Chapter: 108

"Welcome back, Mark."

"It's been a while, Jarvis." Mark changed into comfortable slippers, put down his heavy luggage, and returned to his room, lying on the bed.

The Uru metal and Thor's genetic samples brought back from New Mexico had already been sent to his laboratory at the company.

What bothered him was that he had been so focused on collecting Uru metal that he forgot to collect more genetic samples from the other Asgardians. It was a missed opportunity, and unless Mark himself could go to Asgard, the only chance would be to wait for Ragnarok and the migration of the Asgardian population to Earth. That would be a long wait.

But for now, Mark didn't have the mindset to continue researching the secrets of Uru metal and Asgardian genetics. The battle between Hover-cannon and the Destroyer had a significant impact on him.

Mark didn't expect that his confident antimatter annihilation bomb couldn't defeat the Destroyer. Although he believed that by increasing the amount of antimatter, he could change the outcome, the consequences of such a change would be more than he could bear.

Therefore, learning from this defeat, Mark believed that his top priority was to create his own trump card, something that could limit the destruction to a certain range while accurately targeting and eliminating the enemy.

And the weapon concept that could fulfill these two requirements that came to Mark's mind was a space-based weapon!

A space-based weapon, as the name suggests, is a weapon that launches attacks from the sky. Specifically, it is a weapon system launched from a platform (such as satellites or space stations) deployed in Earth's orbit or the orbit of other celestial bodies, used to strike enemies on ground, underground, sea surface, orbital strategic targets, and extraterrestrial threats.

Due to its deployment in space, it can achieve all-weather, omni-directional strikes without any blind spots, without worrying about forgetting to bring equipment.

Moreover, its deployment method ensures that it has an absolute advantage on the battlefield and is difficult to destroy. It can be said to be a perfect weapon concept, disregarding its high cost and the technological bottleneck of precise targeting.

However, whether it's money or technology, these two aspects are not problems in Mark's eyes because he has the wealth and the ability, possessing all the necessary conditions to realize this concept.

Currently, there are two main idea for the space-based weapon concept.

The first idea is a simplified version that converts gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy. The principle involves sending a 50-ton tungsten rod into space. One weapon platform can accommodate 10 tungsten rods, each with a length of about 5 meters and a diameter of about 0.8 meters.

Tungsten rods have high density and weigh around 50 tons. They are launched towards Earth using the acceleration of gravity, targeting the desired objectives. The power is comparable to a nuclear bomb but without nuclear radiation or contamination, making it highly efficient and environmentally friendly.

For Mark, this idea has two difficulties. The first is how to achieve precise targeting. During the descent from space, the tungsten rods are influenced by Earth's atmosphere. Solving this problem requires accurately considering their aerodynamic characteristics and the environmental conditions at the time of impact, which is a challenge.

Another issue is that although the tungsten rods can withstand temperatures above 3422 degrees Celsius, they experience severe friction during the descent in the atmosphere, resulting in significant mass loss and ultimately affecting the effectiveness of the attack.

For the first challenge, as long as a suitable landing algorithm model is adapted and a posture adjustment system is installed on the tungsten rods, the problem can be solved. As for the second point, it's even simpler. Just spend a little more money to coat the surface with a layer of Tantalum hafnium carbide. Everything is not a problem...

However, Mark doesn't plan to use the first proposal for the space-based weapon. The reason is that its striking speed is too slow!

If it's about destroying a specific location, its capability is unquestionable. But if it's about targeting an enemy who can move and escape, by the time the tungsten rod falls to the designated point due to the acceleration of gravity, the enemy would have already detected it and evaded.

Therefore, Mark's research and development direction will be the second form of the space-based weapon: launching high-energy particle beams to deliver energy attacks to the target.

The principle of high-energy particle beams is to accelerate particles like protons and neutrons to extremely high values using accelerators and then emit a very fine particle beam flow through electrodes or magnetic focusing to strike the target.

The projectile speed of particle beam weapons is close to the speed of light, and the energy transfer to the target within a unit solid angle is greater than that of lasers, allowing penetration into the target's depths. However, during transmission through the atmosphere, the power rapidly decays due to continuous collisions with air molecules.

To turn this concept into reality, and make it his trump card. Solving the problem of energy decay is the challenge that Mark needs to overcome now.

As for the issues of launching from other weapon platforms and ensuring continuous energy supply, Mark only wants to say one thing: Sorry, but with money, you can really do anything.

With the Type I Ark Reactor technology, Mark believes he can already ensure long-lasting power supply for the space-based platform. If needed, Mark can design an antimatter energy reactor for it. No matter how wasteful it may seem, it will be sufficient.

You see, ever since Mark succeeded in producing and storing antimatter, he hasn't developed any other applications for antimatter besides the annihilation bomb. This might be a good opportunity.

"I have the idea now. It's time to enter the virtual laboratory and get to work! Let's do this!"

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