Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 402 - 400 Congenital Environmental Defects

Chapter 402: Chapter 400 Congenital Environmental Defects

A month quickly passed by. The scientific survey of the Taipu Civilization had made some initial progress.

"Is this civilization still using fossil fuels? ’A General Survey on the Use of Fossil Fuels,’ ’A Study on the Possibility of Global Warming’..."

One day, Zhang Yuan was organizing data related to this in the Captain’s Room, amidst a chaotic array of reports. He also heard the public’s clamor for tourism, including the topic of bionics modifications, which had resurfaced yet again.

If you used robot VR technology to replace travel, the experience would be much inferior; to replicate using Virtual World Technology would need at least five, ten years—where can you get that quickly? Human frail bodies simply could not adapt to three times Earth’s gravity; no amount of exercise would suffice. The only way to have a physical experience would be through bionics modification.

Of course, as for the public’s outcry, it couldn’t possibly be realized immediately; wanting to modify oneself would still require going through some legal procedures.

Li Cheng from the Secretariat answered, "They partially use fossil fuels; the planet is extremely rich in fossil resources. According to our geologists’ estimates, at least more than twenty times that of Earth! The large volume of the planet is the reason... They also use renewable biofuels."

"Oh? Biofuels?" Zhang Yuan inquired with curiosity.

"Yes, this civilization commonly cultivates a type of annual herb called ’Alk,’ which can very simply and efficiently be refined into industrial alcohol and methane. The fuel for most airship engines is provided by this plant. Only a small quantity of military weapons, which require high-calorific fuel, make use of petroleum."

"Indeed a very impressive plant. This is an unexpected boon."

Kunlun Mountain’s many chemical raw materials are also provided by plants, so Kunlun Mountain’s biologists were considering, whether if this plant really is that outstanding, they could try incorporating it into the entire industrial system.

After pondering for a while, Zhang Yuan asked with a furrowed brow, "The Taipu Civilization began considering renewable energy so early? Were they that visionary? Humans only began the strong development of controlled nuclear fusion when the oil crisis actually hit, and most of the oil was simply burned away. Could there be a deeper reason, like..."

"Not really, it’s mainly for economic reasons," Dr. Li Cheng said with a smile: "For this civilization, oil is available but too difficult to extract. In a high gravity environment, shallow oil is very scarce and requires greater pressure to be mined. Oil extraction relies on artificial enhancements like pumping and gas lift, which are even more difficult under high gravity."

"High-quality oil is at much deeper geological layers, making the cost of mining very high."

This was indeed the case; in a high gravity environment, the deeper geological layers have harder rocks, and the difficulty of extracting the oil is even greater.

Much like Earth’s shale oil reserves, estimated at about 110 to 130 trillion tons, far surpassing those of petroleum, yet the difficulty of development is extreme; only a small fraction can actually be utilized.

Dr. Li Cheng continued, "And this planet is sparsely populated with a surface area four to five times that of Earth; the birth rate isn’t high, about less than four billion. So these farmers choose to plant such crops on a large scale in the plains—it’s economical and cost-effective."

"I see." Having heard this, Zhang Yuan asked, "So, do you think this excellent energy crop was intentionally left by the Enlightener Civilization? Something like oil, no matter how abundant, will run out eventually, but renewable energy is completely different—it can go on sustainably for a long time."

Searching for traces of the Enlightener Civilization had always been a key objective in humanity’s current scientific expedition. People had been looking for so-called evidence, and it was too farcical to treat every hint of wind-blown grass or coincidental occurrence as remnants left by the Enlightener Civilization.

Faced with Zhang Yuan’s question, Li Cheng replied, "We need to see whether this plant called ’Alk’ underwent a large-scale genetic mutation similar to the Riley Civilization’s ’World Tree’ around ’150,000 years ago’. If so, we can basically determine it as an act of the Enlightener Civilization."

"...Analyzing this civilization from an innate perspective, indeed, stepping into space would be extremely difficult. If controlled nuclear fusion could never be achieved, even if there’s no energy crisis now, there will be one in the future."

"The emergence of this plant now, would undoubtedly greatly alleviate the energy crisis, providing more time for development."

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "However, this doesn’t seem to align with the philosophy of the Enlightener Civilization. If this civilization gradually stops progressing in the next few thousand years and merely clings to life using these plants, wouldn’t it be just like the Riley Civilization? What’s the point of a perpetual extension? So I think, for this reason, the probability of deliberately creating this kind of plant is not high."

"According to my personal view, if a civilization exhausts its fossil fuels without igniting the spark of nuclear fusion and leaving its planet, then it’s as good as dead, and there’s nothing to regret."

Li Cheng replied, "I don’t fully agree with your view. I think we also need to consider the technical difficulty of leaving the planet itself. If a planet’s gravity is ten times that of Earth’s, then could the lifeforms of that planet leave it? Impossible, even our spaceships would have difficulty taking off and landing. Then the appearance of an energy source that grants these lifeforms a respite could also be considered a form of kindness."

"Our scientists are currently extrapolating, based on human technological levels at the end of the 20th century, and whether it’s possible to leave a planet with three times the gravity and embark on an Interstellar era, through gradual development."

"The relevant mathematical modeling work is still ongoing. Some scientists believe it’s possible, while others think traditional rocket technology would struggle to gradually help the Taipu people leave their planet."

"If it truly is impossible, it means there are innate environmental flaws in the civilization that require a certain level of help. A far-sighted Enlightener Civilization might try to do something in this regard..."

"That line of thought makes sense." Zhang Yuan saw a photo on the screen where human scientists were visiting a museum.

This civilization also had its own archeology and was studying its origins, which might be a commonality in scientific thinking – everyone wanted to trace back to the roots, rather than obscurely attributing their existence to the divine.

Therefore, the current research directions were divided into two parts: one was focused on archeology, specifically looking at the history from before 150,000 years ago.

The other part was examining whether the Taipu Civilization had technological or environmental flaws, whether there was implicit help from the Enlighteners, and so on.

"There haven’t been any particularly remarkable discoveries yet... 150,000 years is enough time for a series of complex evolutions to form. Without leveraging the power of the Taipu Civilization itself, our own scientific explorations would be far too slow."

"Our diplomatic team is considering whether we could directly present such scientific research requests to them. Or rather, if we could directly read their archeological literature, that would be even better... after all, their data has not been entirely disclosed to us."

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "There’s no problem with that... What we can trade is listed right here in this spreadsheet, with the corresponding prices clearly marked as well."