Coriolis Effect

"Battleship?" Gao Kun was taken aback. Still stuck in the mindset of Callisto Base, he hadn't considered the possibility of a battleship. Mainly, he hadn't realized that the survivors on Callisto were now an independent group.

Yue Yuan, unaware of Gao Kun's thoughts, nodded and said, "Yes, the existence of alien civilizations is an undeniable fact. As an independent civilization, we definitely need battleships to protect ourselves. But let's discuss that later. First, let's talk about the spaceship. Is it feasible, with our current technology, to build a spaceship that can accommodate everyone?"

"Not feasible!"

"Feasible!"

Gao Kun and Yu Nanfeng answered almost simultaneously, but their answers were different.

Gao Kun, as the director of the Design Institute, explained first, "Chief Yue, I believe you know that when building a Carousel-Type Spaceship, the smaller its radius, the greater the Coriolis Effect we experience. To make people barely feel the Coriolis Effect, we must build a very large carousel, but we can't build a spaceship that big."

Gao Kun had previously worked on ship designs on Earth, including large cruise ships, large transport ships, and even some medium-sized cruisers. So, he was very familiar with shipbuilding.

"First of all, the larger the spaceship, the greater the mass. We don't have a propulsion system with that much power. Even using a multi-unit Fission Thruster system, fuel capacity would make long-term, long-distance travel difficult." As he spoke, Gao Kun pulled a chair from in front of the workbench, sat down, and continued to explain to Yue Yuan.

"Secondly, the larger the spaceship, the more complex the internal structure and layout, and the more fragile the main structure. Therefore, large spaceships cannot be built on the surface of a planet. Yes, we have the ability to establish a space dock in Callisto's synchronous orbit, but this would increase the cost and time required by three to five times compared to building on the planet's surface. Moreover, due to material strength issues, the main thruster of this type of Carousel-Type Spaceship can only be installed on the central axis. As such, with our current Fission Thruster, it would be difficult to propel such a massive spaceship."

"No, no, no." At this point, Yu Nanfeng, who was leaning against the desk, interrupted, "Director Gao, don't take things out of context. Who said we're building a carousel? We're building a Large Cylinder, a Coaxial Large Cylinder. I've checked with Dr. Xu Zhenyi, and there are no material strength issues with building a Large Cylinder spaceship. And besides the main thruster being installed on the central axis, we can also install a ring of auxiliary thrusters on the outer wall of the Large Cylinder. The power will be more than sufficient."

Yue Yuan interjected, "Have you calculated how heavy such a large spaceship would be?"

"We calculated it during the design phase. The overall mass of the Large Cylinder spaceship would be about fifty million tons," Yu Nanfeng replied.

"That's almost the mass of a small asteroid. Can we move it?" Yue Yuan raised his eyebrows and looked at Yu Nanfeng.

This guy was a doctor of engineering mechanics and a missile dynamics expert. Yue Yuan believed he must have calculated this problem.

Yu Nanfeng thought for a moment and said, "We can move it. As long as there are enough thrusters, anything is possible with enough force. We've calculated that if we install thrusters on every auxiliary axis, we would theoretically be able to push the spaceship to 1% of the speed of light. It would just take a little longer to accelerate."

"How long?"

"Thirty years."

I'll be damned, is that a little longer?

Yue Yuan rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. Accelerating for thirty years and then decelerating for thirty years would take sixty years. How many sixty-year periods does one have in life? With the current average human lifespan of ninety years, the acceleration and deceleration phases alone would take up most of one's life.

"We have Hibernation Pods. Most people will spend the voyage in hibernation, so it's not a big problem," Yu Nanfeng added.

"Okay, have you included the mass of the massive number of Hibernation Pods?" Yue Yuan lowered his arm.

"Of course." Yu Nanfeng patted his chest, looking confident.

Yue Yuan stood up and paced around the Design Institute office for a couple of laps, then returned to the two men and spoke again, "How big would a spaceship that can accommodate more than eighty thousand people be? Hmm, and we need to factor in some reserved redundant space. Tell me more about this plan."

Seeing that Yue Yuan was leaning towards building a large spaceship, Gao Kun, though unwilling, wisely refrained from interjecting with more spaceship proposals. He also understood that battleship-type spaceships couldn't solve the gravity problem, and that problem was too critical to the development of the new generation of humans.

Magnetic Boots could only solve the problem of walking, not allow people to feel the overall effect of gravity.

"Two hundred and ninety-four!" At this moment, Yu Nanfeng first held up three fingers and said a number, then continued to explain, "We know that people on a rotating object will be affected by the Coriolis Effect, leading to dizziness, nausea, and other symptoms. But as long as the angular velocity of the rotating object is slow enough, the adverse effects of the Coriolis Effect on people can be ignored. This speed is 2 rpm, or 2 revolutions per minute."

"So, for the Large Cylinder spaceship we build, as long as we keep its rotation speed below two revolutions per minute, that will be enough. And to make the spaceship maintain such a low rotation speed and still generate gravity equivalent to that of Earth, the radius of the spaceship must be at least two hundred and ninety-four meters."

"In other words, as long as we place the living quarters more than three hundred meters away from the center of the axis of rotation, people won't feel dizzy or nauseous.

Moreover, such a spaceship has another advantage, which is that all the living quarters are located at the same distance from the axis and have the same linear velocity. Therefore, it's equivalent to living on the Earth's equator, where the movement of objects along the entire line won't be affected by the Coriolis Effect."

"People can't feel slight deviations in gravity, so the living quarters can be located not only at two hundred and ninety-four meters, but also extend outwards by about fifty meters. Beyond that, the gravitational acceleration exceeds 11.5 g. Of course, we can fine-tune it up and down, slightly reduce the rotation speed, and then keep the gravitational acceleration of the innermost living quarters and the outermost living quarters within a range that the human body can't perceive much difference. That would be about 9.3 m/s on the inside and 11.3 m/s on the outside, giving us a construction height of 60 meters."

In Yu Nanfeng's description, a Large Cylinder or Large Cylinder-shaped spaceship gradually appeared in Yue Yuan's mind.

The central rotating axis of the spaceship would be made of high-strength special alloy. Extending outwards from the central axis would be wide rotating arms. Because the propulsion of the spaceship had to be considered, these arms would be designed to be flat, like the spokes of a thickened tire.

Along the direction of the long cylinder, the rotating disk of the spaceship would be divided into multiple synchronous segments. It would look like N tires were placed on the same axis, and the sidewalls of the tires would be the living quarters.

Soliciting votes and investments... Ahhhhh, the calculation of the spaceship's rotational angular velocity, speed, radius, centripetal force, and other parameters in this chapter seems to have some errors, but after calculating it several times carefully, the difference isn't very large. The radius and rotation speed are within the feasible range, so I won't change the specific values. Everyone just needs to understand the general idea.