Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 302 - Chapter 302 Chapter 301 Cosmic String

Chapter 302: Chapter 301 Cosmic String Chapter 302: Chapter 301 Cosmic String In the large conference room of Satellite 1 on Gliese 581g, it was literally a sea of people, bustling with excitement. Researchers and journalists who had heard the news were arriving in increasing numbers.

After the initial wave of emotion, there followed a vigorous and excited discussion, especially loud were the calls for work on sending a return message.

A female councilor, her face flushed with passion, exclaimed, “We can build a large signal transmission device… We must let the citizens of The Golden Sun know that their efforts have not been in vain, and inform them that our branch of humanity is still bubbling with vitality and vigor.”

“I believe that once these news reports are released, the public will also prefer to choose this way… It’s not just a preference, but a strong demand! The general public is more emotional, more irrational…”

“Our scientific and technological development over these years has actually been pretty good, although it’s only been a hundred years, but indeed, it’s not bad.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, please, just hear me out first,” Zhang Yuan raised his hand, signaling for quiet amidst the chaotic voices.

After so many years as captain, he had an authority that swiftly quieted the room again.

Zhang Yuan spoke solemnly, “Sending a reply is definitely something we need to do; there’s no doubt about that. But first, we need to clarify exactly what information to send. Our technological progress over the years has been quite impressive, so we must choose some key points. If we send everything at once, can you imagine the amount of data that would be? We simply cannot bear such consumption.”

“Next, as for the construction of the electromagnetic communication device, that’s a major project. Right now, the most important thing for our entire civilization is still the Kunlun Mountain project. It’s totally unreasonable to divert the workforce from Kunlun Mountain to build these large communication devices…”

“So, I plan to build the communication device after the completion of Kunlun Mountain and before the nomadic plan truly begins, to send the relevant information in the direction of The Golden Sun. Let them know about our ambitious nomadic plan and also share with them the technology obtained from the aliens. This should be a better choice…”

“What do you all think?”

Electromagnetic communication between the cosmos is exceedingly energy-consuming. The attenuation of electromagnetic waves follows an inverse square law with distance, meaning if the distance doubles, the intensity is reduced to a quarter of its original value.

If it takes one unit of energy to send a message one light year, then to send information to a place 20 light-years away, it will take 400 units! To reach 30 light-years, it would take 900!

This necessitates even larger equipment and more energy. The initial Deep Space Foundation was dragged down by this kind of consumption, and even then, they only managed to send signals up to six light-years away.

Considering the distance between Gliese 581 and Captain Star, such a device would require a diameter of at least ten kilometers. Consuming the productivity of a civilization for two months wouldn’t be impossible.

Therefore, Zhang Yuan’s words were quite reasonable; sending information is important, but first, it must not delay the matters at hand.

“Furthermore, electromagnetic wave communication at light speed is simply inadequate in the face of vast spatial distances. It would take more than twenty years to transmit. If we delay a few more years, it shouldn’t be a problem… The Golden Sun would be able to estimate that we have only developed here for a hundred years, which usually isn’t quite enough…”

“So, they won’t wait blindly for our reply. Don’t be anxious.”

Many enthusiastic individuals also quieted down, considering from the perspective of the entire civilization, they agreed with Zhang Yuan’s point. After all, this wasn’t like sending a regular email – you click on this side, and it’s received immediately on the other side.

Next was the even more important main event, the technological progress of The Golden Sun over these past five hundred years!

All the text reports were very concise, leaving a lot of data and gaps that made things unclear. But with just a rough understanding and research directions, it was enough to excite everyone!

Soon, Zhang Yuan heard the group of scientists behind him starting to become fervently restless.

Humans have a tendency to compare; they were gauging the other side’s technological strength through these materials. Everyone was relying on the legacy of Earth Civilization, with many things about the same in value. But the papers that were actually sent over were quite innovative, including material science, physics, mathematics, biological sciences, and so on.

The most important of these papers was a study on Supergravity Theory and Cosmic Strings. A new method of spacecraft propulsion was contained in this paper!

“Using Cosmic Strings to trigger gravitational fluctuations for propulsion!”

Under normal circumstances, after the Big Bang, all matter would be evenly distributed across the Universe. However, if matter were evenly distributed, it would be difficult to form actual stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies, which does not match reality.

Therefore, scientists introduced a concept known as “Cosmic String.”

Cosmic Strings, a hypothetical theory that such spacetime could exist. This special “matter” acts as a one-dimensional topological defect and can be thought of as a highly dense energy line, extremely thin, with a theoretical diameter of only 10^-29 centimeters, which is 10^-17 times smaller than the radius of a hydrogen nucleus and possesses enormous gravity.

What does that mean?

Take the freezing of water as an analogy; if water freezes quickly, cracks or bubbles always appear in the ice, making it imperfect. Cosmic Strings are the topological defects that naturally arise in space after the Big Bang, similar to the cracks in a block of ice.

Since they do not interact electromagnetically with normal matter, conventional means find it very difficult to detect them. Therefore, the only macroscopic force related to Cosmic Strings is gravity.

Anything involving gravity becomes very complex, especially because this kind of matter exists only in a microscopic environment, yet the force it triggers is macroscopic. Remember, quantum mechanics and general relativity are not yet completely unified!

The PhD in physics sitting in the back had already begun to shout enthusiastically, “The best theory available at present is called Supergravity Theory!”

“So, what is Supergravity Theory?”

Upon hearing someone discussing this, a group of reporters pounced like dogs on a bone. Today’s revelations were just too big, and they could already anticipate the public frenzy!

For a reporter, how could they miss out on such sensational news?

But they were also frustrated because they couldn’t understand these papers, scratching their heads and constantly asking around.

“…in Supergravity Theory, spacetime is hypothesized to have a fermionic property, after introducing anticommuting numbers and using real numbers along with anticommuting numbers to describe this fermionic spacetime!”

“Doctor, can you explain it more clearly?”

“Well, General Relativity treats gravitational interactions as material warping spacetime, whereas particle physics views interactions as the effect of matter on quantum fields. If in some force, describing fundamental particles quantum became part of describing the geometry of spacetime…”

“By one method, enabling Cosmic Strings to regain strength… oh, not exactly strength, more like generating small-scale oscillations, then it can exhibit its own immense gravity. This gravitational force could pull the spaceship towards it! You should know that Cosmic Strings themselves hold a lot of energy…”

Li Zhendong hurriedly patted him, “Look, there are so many female reporters at the back that you’ve confused with your explanation. Just explain what the new method of propulsion is, without making it so complicated.”

“Yeah, doctor, focus on the key points, the key points.”

The young doctor, seeing so many people eagerly listening to his wild speech, suddenly blushed and became tongue-tied.

Especially since some cute female reporters were looking at him curiously…

What’s going on? He had just been discussing with colleagues and hadn’t been addressing the reporters at all.

Next, a bunch of microphones were handed over.