Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

Similarly, because the Vulcan device cannot provide power during this process, the momentum wheel is also self-powered.

What is carried here is a set of batteries, which is very effective, but it is too heavy.

"By the way," Shangluo suddenly asked, "why not bring another set of Vulcan equipment?"

"Because it will make the adjustment more difficult exponentially." Archimedes replied, "The throwing, temperature, and rotation of the Vulcan devices, especially the rotation, will interfere with each other. Because of the conservation of angular momentum in a closed system, adjustment is as troublesome as a seesaw."

"Now, a Vulcan device the size of a suitcase requires a space as large as a bus to adjust. If we deploy a larger one in the future, won't we also need more space?"

"So, Your Excellency, our current development of the Vulcan device is quite limited. The device's size is limited, otherwise it would be impossible to balance itself. The best solution we can think of is..."

"Of course it's a cannon!" Zheng Shijie said excitedly. "Now that I think about it, I'm truly prophetic! If we need to adjust things like temperature and angular momentum, it's best to do it in a fixed facility—accumulating power, launching—that's a cannon. It seems our space program will ultimately be based on the meritorious, enduring cannon!"

Zheng Shijie's tone was full of pride. Although the cannon he made before was completely different from the current Vulcan device - he was actually using chemical energy for multi-stage acceleration.

However, even though the two are different in themselves, they are similar in propaganda because they are indeed both cannons.

Even Lan Fang's lunar cannon does not require much modification and can be directly transformed into a facility that uses the Vulcan device to throw mass.

"If this succeeds, what do you two think?" Shangluo asked, "Where do you plan to build the cannon? On the moon?"

"Our idea is," Zheng Shijie replied, "it doesn't have to be on the surface of the planet. In fact, we can directly build this [mass thrower] in the form of a space station. Its shape may include multiple rotating rings, just like the armillary sphere. The angular momentum is balanced by the rotation of multiple sets of rings, and the combustion is suppressed by the internal energy. Finally, while throwing, the reaction force is used to charge the device itself. In this way, the mass can be projected into deep space like a trigger."

"Why does it sound familiar?" Shangluo shook his head. "Forget it, maybe the principle is the same. It's all magic anyway. So, our experiment this time... Eh? Hasn't started yet?"

"Perhaps the temperature and angular momentum need to be further balanced?" Archimedes asked doubtfully, "How about, Your Excellency the King of Rome, can you help ask?"

"Yes." Shangluo picked up the microphone, "Xiao Gao, what's the situation now?"

"Tian Yi Guiren said that they are rotating the measuring ball. I could feel it rotating just now, but now I can't feel it anymore. It seems to be moving faster, but I can't feel it."

"Do you feel the fever?"

"I can't feel the heat even if I do. There's no vision here. Eh? Why is there light around me?"

Before he finished speaking, Shangluo noticed a dazzling light coming from above his head - he looked up and saw a huge light source erupting in the sky, like a supernova explosion.

In less than a few seconds, the light dissipated.

"What happened???" Zheng Shijie asked hurriedly, "Did we succeed?"

"No." Shangluo confirmed the coordinates. The thing was indeed within his field of vision. "It seems to have exploded."

"Why???" Zheng Shijie wondered, "Hasn't it been adjusted?"

[In fact, the Vulcan device is very complicated. The working conditions are adjusted to such extremes that the temperature can no longer be suppressed. There is nothing we can do about it.]

Chapter 1287 The Ultimate Throw

[Fortunately, if it explodes in space, at least there won't be any shock waves, just light. Just treat it as fireworks.]

"Ah," Zheng Shijie held his head in pain, "I am so stupid, really, I actually believed that sending a suitcase, a bunch of springs, and a battery into the sky would allow them to warp out. This is really..."

"Wow!!!" Gao Shiyu suddenly shouted, "The moon! We are on the moon!"

"What's going on?" Shangluo looked at the screen quickly - the view on the screen was slowly rotating, and bread, incubators, gears, and a large number of other miscellaneous parts were all scattered in the nearby space.

