Chapter 178 Superconducting Magnetohydrodynamic Thruster
"Tianmin, is the God of Light always this curmudgeonly?"

Zhou Jin was Lin Tianmin's college roommate. Because he was determined to go to Yanda University for the postgraduate entrance examination, he took the exam twice before being admitted.

The place he ended up landing was not the main campus of Yanda University, but Yanda Pengcheng Campus. At that time, he had just finished a two-year postdoctoral fellowship and joined Shenhai University as an outstanding young teacher with a three-year promotion-or-leave program.

After graduating with a doctorate from Yenching University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Lin Tianmin joined Guangjia Aerospace, which was initially located in Shenhai and later moved all its research and development to Pengcheng.

After the room-temperature superconductivity incident, everyone moved back to Shenhai from Pengcheng.

After many twists and turns, their roommates reunited in Shenhai, and the two of them usually interacted very frequently.

Lin Tianmin didn’t quite understand what the other party meant: “Volume?

Of course Guang Shen is the best. All the top scorers I met in college are nothing compared to Guang Shen.

The most exaggerated thing about him is that he not only rolls, but also rolls very efficiently." He recalled that Chen Yuanguang drew the power system of Pioneer II in two weeks.

In a sense, this incident overturned his worldview. He used to think that this is an era of highly specialized labor, and no matter how awesome you are, you have to rely on the power of organizational structure.

A professor's academic management function is greater than his research function.

It was not until the appearance of Chen Yuanguang that the power system he drew solved all the problems they had encountered before, and even took into account the current supply capacity of China's aerospace industry.

In the internal system, the designs that will be optimized in the future as material performance improves and the subsequent optimization ideas are marked.

Lin Tianmin felt that this was not something a human could do. If he were to do it, he would not be able to accomplish it in two years, let alone two weeks.

Therefore, when Zhou Jin mentioned it, Lin Tianmin quickly thought of this past event.

"Why are you asking this? You don't want to stay in college anymore, and want to work at Guangjia Aerospace?

Although our threshold has been rising rapidly in the past two years, I think it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

Zhou Jin shook his head: "No, didn't you watch your boss's live broadcast yesterday?"

Lin Tianmin said: "Of course I watched it. Wasn't the live broadcast about the application for the Natural Science Foundation?
One of our colleagues asked Guangshen in the work group if they could apply for their project. "

Zhou Jin became interested: "What does the God of Light say?"

Lin Tianmin said: "Of course not. Guangshen said that the company and he have a high degree of conflict of interest. If you want funds, you can apply directly internally. We have more than enough funds."

Zhou Jin: "Of course, perovskite is a cash cow, creating value for you continuously, not to mention that there are a lot of investors waiting to invest in Guangjia Aerospace. Now I heard that only state-owned capital can enter."

"That's right, didn't Guangshen say something very good yesterday? He even pointed out where the research topics came from. Those major issues were not selected by him, but by the Science and Technology Commission.

Apart from the excessive personal power in the process of distributing funds, there don't seem to be too many problems. "Lin Tianmin said: "Considering that Guangshen is not short of money and does not have much selfishness, this problem can be ignored.

The worst outcome is that the money is invested but there is no result, but most of the results of current natural science funds are of very limited value.”

Zhou Jin said: "You are right, what I want to express is volume. After listening to it from beginning to end yesterday, I heard one word, volume.

Our colleagues, including some young people, are discussing this issue in the group. Someone said it very well. He said that the God of Light is like One Piece. I told everyone in the live broadcast yesterday that my treasure is in the major issues of the Science and Technology Association every year. If you want to go, just go and get it.

Let everyone enter the Age of Discovery, tell everyone that you have won, and you will have an advantage when applying for funds next year, and you will have a stable source of sponsorship funds.

But the problems we had to solve were unprecedentedly difficult. I looked at the problems that were related to me.

How to break through the application of carbon fiber composite materials in my country's future ultra-high-speed rail transit vehicle equipment?

How can we leverage the advantages of my country's information and communication industry to quickly achieve chip technology and industrial breakthroughs?

How to develop high-end technology of petroleum-based carbon materials?
How to use flexible film technology to achieve satellite-borne lightweight deployable array antenna?

These all belong to the field of materials science. The question is, can I solve them? If I can solve them, let alone a teaching position, I should at least be an academician."

Lin Tianmin was puzzled and asked, "Didn't you say that it can be broken down? You can choose a related topic and slowly move towards the final goal, breaking down the difficult problem."

Zhou Jin said: "Yes, it can be disassembled, but the problem is that it is just like letting everyone enter a 5,000-meter track, and then there are 50-meter checkpoints, and layer by layer screening. In the end, only one or two people may be able to run to the finish line, and 99% of the people will be eliminated.

The previous natural fund was a 100-meter track. Everyone competed for the qualification to run the sprint. Once you were qualified, you just had to finish the run within the specified time.

Now it has become a long-distance race, and a 50-meter screening race, forcing everyone to roll up, which is a bit too much.

And it is obvious that Guang Shen has to understand the topics he chooses, and there are only a few topics, and everyone starts working on these topics from the first year.

The progress is moving forward every year. If latecomers want to apply and squeeze in, others have already run a long way. If you want to apply again from the third year, the difficulty will increase further.

In short, Guangshen has turned this into a long-distance race that spans the researcher's entire academic career.

To put it nicely, it's called long-distance running; to put it bluntly, it's called raising poisonous insects.

