Chapter 601: So Close
Inside the Space Division’s Ceylon headquarters building.
Dr. Mikoyan is discussing with a group of senior executives how to deal with the alien spacecraft.
Meng Haiyang, the head of the Interstellar Exploration Office, spread his hands helplessly : "Minister, if we want to send another Cicada-class spacecraft over, we won't have enough time!"
Chen Jianxiong, who came to listen to the meeting, disagreed with Meng Haiyang's idea: "No, I suggest launching a few more Cicada-class spacecraft. On the one hand, it can be a precaution; on the other hand, if there is no problem, the Cicada-class spacecraft can continue to move into deep space and explore more distant areas."
After hearing what Chen Jianxiong said, Mikoyan thought for a while and nodded: "No problem, it's just a few Cicada-class spacecraft. We can still squeeze out some production capacity."
In fact, the cost of the Cicada-class spacecraft is not high. The part that really increases the cost of the Cicada-class spacecraft is the hydrogen bomb carried by the spacecraft.
After all, the cost of producing thousands of miniature hydrogen bombs is not cheap. If it weren't for the fact that the Sapiens Company had heavy water-enriched seaweed to lower production costs, the consumption of thousands of miniature hydrogen bombs on this Cicada-class spacecraft would be something that ordinary forces could not afford.
Even America, in its former heyday, could not afford a spacecraft like the Cicada-class spacecraft. After all, refining heavy water and manufacturing hydrogen bombs are very unprofitable investments for a capital force.
Only the approach taken by Sapiens Company can allow investment without regard to cost.
Mikoyan and others discussed for a while and decided to launch three more Cicada-class spacecraft.
The head of the Space Equipment Office also said there was no problem.
After all, the production line of the Cicada-class spacecraft is still in production. There is currently one ship in stock and one is under construction. The factory can produce an average of one Cicada-class spacecraft every three months.
Now the situation is urgent, and they plan to increase production, changing the previous one shift a day to four shifts a day, directly increasing the manpower three times. It is estimated that within two months, the construction of two Cicada-class spacecraft can be completed.
After discussing the production of the Cicada-class spacecraft, another agency under the Space Business Division, the Space Observation Office, also spoke out.
Its person in charge is a rare white-haired old man. It is obvious that he was already very old before joining the Sapiens Company. Even if he used various life-extending technologies, he could only increase his lifespan partially, and his appearance could not be completely rejuvenated.
The old man didn't care much about this, especially for old-school scientists who studied cosmic astronomy. They did more theoretical research in this field and rarely involved in the open and secret struggles among various forces, so their ideas were relatively "naive".
This old man used to be from Lucia. He was poached by Mikoyan.
In the space division of Sapiens, employees coming from Lucia account for a high proportion, reaching about 17.3%.
Therefore, the Space Business Unit has some of the style of the Russian Bear family.
The old man stood up and said, "Dear colleagues, our Space Observation Office has some opinions on the situation of this alien spacecraft."
Everyone remained silent, waiting quietly for what would happen next.
The old man continued, "By inferring from the direction of the alien spacecraft's flight, we can roughly locate the route it had taken before. However, within that route area, the nearest planetary system is 18.4 light years away. At the current speed of 15 kilometers per second, the spacecraft would need to fly for 368,000 years. Is this possible?"
Is this possible?
Everyone fell into deep thought.
Even if the alien spacecraft was once 10 times faster than it is now, it would still take 36,800 years to reach its current location.
The old man did not hide anything and continued:
"From the detection data of Cicada-class 004, I found that this spacecraft was very likely to have used a nuclear fission power system, but the radioactivity in its core is almost gone. The magnetic field feedback of carbon 14 in its graphite buffer layer is equivalent to about 16% of the predicted model..."
Everyone realized instantly that the half-life of carbon 14 is about 5,700 years.
As a buffer layer of a nuclear fission reactor, carbon 14 will definitely appear inside the graphite nest due to the absorption of thermal neutrons.
However, in the graphite nest inside the alien spacecraft, the magnetic field feedback of carbon 14 is only equivalent to 16% of the predicted model, which can only lead to one conclusion: the carbon 14 in the graphite has gone through about two and a half half-lives.
This also indicates another fact, that is, the nuclear reactor of the alien spacecraft has stopped working for at least 13,000 years.
But the old man hadn't finished speaking yet, he continued to add:
"If we just didn't find carbon 14, it wouldn't mean anything. But I found the existence of another element in another analysis report. Although the content is very small, Cicada 004 is relatively close and still found some weak magnetic field signals. This element is plutonium 239."
Many people with quick minds discovered the key point instantly.
The half-life of plutonium 239 is 24,100 years.
There are still trace amounts of plutonium 239 remaining, which means that the spacecraft's nuclear reactor has been shut down for no more than 24,100 years.
Plus the carbon 14 residues found above.
From this, we can know that the nuclear reactor of the alien spacecraft was shut down between 13,000 and 24,100 years ago.
The old man came to a conclusion: "In other words, it is highly likely that all the creatures in this spaceship have died."
Another executive shook his head: "Not necessarily. Maybe they have body freezing technology, and the temperature inside the alien spacecraft is very low right now. There is a high probability that the alien creatures will be frozen inside the spacecraft."
The old man did not refute this, because it was indeed very possible, and he said another thing:
"I also discovered that the alien spacecraft itself is very complete. According to the general laws of space travel, if you don't actively slow down when sailing in this empty interstellar space, the spacecraft will basically not slow down much."
The employees of the Space Division present were naturally very clear about this .
"Since the spacecraft cannot slow down too much, let's assume that the maximum speed is 30 kilometers per second. If this spacecraft is flying from a planetary system 18.4 light years away, it will take 184,000 years. Can the spacecraft's nuclear fuel sustain it for that long?"
Hearing this, everyone was thoughtful.
Even if the spacecraft were to live frugally and keep its body frozen throughout the entire process, based on the eight nuclear reactors and 344 plutonium nuclear batteries discovered in current detection data, the spacecraft's fuel would not be able to sustain it for 30,000 years.
After all, there is only 33% of the plutonium 239 left in those nuclear batteries, and there is still a trace amount of plutonium 239 left in the reactor residues.
This shows that the nuclear battery continued to operate for some time after the nuclear reactor stopped working.
From this we can know that the spacecraft flew towards the solar system from a planet about 43,000 to 54,100 years ago.
Once the time range and speed range are determined, we can naturally determine the other party's departure planet and how many light years it is from the solar system.
The alien spacecraft flew for 43,000 to 54,100 years, during which time its speed was approximately between 15 kilometers per second and 30 kilometers per second.
It can be concluded that the range of the alien spacecraft may be around 20 trillion kilometers to 51 trillion kilometers.
This distance is indeed far, but on the scale of the universe, it is almost within reach.
After all, a light year is only 9.46 trillion kilometers.
20 trillion kilometers to 51 trillion kilometers, converted into light years, is 2.11 light years to 5.39 light years.
This scale is indeed within reach.
