Chapter 863 - Long-distance Wireless Power Transmission
Xia Shiyu originally planned to attend this summit by herself. As the executive of Future Group, she could indeed represent Future Group to some extent. The reason why she made this decision was mainly out of concern for Jiang Chen’s safety.
Jiang Chen spent a lot of effort to finally persuade and reassure Xia Shiyu.
His business was all over the UA, but he hadn’t visited yet.
In addition, Cali, where Silicon Valley was located, was just next to Nevada. He also planned to “visit” the mysterious Area 51 to see what the UA people were actually studying.
Before flying to Cali, good news came from the apocalypse.
Jiang Chen requested Beluga Station to search for long-distance wireless power transmission equipment and there was finally progress. Wu Yue, who was stationed at the Sixth Street, conveyed some news to Chu Nan which was fed back to Fishbone base.
When Sun Jiao told Jiang Chen the good news, Jiang Chen immediately returned to the apocalypse to meet with Wu Yue.
In front of the warehouse on the Sixth Street, the guard in a kinetic skeleton saluted him and opened the iron gate.
With a dry splash of air, Jiang Chen walked into a bright warehouse and soon saw Wu Yue standing on a platform along with scientists from Camp 27, who were busy studying around the platform.
“We meet again, Mr. General.”
Wu Yue came forward and shook Jiang Chen’s hand tightly.
“Long time no see.” Jiang Chen grinned and let go of his hand. “I didn’t expect that after so long, you’d still be the representative here.”
“Surprised?” Wu Yue shrugged and laughed.
“No, I’m just curious as to why you didn’t get promoted yet. Let’s not talk about this anymore. Where is it?”
Jiang Chen looked around but didn’t see what he wished to see in the warehouse.
Wu Yue stomped his feet.
“It’s just under our feet.”
Slightly surprised, Jiang Chen looked down.
At a closer look, this hexagonal platform was indeed special.
On the black painted shell, scale-like little bumps about the size of a thumb were visible. They were neatly arranged into a net and covered the hexagonal platform.
However, Jiang Chen didn’t expect that this hexagonal platform occupying a thousand square meters on the ground was actually a part of the long-distance wireless power transmission equipment.
“How does this stuff work? Can you show it to me?”
Jiang Chen casually stepped on the surface of the platform. Other than the surface material feeling very soft, he didn’t see anything else special about it.
“This thing works in outer space. It can’t be used in the atmosphere.” Wu Yue shook his head and pointed his fingers at the scientists who belonged to NAC. “You can ask your subordinates how it works. I don’t know much about it. Well… let’s settle the bill first.”
A bright and friendly smile appeared on his face.
Jiang Chen didn’t waste any time. He tapped the wristwatch, pulled out the data cord, linked directly to his EP, and transferred 10,000 credits to his account. Seeing that string of zeros, Wu Yue’s smile was even brighter. He bowed to Jiang Chen respectfully and left the warehouse.
With 10,000 credits, the purchasing power was equivalent to 100,000 crystals. It was enough for Beluga Station to purchase a whole month’s worth of supplies from the Sixth Street. If they worked with merchants, it would take four trips to Japan to make the same amount.
Helping the NAC military’s government salvage equipment before the war was a great job for the Beluga Station.
After Wu Yue left, Jiang Chen called a scientist busy on the computer next to the platform and asked him how to use the device.
The scientist named Luo Yong was excited when the general asked him. He laid down his work and took Jiang Chen straight to the front of an instrument at the corner of the warehouse. The iron box looked like a closet and there was a transparent acrylic tube about one meter long.
“This is a device that simulates wireless power transmission in outer space. Electric energy is converted into a laser beam that carries energy at pole A and converts it into electricity at pole B. Now the glass tube is pumped into an approximately vacuum state to prevent the loss of the transmission laser in the form of heat energy.” Luo Yong explained the science behind the technology to Jiang Chen using layman terms. He reached out, turned on the holographic screen and pressed the start button.
His fingers tapped a few times, set the transmission power, and one end of the glass tube began to illuminate. The power indicator began to jump and eventually stopped at 21 kiloWatt.
In an instant, the blue laser filled the entire vacuum tube, just like flowing liquid – bright but not blinding. At the same time, the number on the indicator that measured the other pole of the vacuum tube, also began to increase. When the surging laser stabilized, this number eventually stopped at 20.997 kiloWatt.
Considering that this one-meter-long distance only had a 0.014 percent electrical energy loss, it was quite astonishing. Different from traditional power transmission methods, under ideal conditions, this laser transmission didn’t need to utilize a medium, so there was no power loss due to resistance or heat.
As long as the medium on the optical path was as small as possible and the beam was concentrated as much as possible, the electric energy could be transmitted stably from one pole to the other, even through millions of kilometers with negligible energy lost.
At that time, the helium 3 mined from the Moon wouldn’t need to be transported to Earth via a spacecraft, and it would be directly converted into electricity on the Moon’s fusion power station then directly “fired” from the end of the space elevator in outer space. After being converted back into electrical energy, the superconductor line would transmit to the power grid on the surface of the Earth.
“Because of the acrylic glass, we can observe the laser beam with the naked eye. Although it looks very mild, it’s also a form of power loss, but in the actual universe, this beam is invisible. Only in regions close to the Earth, or in the presence of dust or water molecules, can blue, tubular beams be observed.”
While describing the science to Jiang Chen, Wu Yue turned off the device.
“If a spacecraft passes this laser beam, isn’t it dangerous?” Jiang Chen suddenly thought of a very serious problem.
[Tens or even hundreds of millions of megawatts of electricity would be converted into lasers. This would be a Moon-based laser turret! If the middle of this light path passed through any spacecrafts or rockets, it would cook them into molten iron.]
Also, if this laser accidentally went off target and was directed at the Earth…
Jiang Chen was a bit afraid that he could accidentally make a hole in the atmosphere.
“This concern is redundant.” Luo Yong laughed. “Generally speaking, the light path will be marked on the navigator of the spacecraft. No spacecraft will approach the area. It’s just like we won’t go touching high-voltage poles with a ladder for fun.”
“Then what if the laser misses?” Jiang Chen persisted.