Chapter 456 Carbon dioxide shortage crisis

Lu Yongchang did not speak, but cast a doubtful look at the holographic simulation image beside him.

“There’s not enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere anymore.”

A concise and comprehensive report in just a few words.

Although I thought about countless scenarios that might happen,

But when he heard Ling say these words, Lu Yongchang couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

Not enough carbon dioxide?

What the hell?

"The steelmaking plant has stopped working?" Lu Yongchang asked subconsciously.

Under the heavy rains brought by Nero, countless hematite powders were washed into rivers and river mouths, which brought great convenience to mankind.

As early as a year and a half ago, when the Atmospheric Transformer 1 was launched, steel plants began to be built on the Dawn Star.

Under the construction of robots, tall chimneys were soon erected one after another on Dawn Star.

In order to speed up construction and smelting efficiency, the style of each steelmaking plant appears extremely rough.

Large amounts of hematite powder are thrown into it.

At high temperatures, hematite reacts with carbon to produce large amounts of elemental iron and carbon dioxide.

According to initial calculations, the hematite on Dawn is enough to provide enough carbon dioxide for the atmosphere modification plan.

"No." Zero quickly denied, "All steel plants are working normally and the rate of carbon dioxide production is in line with expectations."

"Then why..." Lu Yongchang's eyes became even more confused.

"It's a problem with Atmospheric Transformer One."

A burst of footsteps came from behind, and Mao Zhengzhi's voice also sounded.

"Atmospheric Transformer?"

"Yes." Mao Zhengzhi walked slowly to Lu Yongchang, raised his head and looked at the slowly rotating Dawn Star satellite image in the holographic projection directly in front.

"Perhaps it's due to the effects of the overweight environment."

"Or maybe it's because of the high-concentration nitrogen environment."

"Or maybe it's because of other reasons..."

"We are still looking for the specific reasons."

Mao Zhengzhi shrugged and spread his hands helplessly: "In short, we found that the "work efficiency" of Atmospheric Transformer 1 in the Dawn Star Ocean is much higher than that in the laboratory."

Lu Yongchang suddenly realized.

"That is to say, the rate at which steel plants are producing carbon dioxide can no longer keep up with the conversion rate of Atmospheric Transformer 1?"

Mao Zhengzhi nodded: "This is roughly the situation."

"According to the current rate of decline of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is estimated that in another month, Atmospheric Transformer 1 will stop photosynthesis due to too low carbon dioxide concentration."

“By then, the completion time of the atmospheric transformation plan may be significantly delayed.”

Lu Yongchang frowned slightly, and then quickly relaxed it.

"In this case, just produce a large amount of carbon dioxide."

This is not a difficult task for current human civilization.

It was precisely because of this that Mao Zhengzhi came to chat with Lu Yongchang calmly.

"What are you going to do?" Mao Zhengzhi asked curiously, his eyes moving slightly.

Lu Yongchang showed a relaxed smile on his face.

"Certainly the simplest industrial method."

"Burn calcium carbonate at high temperatures."

…

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.

There are many reserves of calcium carbonate on the Dawn star, which has water, carbon dioxide, and rocks.

After floods washed away the hematite powder on the surface, large amounts of calcium carbonate minerals were exposed on the surface.

Unlike industrial production, humans at this time do 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 create large amounts of carbon dioxide.

…

Time flies.

March 2, 2388 in the Earth calendar.

Under the continued influence of Atmospheric Transformer 1, the concentration of nitrogen in the atmosphere has begun to gradually decrease.

The massive reduction in nitrogen has made the atmosphere of Dawn Star become thinner, and the atmospheric pressure has also decreased.

Compared with the original, the atmospheric pressure at this time has dropped to 18 standard atmospheres.

Although there is still a big gap between the goal and the goal, it gives people living in closed cities real hope.

In the past few years, due to insufficient living space, the Academy of Sciences has not continued to wake up hibernating humans.

In an independent office at the headquarters of City Academy of Sciences No. 1.

Lu Yongchang carefully flipped through the small holographic images in front of him.

In the projection, there are design drawings.

That is the design drawing of an asteroid-class starship.

During this period of time, the Academy of Sciences has basically mastered the basic weapons of the third-level civilization.

It is precisely for this reason that the manufacturing project of a new generation of warships has also been put on the agenda.

Compared with previous comet-class battleships, asteroid-class battleships are larger and more powerful.

Among them, the length of the [Golden Crow] series battleships has doubled to three thousand meters.

As for the functional starships such as the [Taotie] material reserve ship, [engineering ship], and [home ship], their size has increased even more dramatically - the design length has reached more than 5,000 meters.

So far, no issues have arisen.

When it was the turn of the design of the flagship [Earth], a problem arose.

During the design process, the scale of the asteroid-class flagship was based on the flagship of the Rator civilization.

Although the flagship of the Latour civilization belongs to the fourth-level civilization, in the eyes of a group of scientific researchers...

As long as they can, the larger the warship is, the better.

At least, at the current stage, the larger the warship is, the more weapons and equipment it can accommodate and the more powerful the power system is, which means more powerful combat power.

There is an old saying in the Earth era.

Become bigger and stronger, and create more glory!

The length of the flagship of the Latour civilization has reached the level of 10,000 meters.

It is for this reason that the scale of the asteroid-class [Earth] is also approaching 10,000 meters during the design process.

So, the problem arises.

According to Zero's simulation, even if they really build a 10,000-meter-level [Earth],

this [Earth] will become a fortress, not a starship - its maneuverability will drop to an extreme.

It's not because of the so-called power problem.

At least, at the current stage, humans have not completely "squeezed out" the technology of controlled nuclear fusion.

Adding more Hall thrusters and more nuclear fusion reactors can easily make this giant-level [Earth] move.

Excluding the power problem, the remaining problem is the hull material problem.

According to Zero's simulation results, as long as [Earth] enters the fourth state of forward movement, the hull will undergo a significant deformation.

The way to solve this problem, in addition to using stronger hull materials, is to significantly reduce the size of [Earth].

Six kilometers, this is the limit size calculated by Zero.

In other words, according to current technology, the scale of human starships is strictly limited to within six kilometers by material technology.