Chapter 461: Towards the Sea of Stars!
As the space elevator gradually began to run steadily, the people who had felt a little nervous before gradually relaxed and began to pay attention to the scenery around them.
This is a huge difference between riding a space elevator and riding a spacecraft, because the outer frame structure of the space elevator is transparent, and you can directly see the scenery outside during the ride.
This design is not something Ning Chen deliberately did, but it is just a property of the material itself. However, this property is also a pleasant surprise, allowing people riding the space elevator to better enjoy the scenery along the way, just like enjoying a wonderful journey.
"Ning Chen, this feeling is so comfortable! I can clearly feel the process of the blue planet's gravity gradually decreasing, and I can also see the curvature of the blue planet gradually becoming clearer. This feeling is like my body is really leaving the blue planet, and in front of me is the entire vast universe..."
"Yes, Song Xiyun, I have a similar feeling now. We humans are really too small. In front of the entire universe, I am afraid that we are not even dust. But we have the courage to move towards the universe. In this regard, we are undoubtedly very great..."
In academic and technological research, Ning Chen will never be arrogant or self-deprecating, but will use a very accurate cognition to judge his research ability and research success.
Indeed, in front of the vast universe, Ning Chen knows that he is just an ignorant child, and perhaps he has not even entered the boundary of the universe's rules, but no matter how small he is, Ning Chen will never feel fear or retreat because of this.
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After several days of driving, the space elevator carrying Ning Chen, Song Xiyun, Yue Jiafeng and others finally arrived at their terminal.
In fact, the terminal is not "far" from the horizon of Blue Star. It is only a quarter of the distance from Blue Star to the Moon. If you take a normal spacecraft, you can even travel back and forth between Blue Star and the Moon in this time.
But even if the speed of the space elevator is relatively slow, the great significance brought by the success of this technology is incomparable to previous aerospace technology.
First of all, the cost of transporting personnel and materials to space by the space elevator is relatively low, because the space elevator can be reused almost infinitely. In theory, each time the space elevator works, it only needs to consume a part of the energy.
And today, with the gradual maturity of controlled nuclear fusion technology and room temperature superconducting technology, the value of these energies can even be ignored.
Although humans have now developed reusable rocket and spacecraft technology, there are many restrictions on these reuses, and the number of reuses is still relatively limited, far less than the service life of the space elevator, which is at least hundreds of years.
Secondly, the safety performance of the space elevator is also very guaranteed. This is like the difference between taking a high-speed train and taking a car. The probability of an accident between the two is completely not on the same level.
In addition, although the absolute speed of the space elevator is not so outstanding, the overall transportation efficiency is still very high. Each time, a large number of people and materials can be sent to space. If it is replaced by conventional rockets and spacecraft, it is unknown how many trips are needed to transport the same people or materials.
Therefore, in the long run, the construction of the space elevator can be said to be a milestone for the space development of the human beings on Blue Star, allowing humans to explore space more easily.
After reaching the end of the space elevator, Ning Chen and others came to the space station built by Xiaguo here and made a short stay here.
This is currently the largest space station in the world. It can accommodate hundreds of people and also carries the important task of storing and transporting space resources. However, Ning Chen feels that the carrying capacity of the current space station is definitely far from enough.
In the future, Ning Chen also plans to continue to expand the scale of this space station to adapt to the rapid development of space exploration work of Blue Star civilization.
After a day of rest in the space station, Ning Chen and his companions took the space elevator back to the surface of Blue Star.
The journey back was still very smooth. Except for the acceleration and deceleration process, the space elevator put some physical strain on the passengers. In most of the process, the space elevator was still very stable, even more stable than taking a plane or a ship.
After a few days of travel, Ning Chen and his companions returned safely to the surface of Blue Star, ending the first space elevator test mission.
After standing on the surface again, everyone was finally able to relax completely.
"Huh... Ning Chen, we are finally back on the Blue Planet. The trial run of the space elevator this time is indeed longer than expected. When we went to the moon together before, the time we spent on the road was not that long."
"Yes, Song Xiyun, judging from the time spent on the road alone, this time it does seem longer. But I think this experience is really good. During the entire journey, we don't need to worry about anything else, and we can even enjoy the space scenery during the journey. This experience is something that other space transportation methods cannot experience."
"That's true. I also enjoyed this trip very much. It was like being in space. I believe that everyone who has experienced this trip will have similar thoughts."
After hearing the conversation between Ning Chen and Song Xiyun, Yue Jiafeng also came over, nodded and said:
"Indeed, when we adapted to the rhythm of the space elevator, we really began to enjoy the scenery during the journey. I think many people want to take the space elevator in the future, not necessarily to go to space or the space station, but more importantly to experience the process. As for where the end is, it is not so important."
In fact, after riding the space elevator for a while, Yue Jiafeng basically eliminated the tension and fear of the space elevator in his heart, and similar feelings also appeared in the hearts of most people.
With the end of the first trial run of the space elevator, the number of viewers who continued to watch the live broadcast in the live broadcast room became much smaller, but there are still many people who continue to pay attention to the various situations of the space elevator and hope to have the opportunity to experience the space elevator project in person.
