Chapter 360, Expensive Degenerate Materials

The space city where the Imperial Materials Science Research Institute is located is bustling with activity. With the emergence of magnetic energy technology, the Imperial scientists have opened a brand new door, and atomic materials science has officially entered the vision of Imperial scientists.

Countless scientists who study materials science have begun to study atomic materials science as if they have found a treasure. Countless new materials have begun to emerge continuously. Materials science, which had reached a bottleneck, has begun to shine with infinite light. Data on various aspects of materials, such as hardness and high temperature resistance, have been constantly refreshed.

Hardness 1000, hardness 2000, 3000, all kinds of new materials made of atomic materials will continuously refresh the original material hardness data with unprecedented data; high temperature resistance 10,000 degrees, 200 million degrees, 30,000 degrees, countless powerful materials have also emerged in the field of high temperature resistant materials, which will refresh the records again and again.

Just like a flood that broke through the dam, and like being enlightened, the development of the Imperial Materials Science field has achieved one surprising achievement after another at a speed that has never been seen before.

Xu Xingsi Laboratory, with his outstanding contributions in the field of materials science, Xu Xingsi has now become a giant in the field of imperial materials science and a pioneer in the field of atomic materials science.

At this time, Xu Xingsi stared at a display, and looked at the middle of the laboratory from time to time. A strange machine was working continuously. On the display, things like atomic structures were constantly combining to form three-dimensional structures.

Atomic materials science uses a powerful magnetic field confinement device. Of course, this power must have been carefully calculated by scientists, and the situation like last time will not occur again. The power of the magnetic energy cannon has amazed countless people, but it only takes a small power to create atomic materials.

The machine is constantly running. If it is not through the display, it is impossible to know the changes in the materials in the laboratory at this time, because with the naked eye, there is nothing in the middle of the laboratory except the machine that is constantly running, as if it is empty.

However, Xu Xingsi knows that not long ago, there were several tons of steel in it, but now all these steels have disappeared.

Of course, this kind of disappearance is not really disappearing, but it can no longer be seen with the naked eye, because it is rearranged from a very small atomic perspective, so the unit density is increased by an unknown number of times, just like a huge ball of cotton, which looks a lot, but if squeezed together, it will become a very small ball.

Or like air, the volume of compressed air is less than one ten-thousandth or one hundred-thousandth of the original volume of air. If it is compressed and arranged from an atomic perspective, the volume is even smaller by an unknown number of times. Several tons of steel disappeared in this way.

It is not really disappearing, but these steels are rearranged and forged from an atomic perspective by atomic material machines, so now they are not visible to the naked eye at all. Only electron microscopes can see the new materials that have become very small.

"Ding, there is not enough raw materials!"

The alarm interrupted Xu Xingsi's meditation. Several tons of steel were sent in and watched as the steel slowly disappeared, but until now, not even a shadow has been seen.

"Send another ten tons of steel in."

Xu Xingsi gave the order decisively, as if he was already accustomed to all this. Degenerate materials are very powerful, but the same degenerate materials are also very difficult to create.

Several tons of steel are reshaped by atoms, and the new material created cannot even be seen by the naked eye. It is conceivable that if you want to get a usable material, you don't know how much steel will be consumed.

Soon, the machine sent the material in again, and the atomic material machine started working again. On the display, under the guidance of the strong magnetic field beam, countless iron atoms were very obediently superimposed according to the set positions. These atoms continued to combine into a three-dimensional geometric pattern. If you look closely, you will find that these atoms form a regular hexagonal three-dimensional geometric pattern.

The scientists of the Empire studied graphite, coke and diamond, and knew that the atoms they were composed of were essentially the same, all made of carbon atoms, but the continuous arrangement and distribution of these carbon atoms created the differences in these substances. The performance of graphite, coke and diamond differed by more than tens of millions of times, and their own values ​​were simply incomparable.

So once atomic materials were born, the scientists of the Empire were very keen to change the distribution of different atomic materials, thus obtaining countless new materials that had never been obtained before.

