme version that materials science can achieve in 2047."

"150 tons of dead weight?" Zhang Zixuan frowned. "That's practically a flying metal mountain."

"No, it's well worth it." Academician Wang's eyes gleamed with fervent light.

A swipe of the finger on the screen revealed the dense array of jets at the engine's throat, along with a ring of silver-gray superconducting coils surrounding the throat.

"Because in exchange, we installed an afterburner on it."

"This is the brutal aesthetics of liquid oxygen afterburning enhancement technology."

"As you can see, when thrust is needed, in addition to the ultra-high temperature hydrogen gas flow heated by the reactor, we will frantically inject liquid oxygen into the nozzle throat!"

"Excuse me, Academician Wang!" A chief engineer in charge of the thermal protection system couldn't help but stand up, staring intently at the screen.

"When liquid oxygen mixes and burns with 3000K hot hydrogen, the core temperature will instantly exceed 5500 degrees Celsius! Hafnium carbide simply cannot withstand this thermal shock; the nozzle throat will vaporize within 0.1 seconds!"

"If it's a physical nozzle, it will indeed vaporize." Academician Wang calmly pressed a button, and a circle of dark blue magnetic field lines instantly lit up on the throat structure on the screen.

"But the Kuafu uses a 'magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) virtual throat'."

He explained, "This is a valuable technological legacy left over from when the country conquered 'magnetically confined controlled nuclear fusion' twenty years ago—high-temperature superconducting magnetohydrodynamic confinement."

"Around the throat, this set of ultra-heavy coils, wrapped with domestically produced second-generation rare-earth barium copper oxide (ReBCO) high-temperature superconducting tape, will generate an extremely strong magnetic field of up to 65 Tesla."

"When liquid oxygen is injected and a secondary deflagration occurs, the high-temperature gas will be instantly ionized into plasma."

"Under the influence of the Lorentz force, this destructive flame will be firmly 'pinched' in the center of the nozzle, forming a 'magnetic throat' that is invisible to the naked eye."

"A few millimeters of absolute vacuum insulation layer will always be maintained between the flame and the nozzle wall. This is not just insulation; it is 'non-contact combustion' at the physical level."

"It was within this virtual space confined by the magnetic field that liquid oxygen and hydrogen underwent a violent secondary combustion!"

"This not only greatly increases the exhaust mass of the working fluid, but also further extracts thrust using chemical energy!"

"In afterburner mode, although its specific impulse drops from 1150 seconds in nuclear thermal mode to 500 seconds, its thrust increases by 3.5 times instantly, reaching an astonishing 700 tons!"

Everyone in the conference room was stunned by this number.

"You heard me right," Academician Wang said firmly. "This is equivalent to condensing most of the total thrust of a Long March 5 carrier rocket into this one engine!"

"We will use this earth-shaking force to propel thousands of tons of fuel like a cannonball, shooting straight at Mars!"

"It possesses both the endurance of nuclear power and the explosive thrust of chemical rockets. This is the heart of the deep-space assault ship!"

"Wait a minute, Academician Wang." The speaker was the most senior structural engineer in the aerospace group. He recovered from his shock and immediately pointed out the key issue.

"Hichō's time dropped from 1150 seconds to 500 seconds? Isn't that a drastic reduction in efficiency?"

"Yes, efficiency has been halved, but it's a strategic sacrifice."

"It's like a race car that, in its rush to accelerate, ignores fuel consumption! It just dumps liquid oxygen in and makes it burn like crazy!"

"Although this will increase fuel consumption by six or seven times, it will result in a 3.5-fold increase in thrust!"

"Only in this way can we forcibly pull the 6,000-ton behemoth from near-Earth orbit to escape velocity within a few tens of minutes, completely breaking free from the chains of Earth's gravity!"

"I see. The thrust is sufficient. But how do you handle the 'decay heat' after the nuclear reactor shuts down?"

"The residual heat from a reactor with a power density of tens of gigawatts (GW) after just one second of shutdown could melt a spacecraft."

"Old Zhao, you're right. Right after shutdown, the reactor core is like a hot iron at several thousand degrees Celsius; generating electricity alone can't dissipate that heat."

"Therefore, we divided the cooling process into two stages: first, 'forced exhaust,' and then 'recycling.'"

He pointed to the first set of large exhaust pipes and explained, "The first stage is the 'open exhaust mode' for the first six hours."

"When the engine cuts off the thrust, we don't shut it down. Instead, we let the liquid hydrogen at -253 degrees Celsius continue to flush the scorching hot reactor core."

"The moment liquid hydrogen comes into contact with the reactor core, it undergoes extremely violent boiling and vaporization. In physics, hydrogen is the most heat-absorbing 'sponge' in the universe."

"The moment it turns into gas, it frantically 'tears' off an astonishing amount of heat from the reactor and then, carrying this intense heat, ejects it directly into space."

"Although this will waste hundreds of tons of fuel, it is the price that must be paid to 'force-cool' the reactor."

Academician Wang's finger slid to another set of pipes, "In the second stage, six hours later, when the core temperature drops to the safety line, the exhaust valve will be closed and the system will switch to 'closed recovery mode'."

"At this point, the gentle residual heat in the reactor core is no longer a threat, but an energy source."

"We use this heat to drive a turbine, converting it into up to 18 megawatts of continuous electricity!"

"This massive amount of electrical energy, in turn, drives the spacecraft's active cooling system, keeping the remaining fuel below zero degrees Celsius."

"This is a perfect closed loop: using the waste heat from the reactor to generate electricity, and then using the generated electricity to cool the reactor."

"More importantly," a glint flashed in Academician Wang's eyes, "this 18 megawatts is not just for cooling. During the cruise phase, the reactor will switch to a low-power generation mode, with the output stabilizing at the 500 megawatt level, and then switch to a high-specific-impulse electromagnetic propulsion mode."

"By then, it will not be necessary to consume large amounts of liquid oxygen; continuous acceleration can be maintained simply by ejecting ionized hydrogen. This is the true meaning of 'dual-mode': near-Earth penetration using chemical afterburners, and deep-space acceleration using electric propulsion."

"In electromagnetic mode, the specific impulse can reach 3200–4200 seconds—far exceeding the 1150 seconds of nuclear thermal direct displacement. Although the thrust is only a few tens of Newtons, its endurance efficiency is more than three times that of nuclear thermal direct displacement!"

Old Zhao stared at the loop diagram for a full half minute before finally exclaiming, "Using 700 tons of thrust to travel, 18 megawatts of electricity for cooling, and high specific impulse electromagnetic acceleration... what a damn powerful yet cost-effective solution!"