Some of them will not begrudge the money in their hands, because they can even afford the daily consumption of hundreds of thousands of yuan on the Science Fiction Island, so they will not begrudge the cost of taking the space elevator.
But Ning Chen is not in a hurry to open the space elevator project to the public immediately. After all, Ning Chen still hopes to make good use of the space elevator technology and continue to improve the various space projects of Blue Star. After these works are almost done, we will study the matter of opening the space elevator to me.
What Ning Chen wants to do most urgently at present is to transport more parts and materials to space through the space elevator, and continue to expand the scale of the space station, which can also make it easier for humans to explore space in the future.
After completing the planning of these works, Ning Chen can finally take a break and plan the future direction of technological development.
"Song Xiyun said before that she wanted to live on the second sci-fi island for a while, and now is the time to do it. Wait a minute... I don't know how the progress of the new industrial revolution is now."
These days, Ning Chen has been focusing on the space elevator and has no energy to pay attention to other things. He has not even glanced at the system interface.
It's not that Ning Chen can't even take the time to look at the system interface, but Ning Chen doesn't want to be distracted when working, but hopes that he can always maintain a highly focused state of attention.
Thinking that he is about to see the final result, Ning Chen is still a little nervous, because this can prove whether Ning Chen's previous assumptions are correct.
Of course, Ning Chen knows that everything he has done now will not immediately complete the breakthrough of the new generation of industrial revolution, otherwise, the system can have proactively prompted Ning Chen.
However, as long as the construction of the space elevator can make the entire progress bar achieve a leap-forward improvement, it is enough to represent that Ning Chen's previous assumptions are basically correct.
With this nervous and excited emotion, Ning Chen opened the system interface and found the location of the progress bar of the new generation of industrial revolution.
When Ning Chen saw the huge changes in the progress bar, he was so excited that he knew there was nothing wrong with his original choice, and it even exceeded Ning Chen's previous expectations.
"I never thought that the successful completion of the space elevator project would make the progress bar of the new generation of industrial revolution of Blue Star civilization break through 95%! It seems that this time, my technology tree is really right!"
In fact, different people will have different answers to the definition of the new generation of industrial revolution, but in Ning Chen's mind, the more important thing is the direction.
Whether it is controlled nuclear fusion technology, room-temperature superconducting technology, or biological computer technology and cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, these technologies are all for the development of civilization. There is no technology that is an indispensable answer to the development of civilization.
But Ning Chen firmly believes that the next goal of Blue Star civilization must be to move into space, so Ning Chen is willing to develop space elevator technology at all costs.
Fortunately, Ning Chen's idea has indeed been tempered by practice and did not disappoint Ning Chen.
After calming down, Ning Chen began to think about some of his future plans.
At present, Ning Chen is less than 5% away from completing the new generation of industrial revolution of Blue Star civilization.
To complete this small part of the remaining progress, Ning Chen knows that there are two ways.
The first is to develop a new technology. This technology needs to have a great enough significance, at least at the same level as controlled nuclear fusion and room temperature superconductivity, so that it can help Ning Chen break through the last 5% of progress.
The second method is to stop developing new technologies and focus on improving these current technologies.
Ning Chen knows that although these technologies such as room temperature superconductivity, controlled nuclear fusion, etc. seem to be very mature, they actually have great research and development potential and can continue to be strengthened.
As long as a suitable direction for technological enhancement is found, even without developing other new technologies, it is possible to continue to advance the technological level of Blue Star Civilization to a higher level.
After some rough calculations, Ning Chen determined that both directions could be chosen, but in comparison, the second option was the more appropriate choice overall.
Because starting the research and development of a new technology rashly is undoubtedly very risky, and until now, Ning Chen does not have any good ideas about the new technology, which is undoubtedly not conducive to the progress of the research.
When it comes to strengthening existing technologies, Ning Chen has many relatively mature ideas. Even while riding the space elevator, Ning Chen had already thought about it very carefully.
If he continues in this direction, Ning Chen fully believes that he can accomplish this goal without the need to develop any new technology immediately.
Thinking of this, Ning Chen decided to complete these tasks while he and Song Xiyun were heading to the second science fiction island.
The next day, Ning Chen told Song Xiyun these thoughts.
After hearing these thoughts of Ning Chen, Song Xiyun couldn't help but said excitedly:
"Ning Chen, we can finally go to the second science fiction island, right? This is really great news. I have been looking forward to this day for a long time, and now I can finally realize this dream."
"Yes, now the work on the space elevator has been basically solved, and the safety protection level nearby has been upgraded to a higher level than before. Finally, there is nothing for us to worry about. Of course, we are going to the second science fiction building this time. The island is not just about enjoying life. In addition, we have many other tasks to complete. "
Song Xiyun has naturally been mentally prepared for this. In Song Xiyun's mind, in addition to being able to feel the future life in advance, the Science Fiction Island is also a place to improve one's work efficiency. Song Xiyun will naturally not slack off because of this. own work.