At this time, Xu Xingsi was also the same. He was trying to use iron atoms to form a three-dimensional collection structure similar to diamond, hoping to obtain a powerful atomic material that was strong enough to support the warp engine.

The content on the monitor remained unchanged, but the ten tons of steel sent into the laboratory continued to disappear at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if they were missing for no reason. As long as the atomic material machine passed by these steels, the steel would quickly disappear.

Ten tons of steel, a hundred tons of steel, a thousand tons of steel...

As more and more steel was sent into the laboratory, the materials that were invisible to the naked eye in the middle of the laboratory finally became visible to the naked eye. Thousands of tons of steel, after being made of atomic materials, became a piece of material that was only the size of a fingernail.

This material is a rectangular, very thin, black, and faintly emitting streamers. Although it is very small, this piece of material is made of thousands of tons of steel. It also weighs thousands of tons, so that the laboratory has to shut down the gravity production device here, otherwise, such a small volume and such a large weight are enough to deform the steel in the laboratory.

"Haha, finally succeeded, more than 6,000 tons of steel, and finally only got such a small piece. Tsk, tsk, this degenerate material is really expensive."

Xu Xingsi was very happy in his heart, and at the same time he also sighed that more than 6,000 tons of steel, even if the empire's interstellar mining is very popular now, and there are many asteroids mined, there are still many places where steel is needed in the interstellar era.

The steel consumed by these spaceships and space battleships is calculated in tons and billions of tons, so the price of steel has always been high in the empire, and the interstellar mining industry has made a lot of money because of this. The market demand is really too hot, and there are many places that need steel.

A ton of steel costs about 1,000 yuan in the empire, and these more than 6,000 tons of steel are about 6 million yuan. It doesn't seem to be expensive, but you have to know that this is the currency of the empire, a constant energy currency, and the most important thing is that the material made of more than 6 million worth of steel is only the size of a fingernail.

Such a small volume is useless. You have to know that if such materials are used to build a spaceship or a space battleship, even if the empire is now rich, it will still go bankrupt. The astronomical expenditure is unbearable even for the empire.

Even if it is only used to build the engine of a space battleship, that is, to make a warp engine, with the size of the spaceship, the degenerate material consumed at that time will be very terrifying, because the warp engine of the spaceship and space battleship is also very large.

"The degenerate material has been created, but the cost of making a warp engine is 12345..."

Xu Xingsi looked at the computer, which was constantly calculating how much money it would cost to make a warp engine with the degenerate material. The numbers were astronomical.

"100 trillion!"

At the end, Xu Xingsi couldn't help but widen his eyes. According to the size of the anti-gravity engine on the existing imperial space battleships, the cost of making a warp engine of the same size with degenerate materials would reach an astonishing 100 trillion yuan.

100 trillion yuan, what is this concept? The empire has developed to the point where it has more than 30 galaxies and nearly 40 life planets, but the empire's annual fiscal revenue is only less than 100 trillion yuan, which means that the empire's annual fiscal revenue is barely enough to build 10 warp engines.

From here, we can know how expensive these degenerate materials are. If the national strength is weak, even if the technology of manufacturing degenerate materials can be researched, it is impossible to truly apply degenerate materials without strong national strength.

Of course, this is only calculated based on the current situation of the empire. The technology of mining asteroids has been continuously developing, the price of steel in the empire is also slowly declining, and the economic development speed of the empire is also very rapid. In a few decades, the empire will be able to handle it with ease.

But now, for the empire, facing such an astronomical price, even if the empire has the strength to manufacture a warp engine, the prime minister of the empire, Tu Xueli, can't help shaking his hands when signing, and the finance minister of the empire will be black.

Because in order to manufacture a warp engine, the empire's originally abundant finances will suddenly become stretched. As the finance minister, his future life will be very difficult. There are holes everywhere to fill. It's hard to save up some belongings, and they will be consumed all at once.

However, the money that should be spent still needs to be spent, especially the scientific research funding, which is related to the empire's national security and military strength enhancement. The empire's principle has always been to spend at all costs, and this money will definitely not be wasted.