Chapter 380

There is not much time left for the "He-3" project team.

Everyone is like a wind-up alarm clock, racing against time.

Finally, with everyone's efforts, a slightly rough prototype was finally completed.

The entire prototype is composed of two parts, one part is an "atomic gun" used to accelerate and emit helium 3 atoms, and the other part is a target material installed in a vacuum chamber to receive helium 3 atoms. As for the computers connected to the equipment and various observation components, they are all necessary, so there is no need to mention them.

As for why this prototype is said to be rough in workmanship...

That's because the parts on it are almost all pieced together.

The acceleration track of the atomic gun was refitted with a small particle accelerator eliminated by the Argonne National Laboratory. The vacuum chamber used to confine the plasma is an experimental body designed by PPPL when it was researching the stellarator.

The entire set of experimental equipment can heat the internal plasma to a maximum of 7,000 degrees, which is far away from the high temperature of 100 million degrees. The electromagnetic field that binds the plasma is also more than an order of magnitude away from the stellarator's 10T.

However, even so, it is enough.

Any experiment starts with proving its feasibility. They don't need to complete a nuclear fusion ignition in this simple vacuum chamber, or even fully simulate the astonishing density of the plasma in the stellarator.

They just need to successfully collect data from these plasmas and analyze the data to get more accurate "observation" conclusions than plasma "diagnostics".

Finally, solve the problem of "method migration" so that this observation equipment can work on the stellarator.

In fact, Lu Zhou's original thought was that it would be great if he could get the stellarator eliminated by the WEGA experimental group.

But he was just thinking about it, and Professor Razelson told him clearly that that thing can't be bought with money.

All in all, the prototype is complete!

The track of the particle accelerator is "loaded" by the atomic gun, and the target material that accepts helium 3 atoms is the tungsten-titanium alloy that is widely used in the impact experiment of high-speed energetic particles. Behind the target material there are also probes of different sensitivities and functions for receiving impact data.

So far, although many problems have been encountered in the whole project, it is generally smooth.

When the final adjustments were completed, Professor Lazersson immediately announced the start of the first experiment.

The researchers in the laboratory have spent countless days and nights on this project and put in countless sweats. Now that the assembly of the entire device is finally completed, they need a success to boost morale!

However……

Things didn't go as smoothly as everyone imagined.

The moment helium 3 atoms were injected into the high-temperature pressure plasma, they were heated to the plasma state in a short time as expected, and the detectors connected to the outer wall of the simulation device also collected helium 3 as expected due to collisions and other reasons. Generated electromagnetic wave data.

Fate seems to have played a joke with all the researchers here. The helium-3 atoms fired by the atomic gun did not pass through the plasma as expected.

No matter where it ends up shooting, it misses the target material.

Apparently, they fired the bullet successfully.

However, the bullet was not recovered successfully.

Undoubtedly, the first experiment failed...

...

The 21st experiment is over.

The atmosphere in the laboratory was extremely tense.

The probe installed behind the material still did not detect the signal from the helium 3 atoms hitting the target material...

At this point in the experiment, they are facing the biggest bottleneck since the beginning of the project.

If the fired bullet cannot be recovered, then the bullet is useless.

The first to break the silence was an engineer with controllable nuclear fusion.

With an uncertain tone, he tentatively asked: "Could it be that the sensitivity of the probe is not enough? In fact, the impact has already occurred, but we have not observed it."

This is a possibility, and if the collision signal is weak enough, it might indeed be missed by the detectors.

"Impossible," another plasma physics expert shook his head, "The waveform image of the electromagnetic wave is obvious. In one-third of the area, the energy of the helium-3 particles has already decayed and exceeded the threshold. There is no need to observe it at all. Theoretically, it will It has deviated from the original track...you should know it."

The last sentence, this is an expert in plasma physics, looking at Lu Zhou.

Without speaking, Lu Zhou just nodded solemnly.

From the crest changes on the electromagnetic spectrum image, he has been able to judge that the helium-3 atoms serving as bullets did not penetrate the plasma, but were "missing" in the collision with the particles inside the plasma.

It may be confined in the electromagnetic field together with those plasmas, or it may break through the constraints of the electromagnetic field and the plasma, but the direction of motion has been completely changed in the constant collisions...

If the particles injected into the chaotic system cannot be observed, then it becomes a part of the chaotic system. Even if it still exists, it is still "missing" in the sense of physics.

Research seems to be at a dead end...

"This line of thinking may not work at all." Taking off his helmet, Professor Lazelsson looked at the computer screen solemnly, and then looked at Lu Zhou, "The plasma used in the experiment was only heated to a high temperature of 7,000 degrees. , the density is far from reaching the density of the plasma in the stellarator..."

Professor Lazersson did not finish his words, but the meaning he expressed was very clear.

Even if the difficulty was reduced to this level, the helium-3 particles failed to penetrate the entire plasma as expected. Not to mention being in the orbit of stellarators with temperatures as high as hundreds of millions.

Staring solemnly at the pitch-black screen, after a long silence with the researchers in the laboratory, Lu Zhou suddenly spoke.

"We need a more powerful atomic gun!"

"Yes, we need to launch a more powerful atomic gun. It is best to use the hadron collider in Switzerland as an acceleration module, and plug our Helium 3 with a moon landing rocket, so that it can destroy all the collisions along the way. Instead of being knocked out..." Professor Lazelson laughed at himself and shook his head, "But you know, this is obviously impossible."

"It's not that exaggerated," Lu Zhou shook his head and continued, "I just calculated that we only need to increase the electromagnetic field strength of the atomic gun to 1T, and in theory, our He3 particles can penetrate the plasma , hitting the target material with a limited deflection angle.”

This has not been rigorously calculated, it is a conservative estimate based on experience.

Maybe you can't use 1T, but 1T is definitely enough.

"This is already exaggerated! The confinement magnetic field strength of the stellarator is only 10T!" Prof. Lazersson finally couldn't help but roared as spit stars flew across the sky, "Seriously, you mathematicians do your own calculations. Do you have an idea of ​​the data? Do you know how expensive the superconducting material and the liquid helium used are?”

In the final analysis, it is still a matter of funding.

Although PPPL is awesome, it cost a lot of money to build this laboratory, but the annual funding is actually only 40 million US dollars.

This money needs to be allocated to many projects, and the money that can be used for the "He3 atom probe" technology is probably less than 4 million US dollars.

They use the old equipment they replace to convert recycled parts, not only to save time in customizing new equipment, but also to save money.

After all, every time they experiment, they are burning money.

A violent idea even popped up in Professor Lazersson's mind.

Perhaps, working with this guy was a bad decision from the start.

Looking at Professor Lazelson who lost his temper, the other engineers in the laboratory were silent.

Lu Zhou's request was indeed too much. It was like a rich man saying to a poor man, since bread is not enough to fill his stomach, why not eat cake?

Without saying a word, Lu Zhou quietly waited for him to finish all the words.

Looking at Professor Razelson, who was trembling with beard, he coughed lightly and spoke slowly.

"What if I can solve the funding problem?"

-

(

Thanks to the leader of "The Lost Bookworm" for the reward~~!

It is said that it has exploded these days, can I ask for a ticket with confidence? If possible, I'll ask for it... ask for a monthly pass! ! ! )