The throw was successful. But not completely successful. Because judging from the surrounding structure, these are the front half of the spacecraft, while the back half is still in place and has now been blown to pieces.

"Good!" Zheng Shijie slammed the table, "Very spirited! This is a very good start! A good explosion is half the success!"

"What about this project?" Archimedes asked tentatively, "Sir, what should we do with this project after this?"

“This project can be continued later!”

"Eureka! Eureka!" Archimedes jumped out of the bathtub. Shangluo and Phaethon covered their eyes. But Archimedes blocked his own eyes, so he didn't see anything.

"Then what about our scores?" Gao Shiyu asked while the iron was hot.

"Bonus points! Bonus points for everyone! I'll give you 10 points! That's what I said!"

"Great!" The two high-fived in celebration, "Then we'll take our leave first."

In order to prevent these people from changing their minds, they quickly slipped away.

[The Tianyi nobleman from the front line has returned. He said this is too exciting. Can you give us some more rewards? ]

"Give this to him." Shangluo pushed the plate of steamed bread on his desk aside. "I'll have someone deliver it to him later. I've said it before, I won't enjoy the joy of victory alone."

[He was so moved that he burst into tears! He didn’t want to eat for the rest of the day, so that he could savor the food you shared with him.]

"Such a brave Doudou deserves a good reward. However, the rewards will be discussed after the mission is completed. I will send out the ones I promised before. I can't owe you money here."

To be honest, this technology is still a bit difficult to describe. It's mainly about the degree of completion. Did this thing really succeed? The last scene of Shangluo was full of debris and residue, unfinished bread flying everywhere, and the entire spacecraft had been blown into pieces.

This is why Tianyi Guiren can still remain active. If a person were on top, the distinction between the "front half" and the "back half" would be a problem, and Shangluo didn't know where the person would sit so as not to be split into two halves.

And both halves have problems. Sitting on the back half turns it into light, and sitting on the front half turns it into pieces.

As investors and developers, Lan Fang and Syracuse certainly celebrated the explosion for various reasons of their own, because they all had various matters to explain.

Lan Fang's investment was substantial, and even Zheng Shijie needed to explain it to his partners. Syracuse was even more so, for whom right and wrong were crucial. While this matter couldn't be proven completely right, demonstrating a trend would boost morale within Syracuse.

But in reality, this is still a long way from being truly practical. It's only about 70% successful, maybe even less than that—something Shangluo is well aware of. After all, he doesn't provide money or manpower, but he needs to get things done, and he has high standards for quality, because if things go wrong, he might actually end up sitting on it.

"Gentlemen, I'm afraid we have to speed up the process."

"To be honest," Zheng Shijie said, "You may think it's 70% successful, but I think it's 90% successful this time."

"why?"

"Look, if you think of it as a spaceship with a Vulcan device, it's still a long way from success - but if you think of it as a cannon, it's a great success! It reached the lunar orbit in an instant!"

"You mean, we should change our development route?"

"It's not a transformation, but a major step forward! This was originally in our plan, and now it has been proven to be a complete success! We should immediately start building the [Mass Thrower] in the geosynchronous orbit as a spaceport from the Earth to the Moon. The two-docking mass throwers will become the canal transportation of the new era, which is wonderful!"

"It's not impossible to think so, but please wait a moment. We will interview the Tianyi nobles on the front line and issue a report."

"What do we need to wait for?" Archimedes spread his hands. "We are all geniuses! Geniuses!"

Suddenly, Victoria took the microphone and said, "I'm going to call the Muses. I'm going to invite Plato to discuss and Aristotle to discuss."

"Okay, you're right." Archimedes returned to the bathtub. "I think the scientific and technological ethics of this matter still need to be studied carefully."

After a brief summary, the meeting ended.

"Huh!" Shang Luo breathed a sigh of relief. "They are really scary. They pushed the plan so far with just a few words. How did you pin Syracuse to the ground before?"

