When the Blacklight, the first alien immigration spaceship in human history, entered the subspace, it had disappeared from this universe and there would be no signal transmitted back. Chen Chen had no way of knowing whether it had succeeded, whether it was trapped in the subspace, or whether it had perished directly.
Before it returned to the solar system, no one knew anything about the Blacklight.
On the other side of reality, Chen Chen's experiment with subspace navigation was still continuing and he did not slack off because of the Blacklight's mission.
At the same time, with the birth of the subspace engine, Chen Chen had built ten large transport ships comparable in size to aircraft carriers without authorization. These ships could carry thousands of small unmanned mining ships less than ten meters in length.
In this way, the large transport ships could jump directly into the subspace from Mars orbit each time, then sail out from Pluto's Mandeville Point, and finally enter the Kuiper belt, where they would collect more resources to bring back to human society.
This way, countless time was saved. At the same time, the short-term subspace navigation was not very dangerous. Even if a large transport ship encountered danger and was damaged, the loss was completely bearable.
At the same time, this simple and efficient resource collection system also gave Chen Chen a bold idea...
"What, you want to build a Dyson sphere?"
On the top floor of the Blacklight Building in the Eco Science City, Little X looked at Chen Chen in disbelief, as if to see if he was joking with her. "We don't lack energy for the time being. Are you really going to do this?"
"No, building a Dyson sphere is completely not worth it."
However, Chen Chen unexpectedly shook his head. "Let's not talk about the technical feasibility first. With the resources we have now, if we want to build a Dyson sphere that wraps around the sun, I'm afraid we'll have to dismantle the entire solar system's planets. What I want to build is not a Dyson sphere, but a Dyson cloud, or a Dyson ring..."
Chen Chen showed an expression of imagination and slowly stood up. "People who don't think about the future will have immediate worries. Although our nuclear fuel today is mainly the combination of deuterium in seawater and helium-3 on the moon for nuclear fusion reaction, the helium-3 on the moon is still limited. According to current exploration, there are about 700,000 tons of helium-3 on the moon. According to the electricity standards of human society in 2040, 700,000 tons of helium-3 can be used by humans for 300 years."
"300 years is a long time for humans."
Little X immediately advised, "Maybe after 300 years, humans can still discover new helium-3 mines and even new energy sources?"
"That being said, why not act now?"
Chen Chen changed the topic and asked, "And don't forget, this number may seem like a lot, but do you remember the electricity consumption standard in 2020?"
"2020?"
Little X was taken aback for a moment before she realized what was going on and blurted out, "Twenty years ago, the global electricity generation was 2.8 trillion kWh. In 2040, the global electricity generation will be 560 trillion kWh, an increase of 2000%."
"That's right, it has increased by twenty times!"
Chen Chen said solemnly, "In twenty years, mankind's demand for electricity will be twenty times that of twenty years ago. This number will continue to expand as human society continues to develop. Can you say that in ten years, the helium-3 resources on the moon can still be used by mankind for another three hundred years?"
Little X immediately fell silent.
If mankind's electricity consumption continued to expand according to this index, the helium-3 resources on the moon would be depleted in 50 years, let alone 300 years.
"Therefore, we must not put all our eggs in one basket."
Chen Chen sighed. "In the foreseeable future, we have to find a new energy source. Now, a way has been laid in front of us for hundreds of years. This is also our best way so far..."
Little X nodded with some understanding when she heard this. "I see. In this case, we do need to develop a Dyson cloud."
The so-called Dyson cloud was actually the same thing as a Dyson sphere. The only difference was the size. The concept of a Dyson sphere was a theory proposed by Einstein's assistant, Freeman Dyson, in 1960.
He once imagined that the energy contained in a planet like the earth itself was very limited, far from enough to support the development of civilization to an advanced stage. In a stellar system, most of the energy — the radiation from the star — was wasted. Although humans had solar energy devices, the energy received was like a grain of sand in the desert compared to the total energy radiated by the sun at all times.
