Coriolis Effect

"Battleship?" Gao Kun froze. Still not having adjusted from Callisto Base's positioning, he truly hadn't considered battleships. Mainly, he hadn't realized that the Callisto survivors had now become an independent group.

Yue Yuan had no idea what Gao Kun was thinking. He nodded. "Yes. The existence of Alien Civilization is now an indisputable fact. As an independent civilization, we definitely need battleships to protect ourselves. But we can discuss that later. Let's talk about the spaceship first. With our current technology, is it feasible to build a ship that can accommodate everyone?"

"Not feasible!"

"Feasible!"

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

As the director of the Design Institute, Gao Kun explained first, "I believe Chief Yue also knows that when building a Carousel-Type Spaceship, the smaller its radius, the greater the Coriolis Effect we experience. If we want people to barely notice the Coriolis Effect, we must build an extremely large Large Turntable. But we can't build a spaceship that large."

Gao Kun had once worked on ship design back on Earth, including large Cruise Ships, large cargo vessels, and even parts of several medium cruisers. He was therefore very familiar with ship construction.

"First, the larger the spaceship, the greater its mass. We don't have a Propulsion System powerful enough for that. Even if we use multiple linked fission reactors, fuel capacity would make long-distance travel difficult." As he spoke, Gao Kun pulled over a chair from beside the workbench. After sitting down, he continued explaining to Yue Yuan.

"Second, the larger the spaceship, the more complex its internal structure and layout, and the more fragile its main framework becomes. Therefore, a large spaceship cannot be built on a planet's surface. Yes, we have the ability to establish a Space Dock in Callisto's synchronous orbit, but that would increase both costs and construction time by three to five times compared with building it on the surface. Furthermore, due to material strength limitations, the Main Thruster of this kind of Carousel-Type Spaceship can only be installed on the central axis. With our current Fission Thrusters, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to push such a massive spaceship."

"No, no, no." Yu Nanfeng, who was leaning against the desk, interrupted him. "Director Gao, don't take things out of context. Who said we were building a Large Turntable? What we're building is a large cylinder—a Coaxial Large Cylinder. I checked with Dr. Xu Zhenyi earlier. If we build a large cylindrical spaceship, material strength won't be a problem. And besides mounting the Main Thrusters along the central axis, we can install a ring of Auxiliary Thrusters around the cylinder's outer wall. The power will be more than sufficient."

Yue Yuan interjected, "Have you calculated how much a spaceship that large would weigh?"

"We did when designing the proposal. The total mass of the cylindrical spaceship would be roughly fifty million tons," Yu Nanfeng replied.

"That's comparable to the mass of a small asteroid. Can we even move it?" Yue Yuan raised his brows as he looked at Yu Nanfeng.

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

Yu Nanfeng thought for a moment before saying, "We can move it. As long as there are enough thrusters, Miracles Through Brute Force. We calculated that if every auxiliary shaft is fitted with thrusters, theoretically we can push the spaceship to 1% of the speed of light. The acceleration time would just be a little longer."

"How long?"

"Thirty years."

The hell? That was only a little longer?

Yue Yuan rubbed his temples with a headache. Thirty years to accelerate, then another thirty years to decelerate—that was sixty years gone. How many sixty years did a person have? With humanity's current average lifespan of ninety years, the acceleration and deceleration phases alone would consume an entire lifetime.

"We have Hibernation Pods. Most people would spend the voyage in hibernation, so it isn't much of a problem," Yu Nanfeng added.

"Fine. Did you include the mass taken up by the enormous number of Hibernation Pods?" Yue Yuan lowered his arm.

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

Yue Yuan stood silently and paced around the Design Institute office twice. Then he returned to the two men and spoke again. "How large would a spaceship for more than eighty thousand people be? Hmm, we also need to account for reserved redundant space. Explain the proposal in detail."

Seeing that Yue Yuan was leaning toward building a large spaceship, Gao Kun was unwilling, but wisely refrained from interrupting to advocate for the smaller warship proposal. In truth, he understood as well that a battleship-type spaceship could not solve the gravity issue, and that issue was too fatal when it came to the development of the next generation of humans.

Magnetic Boots could only solve the problem of walking. They could not make people experience the effects of gravity throughout their entire bodies.

"Two hundred and ninety-four!" Yu Nanfeng held up three fingers and gave the number before continuing his explanation. "We know that people on a rotating object are affected by the Coriolis Effect, leading to symptoms such as dizziness and nausea. But as long as the rotating object's angular velocity is slow enough, the adverse effects of the Coriolis Effect can be ignored. That speed is 2 rpm—two revolutions per minute."

"So, as long as we keep the rotational speed of our cylindrical spaceship below two revolutions per minute, it will work. But for the spaceship to maintain such a low rotational speed while still generating gravity equivalent to Earth's, its radius must be at least two hundred and ninety-four meters."

"In other words, as long as we place all Living Modules more than three hundred meters from the center of the Rotating Shaft, people won't feel dizzy or nauseous."

"Furthermore, this kind of spaceship has another advantage. All the Living Modules would be located at positions equally distant from the axis and with the same linear velocity. It would be equivalent to everyone living on Earth's equator. Along the entire line, the movement of objects would not be affected by the Coriolis Effect."

"People can't detect slight differences in gravity, so the Living Modules don't have to be located only at two hundred and ninety-four meters. They can extend outward by another fifty meters or so. Beyond that, the Gravitational Acceleration would exceed 11.5 g. Of course, we can make slight adjustments, lower the rotational speed a little further, and keep the Gravitational Acceleration of the innermost and outermost Living Modules within a range the human body cannot noticeably distinguish—roughly 9.3 m/s² on the inside and 11.3 m/s² on the outside. That would give us sixty meters of construction height."

As Yu Nanfeng described it, a large cylindrical spaceship gradually took shape in Yue Yuan's mind.

The spaceship's central Rotating Shaft would be forged from high-strength special alloy. Extending outward from it would be broad rotating support arms. Since the ship's propulsion had to be taken into account, these arms would be designed flat, like the spokes of thickened tires.

Along the length of the cylinder, the ship's rotating sections would be divided into multiple synchronized segments. It would look like N tires fitted around a single coaxial shaft, with the tire walls serving as the Living Modules.

Please vote and invest... Aaaaaah, the calculations for the spaceship's rotational angular velocity, radius, centripetal force, and other parameters in this chapter seem to have some errors. But after seriously calculating them several times, the differences weren't that large. The radius and rotational speed are within achievable limits, so I won't change the specific figures. Everyone just needs to get the general idea.