Chapter 379: Greater Transmission Power!


    Trantor: Henyee Trantions Editor: Henyee Trantions


    There wasn’t much time left for the “He3” project team.


    Everyone was racing against the clock.


    Finally, due to everyone’s constant effort, a rough prototype waspleted.


    The prototype consisted of two parts; one part was an “atomic gun” used to elerate and emit helium atoms, and the other was a target material installed in the vacuum chamber for receiving helium-3 atoms. There were also variousputers and sensorponents.


    As for why this was a rough prototype...


    It was because almost all of the parts were pieced together.


    The eleration track path of the atomic gun was taken from an old particle elerator from the Argonne National Laboratory. The vacuum chamber used to hold the sma was designed by the PPPL when they were working on the sterator.


    This entire system could heat sma up to 7,000 degrees, which was a long way from the “high” temperature of 100 million degrees. The electromaic field was also an order of magnitude below the sterator’s, which was 10T.


    However, it was enough.


    Every experiment would start with a proof of its feasibility. They didn’t have toplete nuclear fusion in the vacuum chamber, and they didn’t need a high density of the sma.


    They only had to sessfully collect data from the sma and analyze the data to get an “observation”.


    Then, they just had to integrate this observation device on the sterator.


    In fact, Lu Zhou’s original idea was to obtain the old sterator from the WEGA experiment group.


    But it was only an idea. Professor Lazerson told him that their sterator couldn’t be bought with money.


    All in all, the prototype wasplete!


    The particle elerator path was the atomic gun’s “barrel”, while the target material for the high energy helium-3 particles was a tungsten-titanium alloy. Behind the target material were the sensitive probes that would collect the data of the impact.


    Although the engineering team encountered many problems, it was generally a smooth ride up to this point.


    Some final adjustments were done, and Professor Lazerson eagerly announced the start of the first experiment.


    The researchers in theboratory spent countless days and nights working on this project. They needed a sessful experiment to boost their morale.


    However...


    Not everything went as smooth as expected.


    The second the helium-3 atom was injected into the sma, the atom quickly rose to a high temperature and collided with the orbit wall. The detector connected to the other side of the target material collected electromaic wave data of the helium-3 atom.


    God seemed to have yed a joke on the researchers. The helium-3 shot from the atomic gun didn’t travel through the sma as expected.


    It didn’t hit the target material.


    Obviously, they sessfully fired the atom bullet.


    However, they weren’t able to recover the bullet.


    The first experiment failed...


    ...


    The 21st experiment was over.


    Theboratory was silent.


    The atom probe mounted behind the target material still didn’t detect the signal emitted from the helium-3 impact.


    The experiment was facing their biggest bottleneck yet.


    If the emitted atom couldn’t be collected, then the experiment would be meaningless.


    The first to break the silence was a nuclear fusion engineer.


    He said, “Maybe the probe isn’t sensitive enough? Maybe the impact happened, and we just didn’t detect it.”


    This was a possibility. If the collision signal was too weak, it might have been ignored by the detector.


    “Impossible,” a sma theoretical physicist said. He then added, “The electromaic wave has a unique shape, and the only possible scenario is the helium-3 atom deviating from the orbit path... You should know this.”


    The sma physicist was looking at Lu Zhou.


    Lu Zhou didn’t say anything; he only looked down and nodded.


    Lu Zhou could tell from the electromaic spectrum image that the helium 3 atom didn’t prate the sma. Instead, it “disappeared” inside the sma particles.


    The atom might have been confined in the sma electromaic field, but the orbit path was changed due to the collisions...


    If a particle that entered a chaotic system could not be observed, then it would be a part of the chaotic system. Even if it still existed, it would be considered as “missing” in the physics sense.


    The research seemed to reach a dead-end...


    “This idea might not work at all,” Professor Lazerson said as he took off his safety helmet and looked at theputer screen. He then looked at Lu Zhou and said, “The sma used in the experiment was only 7,000 degrees, it’s far from the sterator’s sma density...”


    Professor Lazerson’s intentions were clear.


    Even though the temperature was greatly decreased, the helium-3 particle still didn’t prate the sma. There was a doubt that the helium-3 particle wouldn’t be able to prate the hundreds of millions degree sma in the sterator.


    Lu Zhou looked at theputer screen, and suddenly, he said, “We need an atomic gun with a greater transmission power!”


    “Yes, we need arger atomic gun. It would be nice to get the Swiss Hadron Collider as an eleration module and put our helium-3 atom on a rocket and make it pierce through all of the particles,” Professor Lazerson said. He then shook his head and added, “You know that’s not possible.”


    “Don’t exaggerate so much,” Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “I did the calctions, and we only need to increase the electromaic field strength of the atomic gun to 1T. Then, in theory, the helium-3 particles will be able to prate the sma.”


    Lu Zhou didn’t rigorously calcte this number; it was a rough estimate based on experience.


    They might not need 1T, but 1T was definitely enough.


    “This is ridiculous! The sterator only has a maic field strength of 10T!” Professor Lazerson couldn’t help but say, “Are you serious, do you mathematics people have an idea of numbers? Do you know how expensive superconducting materials are?”


    This was still a problem of funding.


    Although the PPPLboratory was powerful, its annual funding was only US$40 million.


    This money was split between many projects, and the “He3” project only had US$4 million of funding.


    They used recycled parts and equipment to save money.


    After all, every experiment they ran was burning money.


    Professor Lazerson suddenly had an impulsive thought.


    Maybe... working with Lu Zhou is a bad idea.


    The engineers in theboratory were silent; they didn’t want to anger Professor Lazerson anymore.


    Lu Zhou’s request was ridiculous; it was like a rich person telling a homeless person to buy a house to solve all their problems.


    Lu Zhou didn’t say anything. Instead, he quietly waited for Lazerson to finish his words.


    He then looked at Professor Lazerson before he coughed and said slowly, “What if... I can solve the funding problem?”