"It's out of control. Although I don't want to make a fuss about it now, Syracuse probably knows something about the disc space station. Including Columbia's various crazy experiments, Syracuse is involved behind the scenes. We can only properly manage the ethics of science and technology when it comes to issues involving the entire empire. If Syracuse can do it themselves, or if they can get sponsorship themselves, even the Muses Palace can't do anything to them."

"The sponsor this time is Lan Fang, right?"

"Yeah." Victoria nodded. "They really are stepping on each other's feet. Fortunately, Lan Fang at least has some business sense."

"But what do you think of this technology?"

"What do you think? I think if they fail, they will say - the mass thrower is 70% successful, but the cannon is 90% successful! Let's change the project to the cannon - it will probably turn out like this."

"The mass thrower cannot be changed." Shang Luo made up his mind. "It doesn't matter if the spacecraft is not working, but the mass thrower must be made! Also, I don't plan to ride this thing anymore! The raid on the moon will be carried out by chemical rockets. Let the Water Dragon prepare, we are about to set off."

Chapter 1288 The Imperial Court Has Plenty of Gold and Silver

A new Water Dragon is on the way.

In fact, the court built a lot of them. After all, there's not even a pump in this thing, and the principle is not much more difficult than "shaking a soda and then turning it upside down." It's just extremely huge, ridiculously huge.

The imperial court did not use aerospace capacity but rather shipbuilding capacity to build the Shuilong.

Judging from the current space missions, the Water Dragon is now completely unable to recover its costs. However, as the most powerful world empire in human history, and also the last world empire before humans escape the constraints of gravity, it is insignificant even if the court builds a big rocket to waste money. Because the court has mountains of gold and silver, which can never be spent.

One Water Dragon exploded, and there are two more on the launch pad, five in the shipyard, and the next generation of Water Dragons undergoing prototype testing in the Gobi Desert. The court has 2 backup Qigong pilots in reserve, and each of them can perform missions at any time.

The Water Dragon that Shangluo needs will be ready within a week.

During this week, the main task was to renovate the interior space of the Water Dragon.

The carrying space of the Suzuki is actually just a small empty compartment above the fuel tank. This space is as wide as the body of the Suzuki and has actually never been properly utilized.

The cockpit left for the pilot was actually only the tip of the rocket, as small as an airplane cockpit. Because there was really nothing to control on the rocket, just a series of valves, which could be directly controlled by the Qigong practitioner's spiritual energy.

Now, in order to meet Shangluo's requirements, the front of the Water Dragon needs to be equipped with a troop transport cabin and enough supplies to support personnel combat. Although these will not exceed the carrying capacity of the Water Dragon in terms of weight, how to distribute them in a space that has not yet been planned is still a problem.

"Then according to the plan, it will probably be completed like this." The next morning, Shangluo went to meet Zhu Xianxin at the right time and took out the preliminary plan formulated by Apollonia:

"We will launch the Water Dragon into space first, and only leave the first stage in the middle atmosphere, and launch most of the rocket body directly into space. After entering orbit, the Water Dragon will dock with the Bread Space Station, fill it with bread fuel, and then fly all the way to the moon."

"Wait a minute." Zhu Xianxin was stunned for a moment. "I understand the beginning and the end. It's a routine process. What's the bread space station? What is bread fuel? Kvass?"

"No, but it could be. First of all, this bread space station"

Shangluo briefly introduced its origin. Because Shangluo and others only knew about this thing yesterday afternoon, and this news had not yet reached Zhu Xianxin's ears.

"You mean, those automatons launched a large flying saucer into space without our knowledge, and are waiting in our path to provide support?"

"Yes." Shangluo nodded, "They said they could launch more if necessary."

"Let them retract their magical powers. How did they do it?"

"The automata are using experimental technology that humans are not adaptable to. We haven't yet determined whether this technology will harm humans, but the automata obviously don't need to worry about that. As soon as they determine that it is technically feasible, they will immediately implement it."

