Chapter 173: Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Similar to how Chen Chen had decoded the chip from the movie Upgrade, he first created a port for him to plug the T-800 main control chip inside. Before connecting it to the computer, he poured liquid nitrogen as a coolant to cause it to malfunction before being connected with Little X.
As the chip slowly thawed out bit by bit, before it even had a conscience of what was going on, Little X began to devour it in small chunks until its conscience was wiped away completely.
As seen in the movie, Skynet was lurking everywhere. The chip in these terminators could very well be a part of Skynet. This was something Chen Chen could not afford to overlook.
“I’ve erased the T-800 program from the chip!”
As the chip completely defrosted, Little X’s response came as well. “Compared to the STEM chip, the T-800 chip’s resistance is a drop in the bucket!”
“That’s normal.”
Chen Chen nodded and answered stately, “That’s the plot of the movie as well. By enslaving these T-800, the resistance army was able to rewrite the T-800 coding and cause these robots to betray their masters and fight for the humans. As you can see, Skynet isn’t particularly adept in the security department.”
After unplugging the chip, Chen Chen handed it to a cloned soldier again and had the soldier plug it back into the T-800’s scalp.
The moment the chip was plugged in, a red beam appeared in the T-800’s eye sockets as it rebooted.
They watched as the T-800 which was missing a leg moved slightly and turned its head around to face Chen Chen with its pair of dark red eyes. At the same time, its metallic teeth moved up and down in a pattern as a ba.s.s-heavy voice came out:
“Conducting systems engine a.n.a.lysis...
“Left-arm engine out of service, right locomotive leg out of service. Damage to the frictionless bearing on the left leg. Damage to the hydraulic shaft on the neck region. Damage to the detachable monitor module. Damage to the inertia impact damper...
“Overall damage calculations, forty percent. Twenty-three percent battery remaining...
“Self-a.n.a.lysis complete.”
After completing its routine, the T-800 fixed its gleaming red eyes on Chen Chen again. “T-800 terminator reporting to Sir Commander.”
“Little X, have you found any observations worth noting from this robot?” Chen Chen asked.
“Based on the data in the database, there certainly are some notable clues!”
Little X’s prompt response came from the speakers above. “The T-800 uses tantalum alloy armor, commonly found in jet engines, nuclear reactors, and missiles. It’s made of a mixture of rhenium, tungsten, molybdenum, zirconium, and hafnium. Of course, the main component is iron.
“The motivation behind using tantalum alloy for the T-800 is because tantalum alloy can effectively resist the erosion of biological fluids. Apart from hydrofluoric acid and hot sulfuric acid, tantalum is resistant to almost all acidic substances.”
Little X continued explaining, “On top of that, tantalum alloy is also referred to as high-temperature tantalum alloy. It can resist extreme temperatures up to two thousand degrees. Especially considering that toward the end of the Terminator movie, both parties were using plasma weaponry, therefore it’s reasonable to use tantalum alloy armor for its temperature resisting qualities.”
Chen Chen nodded. “What else?”
“There’s the inertial impact damper system in its head which serves to protect the chip, similar to the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the human brain. A more fundamental feature is the servo drive control system on the T-800. Its limbs are controlled by an axial drive motor and a clavicle trailing chain which allows it to run at extraordinary speed!
“Apart from that, there’s the application of frictionless bearing throughout the T-800’s body. This is a variant of a unique magnetic levitation technique that keeps the joints of the T-800 immune to friction damage over time. As for the interior section of the armor...”
As Little X was explaining, a slot popped out of T-800’s chest, revealing two lighter sized metal strips embedded inside it.
They watched as T-800 used its only remaining right arm to extract one of the metal strips. Little X’s explanation resumed on the speakers all the while. “The T-800’s powering system is supplied by two high-efficiency fuel cells. The fuel the batteries contain is liquid hydrogen!”
“Isn’t it the same thing as the T-850?”
Chen Chen was taken by surprise. He still remembered the scene in Terminator 3 when Arnold used a knife to slice through his body and proceeded to throw out a hydrogen battery.
Due to the damage sustained by the hydrogen battery during a previous battle, Arnold ditched the damaged battery by tossing it out the car window.
Subsequently, the battery exploded with the power of a dozen tons of TNT explosion and the range of the shock wave exceeded 100 meters!
In the ending of the movie, the T-850 also stuffed its final hydrogen battery into its mouth, annihilating the two of them together.
This was the reason Chen Chen had wisely kept his distance from the T-850 and went with the slightly inferior T-800.
After all, how was anyone supposed to keep a self-destructive soldier in line?
Yet, Little X again revealed to him that the T-800 also used a hydrogen fuel cell.
“The T-850 uses a hydrogen nuclear battery which is a different thing.”
Little X quickly followed up. “The hydrogen fuel cell the T-800 uses is a regular fuel cell and isn’t p.r.o.ne to explosions. Hydrogen fuel cells are present in real life as well. They’re inherently a form of power generation device. They’re quite unlike regular batteries that can be discarded after being exhausted or rechargeable batteries that need to be recharged after being expended. As its name suggests, it’s a battery that continues to supply power by adding fuel to it!
“However, the actual application of fuel batteries in real life barely reaches a thermal efficiency rating of 50%. Although it’s better than internal combustion engines that operate at 45% efficiency, it’s nowhere near perfect yet. The thermal efficiency of the T-800 hydrogen battery can reach 95%.”
Chen Chen raised an eyebrow. He was not unaware of the implications of thermal efficiency of up to 95%. If this variant of battery could be ma.s.s-produced, it could very well historically revolutionize the energy industry.
“Also, the T-800 has a built-in extractor that can continuously extract the hydrogen in the air to power its hydrogen fuel cell. This is the reason behind the T-800 robot being able to function up to hundreds of years!”
“I see!”
Chen Chen snapped his fingers and reflected on the revelation. “I never expected so many good things to come out of just one T-800. This does make me look forward to establishing my industrial system.”
All this time, Chen Chen had been paving the foundation for his “Mankind Anti-aging Project”. Everything he did, he did for the succession of the project.
Now, the “Mankind Anti-aging Project” was beginning to move on track. Chen Chen was also finding more methods to further attain energy at ever-increasing efficiency. Even the construction of the nuclear power plant was a short way away now.
This was to say that Chen Chen had already achieved the goal he had initially charted. It was time to step into the second phase.
Chen Chen’s initial goal could be defined as the process of seeking energy supply and establishing his position in the world. In that case, his next goal should be further developed to gradually shift his influence on a global scale, extending his reach over all the corners of the world...
Chen Chen was still a long way away from achieving this step.