Therefore, he believed that the sun was a gift from the universe to mankind. A highly developed civilization must have the ability to wrap the sun in a huge spherical structure, so that most of the sun's radiation energy was intercepted. Only in this way could enough energy be obtained to support the development of human civilization.
Therefore, in his vision, the Dyson sphere appeared — this was a giant artificial structure with a diameter of about 200 million kilometers that was used to wrap the sun. Such a structure was composed of satellites orbiting the sun, completely wrapping the surface of the sun, and through a method similar to solar energy conversion, intercepting most of the energy emitted by the sun and transforming it into electricity needed by humans.
This was the definition of a Dyson sphere.
However, later generations refuted this theory because in most people's view, ordinary civilizations did not have the ability to create a Dyson sphere. This was because a giant celestial body with a diameter of more than 200 million kilometers would take ordinary civilizations thousands or even tens of thousands of years. At the same time, it would consume almost all the materials of the entire galaxy. This was completely an impractical project for ordinary civilizations.
If it was an advanced civilization that could chase stars and take the moon with a wave of a hand, they would naturally have more advanced energy conversion technology and would not bother with the construction of a Dyson sphere at all.
To put it simply, the setting of a Dyson sphere was a bit of a waste. Civilizations that could use it could not build it, and civilizations that could build it might not be interested. That was it.
Therefore, gradually, later generations designed a compromise plan based on the idea of a Dyson sphere, which was to turn the Dyson sphere into a circle of rings. Countless rings surrounded the sun, just like the clouds above the sun.
Compared with the amount of work of a Dyson sphere, a Dyson cloud might only be one-thousandth to one-ten-thousandth. Of course, the energy obtained would be correspondingly reduced, but the advantage was that humans could control the construction cycle at will and quickly harvest the corresponding solar energy. With the continuous development of humans, the number of Dyson clouds could continue to increase until one day in the future, a Dyson sphere was completely formed.
Little X quickly understood Chen Chen's idea. After all, humans could not use the helium-3 resources on the moon forever. Just like oil, oil resources were limited. Before nuclear fusion was developed, humans had been relying on oil to convert energy. Not to mention the limited resources, it would also pollute the Earth's environment wantonly.
Therefore, humans began to try nuclear fusion a long time ago. Now, Chen Chen was just looking into the future like people in the past, looking for a new energy system in advance.
Obviously, a Dyson cloud was the one that met the requirements the most.
Thinking of this, Little X's supercomputing ability instantly came up with several construction plans, but there were some flaws that still needed to be completed. She could not help but ask, "Sir Godfather, if you want to build a Dyson cloud, Mercury should be a good choice."
"Of course."
Chen Chen answered, "First of all, Mercury is the planet closest to the sun, so it's easy to get the materials. Secondly, the main components of Mercury are metals and silicates, which are also needed to build solar panels. Adding these conditions together, you can say that Mercury is blessed by nature."
Little X spread her hands and asked again, "If you want to build a Dyson cloud quickly, I'm afraid you'll need an entire industrial chain."
"This isn't difficult."
Chen Chen answered, "The surface temperature of Mercury is around 400 degrees Celsius. This temperature is still bearable for robots with thick armor. We only need to build a single type of robot. This type of robot must possess three major abilities:
"First, it can withstand the high temperature of 400 degrees Celsius on Mercury. Second, it has the ability to self-replicate. Third, it can automatically complete a series of complex processes from collection, smelting, and manufacturing. As long as the above three points can be achieved, the construction of a Dyson cloud can be said to be halfway to success.
"Moreover, there's no atmosphere on Mercury, so the escape speed isn't fast. We only need to use electromagnetic technology to directly launch the Dyson cloud created on Mercury into solar orbit. The rest is another kind of satellite robot responsible for receiving the scattered Dyson cloud and assembling it."
"So, what happens after collecting enough energy?"
