Chapter 114 113: Huge Power Consumption
Electromagnetic Weapon Test Range.
On the vast, barren plain, an immense iceberg towered.
Such icebergs were common on Ganymede, where water was abundant and temperatures were frigid.
Compared to mountains of rock, the lifespans of these icebergs were actually quite short. Between Ganymede's internal geological activity, the ocean currents beneath its thick ice shell, frequent asteroid impacts, and the tidal Gravity from Jupiter, one might form in just a few thousand years, only to vanish again a mere few hundred years later.
But for as long as they existed, they stood as tall and seemingly indestructible as any mountain of rock.
The iceberg before him was over a hundred meters tall and composed of ice harder than rock. Because it was mixed with so many impurities, its entire body was jet-black, making it look as if it were forged from steel.
To face this massive peak, the most powerful model of the eighth-generation Electromagnetic Cannon developed by Li Qingsong was towed into position by a heavy-duty truck, stopping about a thousand meters away.
That's right—even the largest model of the Electromagnetic Cannon was mobile. Li Qingsong had adopted a modular design from the very beginning, making each cannon a self-contained unit that only needed to be connected to an external power source to function.
This design improved a starship's overall reliability. Even if an Electromagnetic Cannon failed, it would only affect the cannon itself, not the entire system.
Now, the massive Electromagnetic Cannon—one meter in diameter and fifty meters long—was fully installed and secured.
Compared to the first-generation model, its overall mass and diameter were significantly smaller, but its barrel length had not been reduced.
In fact, it was even slightly longer than the second-generation cannon.
This was partly because it was the largest model, but also because accelerating a projectile to such high velocities required sufficient time, which in turn necessitated the longest possible barrel.
Thick cables snaked over from the power grid as busy Clones connected them to the Electromagnetic Cannon.
The ammunition bay door opened, and a stream of ellipsoidal projectiles was poured inside. They were manufactured using a special process to give them enhanced penetrating power and lethality.
These ellipsoidal projectiles were about one centimeter long and had a mass of roughly five grams, comparable to the bullets from some Gunpowder Guns.
There were a great many of them—a full one million projectiles, with a total mass of five tons.
With all checks complete, the charging button was pressed. A faint vibration traveled up from the ground.
Li Qingsong knew that if Ganymede's atmosphere were denser, he would have heard a low hum.
It was the sound of the internal equipment spooling up, of immense electrical power being converted into other forms of energy.
In just three seconds, firing preparations were complete, and the launch sequence began.
An instant later, a projectile was automatically fed from the ammunition bay into the firing chamber.
Inside the firing chamber—or barrel—which had an inner diameter of ninety centimeters, the projectile was lifted by an invisible force. It levitated in the center of the barrel before that same invisible force propelled it forward, beginning its rapid acceleration.
Over a mere fifty meters, it accelerated from a dead stop to a staggering fifteen kilometers per second!
Its acceleration reached 2,250 kilometers per second squared! Due to the equivalence principle between acceleration and gravitational fields, the projectile experienced forces equivalent to approximately 230,000 times Earth's Gravity during this process!
If a starship were to accelerate at this rate—ignoring relativistic and other physical effects—it would reach the speed of light in just over two minutes!
The acceleration was, without a doubt, astounding. However, Li Qingsong knew it was only achievable within a device like the Electromagnetic Cannon, and that current technology was limited to accelerating masses of up to five grams.
Under such immense acceleration, the projectile completed the entire process in just 6.7 milliseconds before hurtling forward at fifteen kilometers per second.
This velocity gave it 562,500 joules of kinetic energy. For comparison, a single bullet from the most powerful Gunpowder Guns Li Qingsong had previously developed possessed a mere 30,000 joules. This Electromagnetic Cannon Projectile's kinetic energy was nearly nineteen times greater!
In a mere one-fifteenth of a second, the projectile crossed the thousand-meter gap between the Electromagnetic Cannon and the iceberg, slamming into it with ferocious force.
The next instant, the steel-hard, jet-black iceberg was struck by the mere five-gram projectile. The impact blasted a massive cavern into the ice, as if it had been hit by a meteorite.
But this wasn't the end. It was only the beginning.
Just 0.02 seconds later, a second Electromagnetic Cannon Projectile of identical mass and velocity came screaming in, striking right beside the first impact crater.
Then came the third, the fourth...
The relentless bombardment continued for over five hours, until all one million projectiles had been expended.
A conventional gunpowder gun firing at a rate of 3,000 rounds per minute would have to stop within minutes to prevent the barrel from overheating. But for this Electromagnetic Cannon, such a rate of fire was nothing special.
It utilized superconducting technology to transmit power, generating minimal heat. It could fire for an entire day without any components overheating.
As the Electromagnetic Cannon fell silent, the swirling dust and debris slowly settled. Li Qingsong could then see that the once towering, seemingly indestructible iceberg had been sheared in two.
Only its base, roughly 100 meters high, remained. The upper 200-plus meters of the mountain had completely collapsed.
Sensing the immense power of the Electromagnetic Cannon, Li Qingsong's heart swelled with elation.
He knew he finally had a weapon suitable for space warfare.
'Electromagnetic Cannons are great and all, but man, are they power-hungry.'
Li Qingsong sighed to himself. 'Over five hours of firing, for a total projectile mass of only five tons, and the power consumption reached a staggering 500,000 kilowatt-hours. That's almost on par with a supercomputer.'
'But it's fine, it's acceptable. In any case, the nuclear fission reactors have already been miniaturized, so they can be carried aboard the ships.'
Having completed the test firing of the largest model, Li Qingsong brought out numerous other Electromagnetic Cannons. They varied in length, muzzle diameter, and even projectile mass. He then began bombarding another iceberg.
The Electromagnetic Cannon technology was now largely mature. Just then, more good news—something Li Qingsong had long been waiting for—arrived from another research base.
High-speed radar technology had finally had its breakthrough!