Chapter 142 Two routes
The construction of the Gravitational Wave Laboratory is the most eye-catching thing on the entire earth during this period. Almost everyone deeply remembers the grand occasion of the Gravitational Wave Laboratory when it was finally established. And they will never forget it in their lifetime.
Its momentum is really too great. People almost see all famous figures related to gravitational wave communication technology on TV. One familiar after another, large companies, large companies, etc. that are in line with people's minds, will contribute all their strength to the gravitational wave laboratory. The scale is slightly smaller, and there is not even a single shot.
All senior officials of the world government attended the event, and those with a slightly lower level were not even given a single shot. Even decision makers did not have much chance to show up. A large number of shots were all contributed to scientists who were even enough to leave their names in textbooks.
Even Xu Zhenghua only stayed in the camera for no more than two minutes.
At this moment, countless people are full of confidence. At this moment, countless people are full of enthusiasm.
Never before, human civilization can organize such a powerful force and then devote all to a single thing. Everyone who has seen the grand occasion firmly believes that in the face of such a powerful force, there is no difficulty to stop them. It is necessary to overcome the difficulties in gravitational wave communication technology.
This is the general trend. This must be the general trend.
After the establishment celebration, the scientists mobilized immediately devoted themselves to their work. With various materials, various existing research results, and the wisdom of many scientists, people quickly confirmed something.
There are two routes to overcome obstacles to gravitational wave communication technology.
First, the theoretical route. People who support this route firmly believe that by developing theory, gravity is unified with the other three basic forces, and then under the guidance of the theory, gravitational waves are artificially created through the conversion mechanism between different forces, and using this as the carrier of information is the only feasible route.
Xu Zhenghua is also a supporter of this route and the most core leader.
With the "Special M Theory" that has achieved great development before and with the concerted efforts of all mankind, Xu Zhenghua believes that the days of truly unifying the four basic forces will not be too far away.
The second route is called the engineering route. The scientists who support this route are another very famous and prestigious scientist, Fu Yuming, the leader. They firmly believe that the attempt to unify the four basic forces is impossible to succeed, at least in the near future. This is a dead end. Choosing a theoretical route will only waste human society's resources and not much time. Relying on the natural formation mechanism of gravitational waves to generate gravitational waves is the only feasible way.
Any object with mass will generate gravitational waves when it is moving at accelerated. There are two key points in this: one is with mass. In this way, the existence of mass is eliminated. The other is that it must be accelerated. In this way, objects that move at a constant speed will be eliminated.
According to this standard, humans can produce gravitational waves by walking, sitting, car movement, water flow, etc. Scientists who support engineering routes hope to control certain large-mass objects controlled by humans to act as gravitational wave generation devices to achieve the purpose of gravitational wave communication.
Their initial vision is to build a "dumbbell"-shaped object in space, install a heavy counterweight at both ends of the dumbbell, such as 10,000 tons or more, and install a thruster at both ends of the dumbbell, and use a thruster to adjust the speed of the dumbbell's self-spinning in space. In this way, through the change of speed, gravitational waves that can carry information can be generated.
Scientists who support the theoretical route believe that gravitational waves are too weak and the mass that humans can control is too small, so the gravitational waves generated are even weaker and can easily be submerged in numerous background noises. This is the case even if the mass of the counterweight is increased to 100 million tons.
It should be noted that the mass of a rocky asteroid with a diameter of about 400 meters has exceeded 100 million tons. However, the asteroid of such a magnitude is more than one million in the solar system, not to mention the Milky Way and the entire observable universe. What's more, if you want to manipulate 100 million tons of mass freely, it is impossible to achieve the current level of human science and technology.
Scientists supporting the engineering route believe that even if humans can only control the mass of 1,000 tons, this is the only feasible method, because the theoretical route is even more impossible to follow.
The dispute between the two routes, to be a metaphor, can be compared to chemical bombs and nuclear bombs. Assuming there is a very strong target that must be blasted, one side believes that nuclear energy cannot be broken in the short term, and the accumulation of sufficient amount of chemical explosives is the only way to blast, while the other side believes that it is impossible to accumulate so many chemical explosives. First, develop theories, master the conversion method between mass and energy, and use mass to generate energy to blast them.
After many discussions, supporters of the two routes were still unable to convince each other. So the world government finally made a decision, and the two routes were promoted at the same time.
