Chapter 583: Chapter 387: Helium Balloon (Part 2)
The engineer next to him was watching very closely,
his eyes gradually changed from initial confusion to astonishment, and finally to seriousness.
Because Wang Ye was writing too quickly, he needed to enter an extremely focused flow state to barely keep up with Wang Ye’s writing speed.
But even so, after Wang Ye completed the entire design drawing, the engineer still didn’t fully understand the purpose of many designs.
Then, Wang Ye carefully thought about the internal structure. In the past stratosphere plan, the helium release system used by Red Bull was very outdated, only allowing for one-time filling and releasing, resulting in uncontrollable floating of the helium balloon. It moved as fast as it wished and floated wherever it wanted...
Therefore, the designer didn’t think much about this aspect either, as most people’s understanding of helium balloons was that they were just primitive hot air balloons without any manipulability.
After quickly simulating a helium release system in his mind, Wang Ye continued to write furiously. He referenced the Long March rocket fuel injection system and designed an intelligent multi-stage relief valve.
Installed it in the middle of the helium balloon.
When the engineer saw Wang Ye drawing a strange device, he was a bit puzzled, but after the blueprint was completed, he was instantly astonished,
Yes, with this structure, the ascent speed of the helium balloon could be remotely controlled. Why hadn’t he thought of such a simple thing?
Next, Wang Ye proceeded to draw out the low-temperature helium pre-cooling technology, filled with low-temperature liquid nitrogen to prevent the helium balloon from bursting due to heat expansion at high altitudes.
Although the air current speed is fast at high altitudes, it is very hot due to the close proximity to the Sun and the lack of clouds as cover. For Wang Ye, this was not an obstacle, but for a helium balloon, it was a tremendous risk because such a large helium balloon already had a risk of material frailty and breaking, and the heat expansion of helium significantly increased the possibility of bursting during ascent.
Subsequently, Wang Ye calculated the ascent speed in each stage of the helium balloon: five meters per second in the initial stage, and eight meters per second in the stratosphere stage. Approaching the target altitude of 40,000 meters, the speed would be actively reduced by venting gas to three meters per second, thus providing a stable environment for jumping.
Wang Ye carefully calculated, considering potential unforeseen situations, estimating the total time to the target height of 40,000 meters to be around two hours and five minutes. Seeing this calculated result, Wang Ye couldn’t help but frown slightly, as the ascent speed was not as fast as his own ascent. If he maintained supersonic ascent, he could cover that 40,000-meter height in mere minutes, as that height wasn’t even as long as the depth he had dug underground before.
But Wang Ye absolutely couldn’t expose his ability to fly freely during a global live broadcast, as it would definitely cause other countries to be apprehensive.
So he still had to obediently ascend with the helium balloon.
Even if the helium balloon burst during ascent, he couldn’t display his flying abilities.
Thinking of this, Wang Ye continued to refine the blueprint in front of him.
He quickly completed the remaining subtle designs using his knowledge.
He also marked the materials and weight needed for various structures at the bottom of the blueprint.
When Wang Ye wrote that the cable material was to be made of carbon fiber, the engineer couldn’t help but speak, "We probably don’t have that much carbon fiber material here; it might be difficult."
"I’ll provide the carbon fiber," Wang Ye replied calmly.
"You’ll provide it?" Li Weimin, who was standing silently on the side, was dumbfounded.
"How can you provide it? We might not even be able to get that much."
"I have a way, but you guys need to provide enough graphite for me. I need as much graphite as the weight of the carbon fiber," Wang Ye said. He knew that carbon fiber is formed by stacking flaky graphite microcrystals and other organic fibers along the fiber axis, obtained after high-temperature carbonization and graphitization treatment. Therefore, he could similarly use the method of creating diamonds to create carbon fiber.
The reason for asking Li Weimin for graphite ore was simple,
although Wang Ye can now create all things,
according to the law of conservation of energy, raw materials are still needed to reconstruct everything,
just like he swallowed carbon atoms to synthesize diamonds and carbon acetylene; creating flames required swallowing enough combustible elements and oxygen.
Creating carbon fiber naturally required enough graphite ore. Wang Ye didn’t have channels for this, so it was very difficult to purchase such a large amount of graphite ore. As the manager of Anta’s head office, Li Weimin should have purchase channels for this.
"Graphite... That can be done," Li Weimin nodded, noting that the price of graphite was much lower than carbon fiber. Carbon fiber’s high strength and light weight meant it was often used in industrial and sports fields. A road bike frame made of carbon fiber was much faster than one made of aluminum alloy. Additionally, the production of carbon fiber was challenging, hence, the price had always been quite high.
"If we can solve the material issue, then there is no problem with the blueprint," the engineer muttered.
"In that case, let’s start manufacturing," Wang Ye stood up and handed the blueprint to the engineer.
The engineer was shocked and quickly said, "Start now? We don’t need to do scale model test flights or wind tunnel tests?"
"I’m short on time, so there’s no need for that. The helium balloon must be completed within three days at the latest," Wang Ye shook his head and then moved to the engineers responsible for other projects, such as the manned capsule and protective clothing, to provide clarification and improvements.
"Manager Li... What should we do?" The engineer looked to Li Weimin for help.
"Just do as he says. I can’t stop it; I need to go purchase graphite ore," Li Weimin said helplessly, spreading his hands. With his status, he wasn’t capable of stopping Wang Ye’s actions and decisions, so he could only follow Wang Ye’s orders.
"Alright then..."
The engineer scratched his head as he looked at the blueprint in his hand.
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About one morning later, Wang Ye completely resolved the theoretical issues,
while Li Weimin had also procured about two tons of graphite ore.
He arranged for people to transport it to the helium balloon manufacturing site using a truck.
Since the volume of the helium balloon was too large, they specifically chose a desolate empty wilderness and set up a large shed for manufacturing the helium balloon.
Once the graphite ore was delivered to the shed, Wang Ye came to the truck to check the quality of the graphite ore. The carbon atom content was over ninety percent, and the quality was sufficient, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
Then Wang Ye dispersed most of the people present, leaving only Li Weimin and the engineer.
"Bring the truck inside," Wang Ye said.
"Now? Can you actually turn graphite ore into carbon fiber by hand?" Li Weimin asked in confusion.
When he was initially buying the graphite ore, he did suspect that Wang Ye had the technology to produce carbon fiber in bulk, but even if he had this technology, he would still need specific machinery to create the conditions for making carbon fiber, as this was highly precise and couldn’t be done by hand.
However, after buying the graphite ore, Wang Ye requested for it to be transported directly to the shed by truck.
This request already made Li Weimin suspicious,
as there was nothing inside the shed at the moment.
What exactly was Wang Ye planning?
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