Urban Sims

How big is the universe?

Greater than 10 billion light-years.

How big is the Milky Way?

One hundred thousand light years in diameter.

How big is a star system?

It's not big, about one light-year in radius.

But even at a short distance of one light-year, Feitian flew for nearly three years at a low flying speed.

Why can't we go faster and directly accelerate to the maximum state?

Mainly for the safety of the spacecraft.

Because there is an asteroid belt 40 to 50 million kilometers away from the Star Bora, and there are many space meteorites. Even if the density is relatively sparse, the speed of the meteorites is very slow, and the probability of collision is very low, but the Feitian is still At a speed of no more than 0.2 times the speed of light, it passed through the asteroid belt within ten minutes.

Further outside the asteroid belt, more than a billion kilometers away, there is a material belt called the "Corboy Belt", which contains many icy meteorites and asteroids. There are more meteorites in it, but the density is also higher. It was small and not very threatening, so the Feitian passed through the Corboy Belt without slowing down much.

The next long stretch of road was a relatively safe and smooth road, but after the Feitian accelerated to 0.40 times the speed of light, it still did not dare to reach the maximum speed.

Because there is a belt of material at the outermost edge that is nearly one light-year away from the central star, called the "Oort Cloud". This is the material that was thrown to the outermost edge after the supernova explosion, mainly some hydrogen molecules and some The density of the frozen material cluster is very low, and even under weak star illumination, it is difficult to detect its distribution traces.

As he travels through the Oort Nebula, Sugaru must be careful not to hit a clump of material—even one the size of a baseball.

The radar system is turned on at full power, and weapons officer Gu Fan enters the best shooting position. Once a threatening frozen meteorite appears in front, he will immediately use high-energy laser to destroy it!

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

There was a roar from the outer shell of the spacecraft, subtle and crisp.

If you look at a high-magnification microscope, you can see that some small molecular substances in the Oort Nebula are colliding fiercely with the force field alloy on the outer shell of the Feitian spacecraft, and even wiping out clumps after clumps on the surface of the spacecraft. The "spark" was like an explosion.

In fact, this is an explosion. Even if the Feitian at 0.4 times the speed of light collides with a stationary atom, the huge relative speed is equivalent to a medium-low energy level collision in a particle accelerator, and can even blast away the atomic nucleus. .

Fortunately, the force field alloy that makes up the outer shell of the Feitian has a layer of high-intensity electric field attached to its surface. When negatively charged electrons hit this layer of electric field, they will be absorbed, and the positively charged nuclei will be bounced (photons will also rebound), thereby avoiding the bombardment of external atomic nuclei and causing damage to the surface of the spacecraft.

However, this layer of force field can provide good protection when the speed of the spacecraft is less than 0.5 times the speed of light and the density of the impactor is small. Once the speed of the spacecraft exceeds 0.5 times the speed of light or encounters an impact with a high-density object, the force field alloy on the outer shell of the spacecraft cannot If you resist, the hull will be damaged.

This is the reason why it is difficult for objects to break through the speed of light under normal dynamic conditions. The faster the speed, the greater the energy required. In space where matter is thin, even if it collides with extremely trace amounts of elements, the destructive power produced will be extremely high.

In addition, there is a ubiquitous "gravitational field" in the universe. In this gravitational field, the faster a moving object is, the greater its mass will be. The increased mass will slow down the moving speed of the object. As a result, it can never exceed the speed of light.

The combination of the above factors leads to the conclusion that no object can move faster than light.

This is the "light speed barrier".

The speed of light barrier cannot be broken through, but it does not completely mean that humans cannot achieve faster-than-light flight.

For example, there is something like a curvature engine. It twists space and causes the spacecraft to "slide" forward in the distorted space and time, just like a person walking downhill. By changing the space, it can achieve faster-than-light flight.

Theoretically, the curvature engine can achieve faster-than-light flight, but how to achieve it? What is the specific principle? The scientists of the Blue Star Federation have not mastered it so far, and have not even touched the door...Science is not imagination, not movies and novels. Every leap forward in science requires a long period of exploration.

And the accumulation of countless failures.

"The Feitian has passed through the Oort Cloud and entered the absolute vacuum zone."

On this day, according to the monitoring data, the spacecraft brain reported.

"Finally we are completely out of the range of Star Bora!"

Yun Xinghe breathed a sigh of relief. He always felt like he was being restrained within the influence of stars. Now the Feitian flew 1 light-year away. In an absolute vacuum area where there was almost only dim starlight, the spacecraft could accelerate to its maximum speed. quick.

"Navigator, have you calculated the route? You have been calculating it for more than two years. Have you calculated the best route?" Yun Xinghe asked.

"Forget it!"

Navigation officer Berekov opened the projected star chart, drew a smooth, curved arc in the air with his fingers, and said with a smile on his face: "Following this route, we can save 11 days before reaching the Oma Nebula. , and 0.4% of fuel, this is the most economical route.”

"11 days?"