At the beginning of its establishment, the Gravitational Wave Laboratory was divided into two factions. However, because of the great abundant human and material resources, this will not have any impact on the overall research.
With the unlimited support of the world government, the two major factions began research at the same time.
The engineering route scientists led by Fu Yuming came up with a preliminary construction plan just three months later. The core of the plan is a new large-thrust ion thruster with antimatter as the source of energy. However, after multiple tests, the thrust power of the ion thruster was never able to meet the requirements, and the plan had to be discarded.
Afterwards, people tried chemical fuel propulsion plans. However, because the chemical fuel propulsion efficiency was too low, the fuel consumption would reach an unimaginable terrifying level. With human technological strength, they had to give up.
In addition to the chemical fuel propulsion scheme, people also proposed a photovoltaic drive scheme, trying to gather sunlight, or simply emit lasers from the space station to drive the "dumbbells" to rotate at different speeds with photovoltaic pressure, but it was eventually abandoned because it could not be implemented in engineering.
Later, even the most basic idea of building in space was abandoned. People finally decided to build it on the surface and use electromagnetic force to push them to rotate.
But people soon discovered that this route was not feasible. The reason is very simple. The power required to drive such a large mass is terrifying. Current power transmission technology cannot reach such a high energy density. This route has to be abandoned.
Research, verification and experimentation of these four routes consumed a lot of people's energy and time. But the final result was successive failures. Apart from these four routes, the other routes were even more whimsical and could not even pass theoretical verification, let alone actual verification.
The project route was in a dilemma for a while.
And now, it has been two years since the establishment of the Gravitational Wave Laboratory. There are only more than two years left before the shady curtain contacts Jupiter.
Professor Fu Yuming, who has always been energetic and energetic, refused to tolerate a white hair on his head. He always dyed his hair black, became obviously haggard and aging. He couldn't sleep all night and his hair fell a lot, showing a trend in the Mediterranean.
One afternoon, he came to Xu Zhenghua's office anxiously.
During this period, the two of them had been communicating information, but had never met. At this moment, when they saw Xu Zhenghua, Fu Yuming was surprised. When he saw clearly, Xu Zhenghua's eyes looked at him were full of surprise.
"you……"
"you……"
The two of them spit out a word at the same time, but they kept their mouths at the same time.
"You talk first." Xu Zhenghua sighed.
"Professor Xu, I haven't seen you for more than a year, why are you so much older?"
Professor Fu Yuming sighed too.
This is indeed the case. Compared to more than a year ago, although Xu Zhenghua was aging, he was still energetic and had a tough body. Now Xu Zhenghua's gray hair has begun to become thinner, and his body has obviously begun to hunchback, and even a few of his teeth have fallen off.
"I want to ask you this question too."
Xu Zhenghua's heart was a little sour.
Compared to more than a year ago, isn’t that the same for Fu Yuming?
"Why, your progress is not going well?"
"Ask aware of it."
Xu Zhenghua snorted coldly.
When Xu Zhenghua truly led thousands of outstanding scientists with the top wisdom of the human race, he began to charge towards the goal of unifying the four basic forces, he truly discovered how difficult this problem is.
He has put all his efforts and energy into it, and he can guarantee that everyone involved in this project has put their own efforts, but now, the progress has only been so small.
It was like a horse running towards the mountains ahead. The mountains were so close, but they ran until exhausted, but found that the mountains were still at their original distance and had not changed at all.
This made people even start to feel desperate, and they doubted that they would never reach the mountains.
"We have only been more than two years left, and we have not made any progress."
Professor Fu Yuming said quietly: "Everyone puts his hope on both of us. In order to support our work, the world government has cut off people's social welfare. People are frugal, gritting their teeth, and supporting us without any complaints, we, we..."
Fu Yuming could not say such despairing words in front of others. But there were no concerns in front of Xu Zhenghua.
Xu Zhenghua also stood up, standing side by side with Fu Yuming in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the world outside the window.
The road outside was a bit broken, but it was not repaired because there was no funding. The cars were much less than before. Because ordinary people didn’t have much extra money, they took the initiative to reduce their travel. Even at night, street lights were turned on one at a distance to save energy.
The human world has really tried its best.
Xu Zhenghua stood quietly, without saying a word, allowing the breath of despair to spread and occupy the entire room, covering both of them.
Chapter completed!