Lu Yongchang didn't speak, but instead cast a questioning glance at the holographic simulation image beside him.
There isn’t enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
He reported succinctly.
Although I had considered countless possible scenarios in my mind
But when he heard Ling say those words, Lü Yongchang couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
Is there not enough carbon dioxide?
What is that?
"The steel plant has stopped operating?" Lu Yongchang asked instinctively.
The torrential rains brought by Nero washed countless hematite dusts into river channels and river mouths, bringing great convenience to humankind.
As early as a year and a half ago, when Atmospheric Transformer 1 was launched, steel mills began to be built on Dawn Star.
With the help of the robots, tall chimneys soon rose up on Dawn Star.
To expedite construction and smelting efficiency, each steel plant was designed with an extremely rugged style.
A large amount of hematite powder was added to it.
At high temperatures, hematite reacts with carbon to produce large amounts of elemental iron and carbon dioxide.
According to the initial calculations, the hematite on Dawn Star was sufficient to provide enough carbon dioxide for the atmospheric terraforming project.
“No,” Zero quickly denied. “All steel mills are operating normally, and the rate of carbon dioxide production is in line with expectations.”
"Then why..." Lu Yongchang's eyes showed even greater confusion.
"It's a problem with Atmospheric Transformer 1."
Footsteps came from behind, followed by Mao Zhengzhi's voice.
"Atmosphere modifiers?"
“Yes.” Mao Zhengzhi walked slowly to Lü Yongchang’s side, looked up at the slowly rotating image of the Dawn Star satellite in the holographic projection directly in front of him.
"Perhaps it's due to the effects of the overweight environment."
"Or perhaps it's due to the high concentration of nitrogen in the environment."
"Or perhaps it's for some other reason..."
"We are currently investigating the specific cause."
Mao Zhengzhi shrugged and spread his hands with a hint of helplessness: "In short, we found that the 'working efficiency' of Atmospheric Transformer 1 in the Dawn Star Ocean is much higher than that in the laboratory."
Lü Yongchang suddenly realized.
"So, the rate at which steel mills produce carbon dioxide is no longer keeping up with the conversion rate of Atmosphere Transformer 1?"
Mao Zhengzhi nodded: "That's roughly the situation."
"At the current rate of decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide, it is estimated that in another month, Atmospheric Transformer 1 will stop photosynthesis due to excessively low carbon dioxide concentration."
"At that time, the completion time of the atmospheric transformation plan may be significantly delayed."
Lu Yongchang frowned slightly, then quickly relaxed.
"In that case, let's just produce large quantities of carbon dioxide."
For current human civilization, this is not a difficult task.
That's why Mao Zhengzhi was able to calmly chat with Lü Yongchang.
"What are you planning to do?" Mao Zhengzhi asked curiously, his eyes flickering slightly.
A relaxed smile appeared on Lü Yongchang's face.
"Of course, it's the simplest industrial method."
"High-temperature burning of calcium carbonate".
...
Calcium carbonate decomposes into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide at high temperatures.
As for calcium carbonate, it is the main component of limestone and marble.
On Dawn Star, which has water, carbon dioxide, and rocks, there are considerable reserves of calcium carbonate.
After the flood washed away the hematite powder from the surface, a large amount of calcium carbonate minerals were exposed.
Unlike industrial production, humans at this time did not need to consider the storage of carbon dioxide.
in other words.
They only need to find an area with relatively abundant calcium carbonate reserves, and then heat the surface to easily produce large amounts of carbon dioxide.
...
Time flies.
March 2, 2388 (Earth Calendar)
Under the continued influence of Atmospheric Modifier 1, the concentration of nitrogen in the atmosphere has begun to gradually decrease.
The significant reduction in nitrogen caused the atmosphere of Dawn to become thinner, and the atmospheric pressure also decreased.
Compared to before, the atmospheric pressure has now dropped to 18 standard atmospheres.
Although there is still a considerable gap to reach the goal, it has given people living in closed-off cities a real sense of hope.
In recent years, due to insufficient living space, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has not continued to awaken hibernating humans.
In a private office at the headquarters of the City One Academy of Sciences.
Lu Yongchang carefully examined the small holographic image in front of him.
The projection showed a series of design drawings.
Those are blueprints for a small planetary starship.
During this period, the Academy of Sciences had basically mastered the basic weapons of a Level 3 civilization.
This is why the construction of a new generation of warships has been put on the agenda.
Compared to previous comet-class warships, the smaller planetary-class warships are larger and more powerful.
Among them, the length of the [Golden Crow] series battleships has reached twice that of the original – three thousand meters.
As for functional starships such as the [Taotie] supply depot, [Engineering Ship], and [Homeland Ship], their size has increased even more dramatically—their design length has reached over 5,000 meters.
So far, no problems have arisen.
When it came to the design of the flagship, the Earth, problems arose.
During the design process, the size of the small planetary flagship was referenced from the flagship of the Latol civilization.
Although the flagship of the Lator civilization was classified as a Level 4 civilization, in the eyes of many researchers...
Within one's capabilities, the larger the warships, the better.
At least at this stage, the larger the warship, the more weapons and equipment it can accommodate and the more powerful its propulsion system, which means greater combat power.
There's an old saying from the Earth era.
To grow bigger and stronger, and create new glories!
The flagship of the Lattor civilization was tens of thousands of meters long.
This is why the scale of the small planetary-level spacecraft, Earth, was designed to be close to 10,000 meters.
And so, a problem arose.
According to Zero's simulation, even if they did build the "Earth" spacecraft, which is tens of thousands of meters in size,
The Earth will become a fortress, not a starship—its mobility will be reduced to an extreme.
It's not because of any so-called power issue.
At least at this stage, humanity has not yet fully "squeezed the potential" of controlled nuclear fusion technology.
Adding more Hall thrusters and more nuclear fusion reactors would easily get this behemoth, the Earth, moving.
Having ruled out the power issue, the remaining issue is the material used for the hull.
According to Zero's simulation results, the Earth will undergo significant deformation once it enters Forward IV mode.
The solution to this problem, besides using stronger hull materials, is to drastically reduce the size of the Earth.
Six thousand meters—this is the limit size calculated from zero.
In other words, with current technology, the size of human starships is tightly limited to within six kilometers by materials science.
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