Chapter 39 Helium-3 Nuclear Bomb

At 3:36 pm, a light that had never appeared in the Ekri Crater suddenly flashed.

I saw a huge dark purple smoke column rising to a height of 20,000 meters in one second, and continued to rise, and the dazzling light illuminated the entire earth!

The huge fireball with a diameter of almost 5,000 meters rolled up and turned from dark purple to orange, and at the same time the sphere expanded rapidly, as if a natural force that had been bound for billions of years was suddenly released!

The moon has no atmosphere and low gravity, and the scene of a nuclear explosion is completely different from that of the earth.

Because its surface is a vacuum environment, it is impossible to transmit shock waves, so the killing range is much smaller, but the dust that soared into the sky instantly gained powerful kinetic energy and continued to spread outward. Some even broke free from the gravity of the moon and flew directly into space.

Scientists became busy in an instant, satellites began to collect data continuously, various scientific instruments began to be mobilized, and there was even a slight vibration under their feet. However, this vibration was very weak when it was transmitted to the inside of the base.

Through the satellite image of the moon, we can see that the extremely powerful light radiation has almost no obstacles in the vacuum, and it shoots in all directions in an instant. The extremely high temperature instantly turns the nearest dust into plasma.

And the electromagnetic pulse is almost simultaneously radiating in all directions, and the entire screen is shaking.

"This is... the satellite is overloaded by the electromagnetic pulse." A scientist stopped his hand and explained to himself. When the satellite was designed, it had the function of resisting solar wind. When it was subjected to a large number of electromagnetic pulses, it would automatically shut down to avoid damage.

"Start the backup device!"

"Send back the data collected by the lunar rover!"

This little trouble obviously did not bother everyone. One after another, the data was collected and recorded in the archives.

Ding Yidong's eyebrows began to curl up, and his face became visibly ruddy.

Although the nuclear bomb exploded, it was not necessarily successful. Only after the data analysis, this test met the level of one million equivalents, it could be called a real success.

"Congratulations, Professor Ding."

"Congratulations! Celebrate in advance!"

"Thank you, thank you everyone!"

Although the final results have not yet come out, everyone has begun to congratulate Ding Yidong in advance. These scientists are very sensitive to data. Although they have not used computers for analysis, they can basically say that they are close to the truth. A joyful atmosphere floats in the air.

"Okay, comrades!" Yu Yifeng was also slightly excited. He coughed and said, "First of all, we want to thank Professor Ding Yidong for his dedication over the years. The various technologies he invented played a vital role in this experiment. Here, we express our sincere gratitude to him!"

There was thunderous applause below. Many people have read Ding Yidong's papers. It is indeed very good. This is real talent, not nonsense. Such people are always worthy of respect.

"Then, after everyone goes back, analyze the data. Then think about the possibility of using helium-3 nuclear bombs instead of hydrogen bombs. We will have another meeting at 8 o'clock tonight."

Although the meeting was held at 8 o'clock in the evening, it was late, but no one complained. Everyone was used to it. In other words, everyone was very motivated when facing new things, and they hurried back to analyze the data one by one.

…

The meeting started on time at 8 o'clock. A debate on helium-3 began. Not only the scientists came, but also a large number of engineers. It can be said that it was a relatively important meeting.

There were two themes for the meeting. First, to explore the possibility of replacing hydrogen bombs with helium-3; second, to discuss Professor Ding Yidong's "Billion-ton Nuclear Bomb Propulsion Plan".

"Comrades, good evening."

Yu Yifeng stood at the front of the meeting. He was very accustomed to this kind of scene. "Everyone has already known about the helium-3 nuclear bomb test this afternoon. Now I will report the final result: our scientists have calculated and analyzed that the nuclear bomb in this test finally released-"

"The energy of the explosion of 1.016 million tons of TNT is basically in line with expectations."

"This test was a complete success!"

The people below began to applaud enthusiastically, and it took a long time to stop.

"Okay, let's move on to the first topic of today's meeting: Explore the possibility of replacing hydrogen bombs with helium-3."

"First, let me explain why we need to do this, because our energy shortage has caused some engineering projects to lag behind seriously."

"In more than three months, we have only produced less than four million tons of steel, 500,000 tons of copper, and even less non-ferrous metals such as titanium and aluminum, which is seriously below expectations. The main reason is still the lack of energy."

Yu Yifeng listed a series of tables on the screen, which listed the progress of various projects in the base over the past three months, including metal smelting, internal facility construction, engine device construction, mining volume, etc.

The people present are all responsible persons from all walks of life. They are familiar with their own projects, but not so clear about others. They all have an intuitive view of the numbers. To be honest, the data given by Yu Yifeng is generally much worse than expected.

The atmosphere in the meeting hall immediately quieted down, and some of the original whispers disappeared.

This poured cold water on many people's hearts. After the party just yesterday, many people were still immersed in that crazy ambition. After returning to reality, the cold data gave them a blow.

Only 56% of the projects met the standards, and 44% of the projects were behind schedule! This progress was much worse than they had imagined. Most of the people present knew the truth that the moon was about to be destroyed. Regardless of whether the progress was good or bad, humans had to leave the moon!

The consequences of leaving without completing the project can be imagined.

The project leaders who were behind schedule lowered their heads in shame, feeling a little aggrieved. They really had tried their best.

"Let me say here that it is not a human problem, but an energy problem." Yu Yifeng came to the rescue in time: "Our previous calculations were too optimistic, and there were some deviations. No matter how much we save, the energy is still not enough!"

"So I'm going to give you a solution here... that is - cut off the hydrogen bomb plan and replace it with a more energy-efficient helium-3 nuclear bomb, and use the freed energy for production!" He gave some more data. The hydrogen bomb plan would consume about 30% of the energy of the entire base. If all this was saved...

This plan sounded good, and the people below began to discuss it.

However, many people were not very willing to accept it if they were asked to overturn the original plan and change it to a new one, or it would take time to digest it. Humans are creatures that don't like to change. Even if the new plan is better and more perfect, people will still feel awkward or risky for a while.

"Mr. Yu Yifeng, is the helium-3 nuclear bomb you mentioned reliable? We have only tested this weapon once!" an engineer asked.

"Your concern is not unreasonable. Professor Ding Yidong should explain this question." Yu Yifeng said.

Ding Yidong came to the stage, took out the speech he had prepared long ago, and gave a speech with slides. He had been preparing for a long time and tried his best to convert the profound content into something that everyone could understand.

The main content highlights two points: first, he has been studying for more than ten years, and the core content has been explored very thoroughly. Second, mainstream scientists agree with his plan.

No matter how much you explain the technology, it is better to promote your authority. There are specialties in the profession. Anyway, most people can't understand it. No matter how much you say, it is better to say directly, "I am the authority, you must believe me!"

His method seems to be good. Many people's emotions began to stabilize and seemed to be somewhat acceptable. Looking at the mainstream scientific authorities, they are also more accepting of this plan.

Then, Ding Yidong brought up the final topic - "Billion-ton Helium-3 Nuclear Bomb Propulsion Plan"!

"I'm going to give you a new plan here. Why not make a billion-ton helium-3 nuclear bomb that can blast the spacecraft up in one go? It saves time, effort, efficiency, and speed!"

This time, it was like a heavy bomb thrown into the crowd!