Scholar's Advanced Technological System

Chapter 680: Prepare for the Future

Lu Zhou wasn’t able to help too much with the space shuttle design.

Even though with his current level of engineering, he could self-learn the necessary knowledge, his energy was limited. He had to invest his time and energy into things that had the highest rate of return.

These days, in order to increase the energy density of the reactor as much as possible, Lu Zhou spent his time researching on how to improve the sound fusion machine. Most of the heat generated by the Hall-effect thruster was contained in the ionization chamber, which was then expelled from the spacecraft in the form of high-energy plasma.

Fortunately, because of Xiao Ai, the difficulty of his work decreased greatly.

As long as he had a laptop, he could control the reactor with the help of Xiao Ai’s robots and verify some new interesting experiment ideas, which were dozens of kilometers away.

So far, Lu Zhou had successfully increased the power of the sound fusion machine to around 200 MW. As for the sacrifices, he only had to increase the nuclear core volume by 20% and the weight by 10%. Therefore, the overall volumetric energy density and mass-energy density had improved significantly.

Even though there was still a long way to go from the minimum requirement of 500 MW, Lu Zhou believed that they weren’t far from success.

In addition to improving the fusion battery, there were also the project bid documents.

The end-of-year aerospace conference would be held in less than a month. There were many aerospace enterprises that would participate in this year’s conference. Not only were the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation attending, but OneSpace, Blue Arrow Aerospace, and other excellent private aerospace companies were also attending. Even some of the large tech companies were joining in on the fun.

After all, investing in the aerospace industry meant tax concessions. For big taxpayers like them, it meant that the state was basically subsidizing them to develop their aerospace technology. Not to mention they had needs for communication satellites…

The days quickly passed by, and it was soon late September.

During the last week of September, Luo Wenxuan finally came back from Europe.

When Lu Zhou saw him come into the office, he teased.

“Did you find any inspiration?”

Luo Wenxuan coughed and replied, “Inspiration… can’t be hurried, it’ll come naturally.”

“Well, regardless, I have something for you to do.”

Luo Wenxuan immediately started to focus.

“What?”

Lu Zhou didn’t plan on telling him just yet.

“How long did you stay at CERN?”

Luo Wenxuan: “Probably around three years.”

“Three years?” Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Do you know a lot about hadron colliders?”

Luo Wenxuan didn’t know why Lu Zhou was asking this, but he still answered honestly, “I know a bit, I’m pretty close with Professor Grayer. He often took me to visit the tunnels, and I’ve also witnessed the overhaul of many detectors, like ATLAS and CMS.”

“Grayer?” Lu Zhou looked nostalgic as he smiled and said, “He’s an interesting guy.”

“You know him?” Luo Wenxuan looked surprised. He patted his forehead and said, “Oh right, I forgot, you interned at CERN.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know a lot about CERN, especially about the Large Hadron Collider.” Lu Zhou paused for a second before adding, “I plan on building a similar thing for theoretical physics research.”

“Building a similar thing?” Luo Wenxuan’s eyes widened, and he looked at Lu Zhou in disbelief as he said, “You plan on building a collider? Do you know how much those cost?”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Tens of billions of USD? Actually, it’s not that much, also… I don’t plan on building it on the ground, but in space.”

Luo Wenxuan was shocked speechless.

“Wouldn’t that cost even more money?”

Lu Zhou: “You don’t have to worry about the money, that’s my responsibility. Also, we don’t need money just yet, I just need you to participate in the design.”

Luo Wenxuan said, “But I’m not a physics engineer.”

“I know, but you’re an expert in theoretical physics who had spent three years working at CERN.” Lu Zhou looked at Luo Wenxuan and said, “I’ll hand over the engineering to someone else, and you’ll be responsible for providing theoretical support for the design. Of course, if you are not interested, I can ask someone else.”

“Of course I’m interested… I’m just afraid to let you down.”

“Don’t worry,” Lu Zhou patted Luo Wenxuan’s shoulder and said with a smile, “I believe in you.”

Building a Large Hadron Collider in outer space for theoretical physics research had the advantage of low-gravity and a non-magnetic field environment. Lu Zhou had thought of this idea for a long time but never had the means to realize it.

Now that he had made breakthroughs in controllable fusion technology, the advanced ion thrusters would kick off a new aerospace era. This unrealistic idea now seemed feasible.

Regardless of whether it was difficult, the design work could begin now.

Luo Wenxuan scratched his head and sighed.

“Okay then, if there’s anything else I need to do, just tell me.”

Lu Zhou nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll send the specifics to your email. Okay, that’s about it, you can leave if you want.”

Luo Wenxuan joked, “You’re kicking me out now? You’re not even going to give me a cup of coffee?”

Lu Zhou looked up and saw Kong Jie standing near the coffee machine.

“Kong Jie, make two cups of coffee for me, an instant one and a black one, the kind with no sugar or milk.”

“Okay.” Kong Jie nodded at Lu Zhou and took out a bag of instant coffee and a can of coarsely ground coffee beans from the drawer. She skillfully made the two cups of coffee and brought them over on a tray.

“Here you go, enjoy!”

“Thank you.”

Kong Jie smirked and twirled her hair with her thumb.

“You’re welcome.”

Kong Jie went back to the coffee machine and made herself a cup of coffee as well. She then returned to her desk and sat down.

Lu Zhou picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip.

Not bad.

The taste and temperature were perfect, just how he liked it.

Lu Zhou put down the cup and looked at the other cup. He then looked at Luo Wenxuan and asked, “Didn’t you ask me to get you some coffee? Why aren’t you drinking it?”

“I…”

Luo Wenxuan stuttered. He stayed silent for a while.

He looked behind himself, then looked at Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou knew he had something to say, but didn’t know how to say it. Lu Zhou sighed.

“Say it, what’s on your mind…”

Luo Wenxuan: “I suddenly want to ask you some… questions.”

Lu Zhou was bored.

“Go ahead.”

“Is she… your assistant?”

Lu Zhou paused for a second. He looked at Kong Jie, who was sitting at her desk sorting out documents.

“Yeah, why?”

Luo Wenxuan immediately asked, “Does she have a boyfriend?”

Lu Zhou nearly spat out his coffee. He put down his coffee cup and lowered his voice.

“I’m warning you! I don’t care if you go after other people, but if you try to hurt my students or employees…”

“Am I that kind of person! I…” Luo Wenxuan looked at Kong Jie and said, “I’m being serious.”

Lu Zhou was speechless.

He had heard this line many times before.

“You weren’t serious the previous times?”

“I’m always serious… but this time is different. Every time is different. Lu Zhou, you get me, right? Love is so sudden, it’s like the electrons outside the nucleus, you never know exactly where it is. One second it’ll suddenly appear next to you.”

I can’t…

This is disgusting…

Lu Zhou made a fake-vomiting gesture.

Luo Wenxuan pretended like he didn’t see anything. He kept looking toward Kong Jie’s desk.

Lu Zhou said, “Look me in the eyes and repeat what you said.”

“No, thanks, I’d rather look at her.”

“F*ck sake!”