Little X continued to ask, "Using lasers or antimatter transmission?"
"Do we have the technology to make a lot of antimatter now?"
Chen Chen shook his head and thought. "Of course it's lasers. Convert the energy collected on the Dyson cloud into lasers and transmit the energy to the space station, space city, and all the human-colonized planets in the solar system. This is currently the most suitable and simplest way."
"..."
Little X was silent for a moment and then added, "It can also be used as a weapon at critical times."
Chen Chen did not answer but continued. "Originally, I still had some doubts about implementing this plan. After all, even if the entire Mercury was dismantled, it would be difficult to create a decent Dyson cloud, but now the birth of the subspace engine has solved all this well.
"Using the subspace as a springboard, we can adjust the navigation trajectory of the Dyson cloud at any time. In this way, due to orbital problems, the possibility of accidents leading to collisions between Dyson clouds are much smaller."
After listening to all this from Chen Chen, Little X immediately closed her eyes and began to deduce Chen Chen's plan, but after a few seconds, she nodded. "The plan you envisioned is indeed the most convenient. I've added some details according to your plan and optimized some processes."
"Let me have a look."
Chen Chen's eyes lit up and he immediately said.
Suddenly, a huge void screen appeared in front of him, which was densely packed with a series of numbers and formulas. This was the Dyson cloud plan compiled by Little X.
In this plan, Little X designed the Dyson cloud into countless ring-shaped celestial bodies. These man-made objects surrounded the entire sun like a huge ring.
The first phase of the plan was three years. Blacklight Biotechnology needed to establish an industrial system on Mercury and launch the first Dyson cloud unit to the surface of the sun within three years.
According to the description of the plan, a Dyson cloud unit was a huge solar cell with a surface area of 136 square meters and a hexagonal shape. The middle was integrated and only the six edges would be made of a material that could withstand high temperatures. These edges could not only transmit energy but also be firmly connected to other units.
After the first Dyson cloud unit was successfully launched, the next thing was very simple. That was to replicate it countless times and connect these hexagons one by one, finally forming a closed loop across the entire sun.
This was the first Dyson cloud and also the goal of the second phase of the plan, which would take about 30 years.
Finally, after the end of the second phase, the Dyson cloud would form a huge artificial ring-shaped celestial body that could surround the entire sun. At the same time, every tens of thousands of kilometers, there would be a laser generator that could change the angle. In this way, no matter how the Dyson cloud rotated over the sun, there would be enough angle to illuminate the collected laser to the required location.
Then, after the first closed loop of the Dyson cloud was formed, depending on the situation, a new Dyson cloud ring could be formed, or the number of Dyson clouds could be continued to be increased on top of the original Dyson cloud. These were all free choices...
After reading the plan, even Chen Chen had the urge to slap the table and applaud. He was responsible for the framework of the plan and Little X was responsible for filling in the details. The entire plan could be described as seamless and completely an extremely mature plan.
"That's it."
Chen Chen immediately made a decision. This was the advantage of having a one-man rule. Whether it was the decision-making time or the speed of the process, it was simplified to the extreme. If this project was a national project, it would probably take several years from the establishment to the start of implementation, but Chen Chen had discussed it just now in less than half an hour...
Next, since the project had been finalized, the next step was naturally to announce it to the world. After all, the sun was not only the sun of Blacklight Biotechnology but the sun of all mankind. This kind of project naturally needed to be announced to the world.
On the official website of Blacklight Biotechnology, Little X personally issued this notice, giving a brief overview of all the plans and giving it a name that was intimidating enough — Blackwatch Dyson Cloud Plan. Then, the entire company was like an industrial machine, operating at high speed!
Blacklight Biotechnology occupied the influence of more than half of human society. Its every move affected the minds of countless people, so almost within a few minutes of the announcement being issued, this announcement caused an uproar in the entire Earth Federation.
For a time, the whole world was shocked!
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