The battle was short, lasting no more than ten minutes at most.
However, cleaning up the battlefield was time-consuming and labor-intensive, taking a full four days to recover all the fragments that could be found.
As the items were from an unknown civilization, the military immediately initiated isolation protocols. Every salvaged and transported fragment had to undergo strict decontamination procedures.
This was not the usual decontamination where a splash of disinfectant sufficed; it involved repeated exposure to various high-intensity radiation beams to ensure no unknown extraterrestrial microorganisms could approach Earth or any other human-related living environment.
As for the extraction and transport of biological samples, that was handled by a separate system.
The place for researching extraterrestrial items was not Earth, Jupiter, or any other location with a risk of contamination. Instead, a temporary space station was constructed at the edge of the galaxy, and a select group of researchers was stationed there.
However, conducting research here was not a pleasant experience, as all research had to be completed remotely through thick safety glass or even walls, with researchers absolutely forbidden from direct contact with the alien artifacts.
To be honest, after so many years of development, humanity had accumulated a vast amount of experience in handling alien artifacts, and now all that experience was being applied to the items from the mysterious civilization.
Due to the military's urgency, the researchers worked day and night, quickly producing preliminary research results.
Firstly, no life forms of any known morphology were found in any of the biological samples.
Secondly, over thirty unknown alloys were found in various fragments. Most of them were primarily composed of light elements, with only small amounts of heavy elements, yet they exhibited surprisingly excellent mechanical properties.
Prior to this, humans had encountered similar lightweight, high-performance alloys, but none had ever possessed such high strength.
The military's materials research teams were going mad.
Their original research projects hadn't yielded results yet, and now they had so many new materials – it felt like they were being pushed to their breaking point!
In response, it could only be said that the researchers were overthinking. Light element alloys possess low mass, high strength, and other excellent physical properties. However, lightweight alloys are not always the best choice because the military must first consider the terrestrial abundance of these light elements and the cost of their extraction and use.
The research into these materials was primarily for interstellar migration, targeting planets that were not rich in heavy elements.
The same applied to other types of alloys; the military's objective was to find suitable formulations to manufacture compliant warships, regardless of the elemental proportions found on the target planet.
This was not an easy task. To date, the military's repertoire of lightweight alloy formulations was very limited, countable on one hand.
The recent conflict provided ample samples for the researchers, but no one could guarantee when results would be obtained—formulations were just the foundation; process was the key!
Although the researchers were all seasoned experts in their fields, intimately familiar with all known smelting processes, these new materials originated from an alien civilization. Who knew what unknown special processes the aliens possessed?
However, it wasn't strictly necessary to know the smelting technology to produce compliant alien alloys.
Years ago, the Luojianshan Base had mastered atomic-level 3D printing technology. As long as the alloy's formulation ratio was known and its microstructure understood, the desired alloy could be printed atom by atom using 3D printing technology.
It was time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it was far better than staring at something they couldn't create.
Also, due to the decisive breakthrough in 3D printing technology, all sorts of 3D printers had become widespread, and high-end manufacturing was almost entirely monopolized by the heavy-duty 3D printers produced by Luojianshan.
The cost of these machines was indeed quite high, but compared to traditional subtractive manufacturing methods, they offered significant advantages, saving at least half the cost.
Take warships, for instance. The cutting and shaping of every steel plate had strict requirements. Errors were not permissible, and any steel plate with errors was strictly forbidden from being installed on a warship.
Printing, however, produced finished products directly with virtually no scrap rate.
Originally, a warship could be printed entirely from start to finish, from its frame to its hull, all as a single integrated piece, leaving no gaps.
At one point, such warships had almost become the main model for the military.
However, upon reflection, was integral molding truly the best approach?
In terms of strength, yes.
But from a usability perspective, the drawbacks outweighed the advantages.
The most troublesome aspect was maintenance. Traditional warships, even if heavily damaged, could be immediately revitalized by simply replacing the damaged modules.
But how could integral molding be repaired? Would they cut off the problematic section and then replace it with a new module?
That would be a completely circuitous and pointless endeavor.
Therefore, the military rejected the integral molding plan and opted for integrated modularity instead.
In other words, the two heavy-duty 3D printers at Luojianshan, which were built at great expense and capable of printing entire warships, became obsolete. They were replaced by much smaller, less expensive medium-sized printers that achieved comparable results.
Sometimes, more advanced isn't necessarily better. All other issues must be considered, and the optimal solution derived by integrating usage methods and objectives.
Consequently, the current main warships were modular. However, the military held great expectations for light element alloys. Once the research teams had a thorough understanding of the new alloys' microstructure, the military immediately conducted an unprecedented comparative experiment.
The subjects were two Meteor-class warships: one constructed entirely from light element alloys, and the other a currently active warship.
Their internal structures and hull dimensions were identical, with the only difference being the materials.
As the experiment began, both warships underwent trials in various aspects such as speed, firepower, endurance, and resistance to attack.
The results showed that under the same conditions, the light element warship had a quarter greater endurance than the active warship and consumed much less energy during jumps.
This was also true for conventional navigation.
There was no other way; with the same dimensions and structure, a warship primarily made of light element alloys was over thirty percent lighter than a standard warship.
The comparative results in other aspects also came in, indicating approximately a 20% increase in cost, a 35% increase in maintenance cost, and a 12% increase in daily upkeep cost.
In other words, using light element warships meant exchanging cost for combat effectiveness.
But then again, as long as combat effectiveness improved, what was a slight increase in cost?
While the terrestrial abundance of some light elements was indeed low, their presence on planets of other civilizations was not. Light elements could be imported in large quantities through trade, thereby offsetting the increased costs.
This way, costs could also be reduced. Why not seize this opportunity?
Thus, the Meteor-class, of which only a few dozen had been built, underwent its first large-scale improvement. The improved model received a new designation: the Comet-class!