It’s really exciting.”

Lin Tianmin smiled and said, "Didn't the God of Light say at the beginning that this fund is for solving major problems? I think only in this way can we cultivate scholars who can solve major problems."

Zhou Jin: "What you said is not wrong, but the point that everyone complains about is that after the rules of the game changed, the threshold has been raised. Before, you could relax for a while after applying, but now it is always a test.

I feel that Guangshen has increased the difficulty of applying for research projects.

And I heard that if this mechanism works well, it will be promoted in the future, and the already competitive academic environment will be further aggravated.”

Lin Tianmin said, "Next time you have a meeting with your boss, I can help you react and ask him what he thinks." Zhou Jin said, "Just don't tell me about it. Just say you heard it from a friend of yours."

When Chen Yuanguang heard this, he replied: "Tianmin, I don't think so. I think it is cultivating a habit.

There is definitely pressure, but my approach will even out the pressure, keeping you motivated, rather than just doing it in stages.”

Lin Tianmin simultaneously told his roommate Chen Yuanguang's reply, and Zhou Jin said silently after listening, "Maybe.

I think only time can give us the answer.

I recently asked around and it seems that only those who are confident enough and think they can win this long-term race apply for the God of Light's fund.

Everyone believes that if they can get long-term funding from this fund, even if there are no results, it is equivalent to receiving the blessing of the God of Light, and they will be more confident in the hospital. "

"Others rely on the confidence brought by their papers, do they rely on the confidence brought by the God of Light?" Lin Tianmin joked.

"Yes."

At this time, Chen Yuanguang had already returned to Mianyang, and a large group of people were waiting for him to come back.

This is the task assigned to him by the boss, and he hopes he can help with some suggestions.

"Mr. Chen, I've heard a lot about you. My name is Hu Xinrui, and I'm the person in charge of the superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thruster.

You should also know that the international situation has been volatile in recent years, and we hope to strengthen our national defense as much as possible.

After you prepared room-temperature superconductors, we quickly realized that using room-temperature superconducting technology to build superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thrusters and applying them to submarines could greatly enhance our strategic deterrence capabilities.

The Navy and local research institutions have always had projects on magnetohydrodynamic propulsion.

Because before, superconducting materials need to be at extremely low temperatures to achieve superconducting state. And considering that different superconducting materials have different critical temperatures and critical magnetic fields, we also need to screen out superconducting materials that are suitable for engine needs.

The biggest difficulty is that an efficient superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thruster generator needs to optimize the thermal energy conversion efficiency and ensure the stable production of magnetofluid. It is necessary to avoid magnet quenching caused by thermal disturbances, mechanical vibrations and other factors. Maintaining low temperature for a long time makes it very difficult to achieve.

The energy consumption reduced by superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thrusters is far lower than the energy consumption required for maintaining ultra-low temperatures.

Therefore, the previous superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thrusters have always remained in the laboratory stage and are still a long way from being practical.
After the emergence of room-temperature superconductivity, its practical application became possible. After completing the feasibility study internally, we quickly launched the project and hope to develop it as soon as possible.

The biggest gap between us and our opponents in the navy has always been concentrated in the underwater fleet. We have always lacked high-quality nuclear submarines.

The quietness level of our nuclear submarines is comparable to that of the large Russian submarines of the 80s.

The superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thruster will completely reverse this trend.

Furthermore, once the superconducting magnetohydrodynamic propulsion system is applied to submarines, it means that we will no longer have any interference and will be able to catch all opponents off guard.”

Chen Yuanguang was speechless. Why did you start to talk nonsense? Weren't we just fine before, discussing the passive defense of strategic deterrence? Why did you suddenly want to launch a strategic offensive?

If he knew about America's strategy, he would think that this was also a two-way rush in another sense.

“But after we launched the project, we found that its research and development difficulty was far beyond our imagination.

Theoretically, although GJ01 is a one-dimensional superconducting material, it can be used in superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thrusters, or at least it can greatly simplify the cooling system of superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thrusters.

A simple constant temperature system like the one in Xiaomi car is enough.

Reducing the complexity of the system means improving stability. The simpler the design, the more stable it is.

Then, during our preliminary preparations, we discovered that although GJ01 is a one-dimensional material, it can generate a uniform and strong magnetic field in three-dimensional space through specific arrangements and combinations.

Recently we have discovered that there are still a lot of difficulties that cannot be solved.

The shackles of one-dimensional superconducting materials still cannot be broken, Mr. Chen, we need your help."

After listening, Chen Yuanguang only asked one question: "Mr. Hu, do you really know wutong?"

The story of the boy who cried wolf has been told so many times that Chen Yuanguang really doesn't believe it.

Chen Yuanguang felt that the other party's answer was directly related to his enthusiasm. If he really did it, he would definitely maximize the efficiency and design a superconducting magnetohydrodynamic thruster.

You know, once it happens, even if it is only a regional low-intensity event, it will be the most important thing in the first half of the 21st century.

It will determine the fate of the entire Asia, so we have to work hard.

If you don't want to do it and just want to satiate your anger, and your strategy is defeated after you come up with the research, then you can only be passive and do passive research.

Hu Xinrui murmured, "I'm just guessing. I'm just doing research on my own, how can I know such things?

I'm just talking about its possible application scenarios."

There was no momentum as before.

Chen Yuanguang thought, as expected, "Oh, I thought you had some source of information.

It turns out the wind direction hasn’t changed.”

(End of this chapter)