"Okay. That's the Vulcan device we were talking about, right? Those canned brains are terrifying. So they can bake bread in space now?"

"Yes. They say that if needed, we can also use biomass fuel made from bread to fuel our spacecraft, just like they turn air into flour on the ground. It seems that the main process is to ferment the bread."

“Isn’t that still kvass?”

“It’s actually a stronger kind of kvass.”

"Good fellow," Zhu Xianxi covered his forehead with his hands, "I feel like they are getting more and more outrageous."

"That's what I think too. So after this incident is settled, I will make some adjustments to the Colombian Automata."

"Based on their speed, they will probably conduct deep space exploration soon." Before he finished speaking, he saw Shang Luo's expression was a little strange -

"No way?!" Zhu Xianxun asked in surprise, "Have they already started?"

"Yes. As far as I know, they have actually launched no less than 40 bread probes into deep space, looking for places in the universe where bread can be made, to provide more bread for humanity's subsequent space exploration. I have asked them to stop this work, and they will not send more automata up there."

"You're right. They can help us in low-Earth orbit now. But for deep space, we'd better do it ourselves."

"They are unreliable," Shang Luo replied. "Even if I put loyalty aside, these automatons are not very reliable. Because they tend to expand bread production by any means necessary, without considering other things. This makes their behavioral logic very distorted, but because their execution ability is unusually strong, they can complete these projects at a terrifying speed. But I think they will hit the ceiling sooner or later."

"Do you mean?"

"Currently, the Columbian Automaton State is actually using the experimental technology of Rome. Although these technologies have been proven to be feasible in Rome, many of them have not been put into practical use due to the ethical issues of science and technology. So far, the Columbian Automaton State has not demonstrated real research and development capabilities. After they have devoured all the legacy left by Rome, they may have nothing left to gnaw on."

"Huh" Zhu Xianxun finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least, this was something to be comforted by.

Living next to a neighbor whose origin and end he didn't know really made him unable to sleep peacefully. After knowing that these automata still had to follow the basic laws of scientific research and development, he felt more at ease.

"However, if they do not have the ability to develop technology, we can consider asking them to make more practical contributions in the short term. Have they considered deploying a space station on the moon?"

"They have actually already launched a lunar base. Yes, they have already deployed robots on the moon in advance. They have chosen a place that is very suitable for human landing, where there is water and other minerals in the strata. Even our space forces may be able to move in with just their luggage. By the time we go in, the steaming hot bread should be ready."

Chapter 1289 Toaster Moon Base

“That’s really thoughtful.”

Zhu Xianxi shook his head: "Well, since they are willing to help, let them lend a hand. At present, finding the Moon Rabbit is the most important thing."

Zhu Xianxi has never forgotten what happened on the moon - because in the previous plan, the court placed its hopes of ascension on the moon. And now, there are moon rabbits on the moon, which further proves that the plan itself is forward-looking. Because on the moon, it seems that there are really some places with abundant spiritual energy, which can even nourish advanced life such as moon rabbits.

However, if one wants to collect spiritual energy on the moon, one must inevitably compete with the Moon Rabbit for the rabbit holes and carrot pits.

If we can't reach an agreement with the Moon Rabbit, then the Moon War will probably begin.

“Are we going to go to war with the Moon Rabbit with the help of a toaster?” Zhu Xianxun leaned back. “I don’t even dare to think about what the history books will say about this.”

"Anyway, it's fine as long as we can get things done. Perhaps after this incident, when everyone can gain eternal life, everything in the past and future will become the history of the present. When that time comes, I'll just write it down."

"Thank you for your good wishes." Zhu Xianxi shook his head. "I just hope that at least there will be enough spiritual energy for us to share."

Now he found that the previous plan seemed a bit conservative. Because after Shangluo arrived, various basic technologies have developed by leaps and bounds, and the space transportation capacity of the Earth-Moon system is more than a little stronger than before, and even the Water Dragon has achieved success.

If we use the Water Dragon, it would be possible to shorten the period of popularizing spiritual energy to less than 10 years.