Sugaru, who was in the driving position, curled his lips, shook his head and said, "Brother Berekov, our flight schedule is 186 years, and you just helped save more than ten days?"

"A few tenths of a ten thousandth of fuel was used up by pushing the booster rod forward in my hand for a few minutes. What should I save?"

Sugaru's face was full of disdain.

"Fly your spaceship and stop talking nonsense!"

Yun Xinghe glared at him, turned to Berekov and said: "Ignore him and import the route into the intelligent driving system. The spacecraft will start to accelerate soon."

"Yes, Captain."

After Belekov imported the route into the driving system, Yun Xinghe issued an instruction: "Chief engineer, pay attention to the working status of the engine, and the helmsman starts to accelerate!"

"yes!"

"yes!"

After the output power of the material reactor increased, Sugaru looked excited. He pressed his hand hard and pressed down the afterburner rod.

A strong pushing feeling came from the back.

"The spacecraft is accelerating. The current acceleration is 1G, 1.5G, 2G... 7G, 8G, which has reached the maximum."

"The current speed of the spacecraft is 0.4000012 times the speed of light, 0.4000014 times the speed of light..."

"Oh~ speed up! Speed ​​up!" Seeing the speed of the spacecraft increasing continuously on the speedometer, Sugaru shouted with excitement on his face.

However, the acceleration of 8G is equivalent to the weight of eight people pressing on themselves. Everyone feels a little uncomfortable. The male team members may be okay, but for the female team members with weaker physiques, they are all trying hard to hold on.

"Miqin, Aijia, Qiaoqiao, this acceleration will last for 100 hours. Can you all hold on?"

"Hold on." Xianglan Mikoto said softly.

"This level is nothing, I have played more exciting games." Aika Uehara looked relaxed. As a repairman and a woman, she can really bear this level.

"Brother, I can do it." Yun Qiaoqiao's face was a little pale. She was the weakest among the three female team members. Even though she passed strict training before boarding the spacecraft, she had to bear the 8G load for a long time, which was difficult for her. That said, there are indeed certain challenges.

"Chief engineer and helmsman, reduce the acceleration of the spacecraft to 6G for a duration of 50 hours and accelerate in three stages." In order to take care of the female team members on the ship, Yun Xinghe adjusted the acceleration strategy.

"yes!"

After a while, everyone's burden was reduced and they felt a lot more comfortable.

…

One month later.

Feitian reaches its maximum speed - 0.55 times the speed of light.

The three main engines are shut down and the two low-power engines are started every ten hours to keep the spacecraft in a constant speed roaming state.

Before entering the dormant cabin to hibernate, Yun Xinghe and all the crew members planned to record a video and send it to their relatives on Star Bora to report on their safety.

Exactly 0.5 light-months away, there is a large quantum communication relay base station. Through this relay base station, the recorded video can be transmitted to the Bora star within 2 seconds, and because of the short distance, the amount of information is There are no big restrictions on the Internet, as long as it does not exceed 1G.

So we took advantage of this last opportunity to express our longing for our loved ones without restraint. Each of the ten crew members on the Feitian spoke in front of the camera for more than half an hour, making various faces, taking selfies, and chatting with their teammates. Interactive, finally using a high bit rate format, after compressing the video, the amount of information is only 0.8G.

Before sending the message, because the video had to be marked with time, the time on the spacecraft was September 11, 1531, 9:48:32. Yun Xinghe subconsciously entered this time, and the first officer Lan Xiulong left. He came over and suddenly shook his head and said: "No, this is the wrong time."

"What's wrong?"

Yun Xinghe raised his head and wondered.

"The speed of the Feitian is now 0.55 times the speed of light. According to the time dilation formula, our time should have expanded by 1.156 times. In other words, after we have spent 1 day inside the Feitian, 1.156 days have passed outside. We are about a For those who entered this speed a month ago, the outside world should have passed 34.68 days, and they may have been September 15th or 6th.”

"Oh, I almost forgot about this."

Yun Xinghe slapped himself on the head and immediately changed the video recording time.

In fact, the clock in the Feitian is adjusted every once in a while, especially the hometown time. In the past three years, they have adjusted it dozens of times. Up to now, the accumulated time difference between the two clocks has exceeded 100 days.

According to the theory of relativity, the faster an object moves, the slower the time flows. If the speed of the spacecraft can reach 0.999C, time will expand 22.36 times. The closer to the speed of light, the greater the time expansion factor.

This is a very normal physical phenomenon, especially for astronauts who are active in space. Time has slowed down. Their aging rate will be slower than that outside. Those places they want to go will feel earlier than expected. arrive.

But for your loved ones, the faster you run, the faster they age and the faster they leave you.

In this regard, time is unfair, as if it is joking with you and playing tricks on your knowledge of common sense.

But this is the law of physics, this... is the law of space and time.

Some readers said that the theme of this copy is adventure, not daily pretentiousness, but also some scientific common sense and the magic of the universe. The author's knowledge reserve is not enough, but he also wants to write some harder science fiction, and It’s not fantasy disguised as science fiction.