I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 613 - 511 Subsequent Improvement Research

In the testing ground of the research center, staff were unloading several man-height silver spheres from the helicopter cabin.

"Academician, all the emergency survival pods we could bring back are here." The crew reported to Chen Xin, indicating that these spheres were all the emergency survival pods they could bring back.

Chen Xin looked at the silver spheres being unloaded from the cabin, nodded, and said, "Thank you for your hard work. Go take a good rest, and send these to my lab as well."

"Yes, Academician." The staff member beside him responded, loaded the spheres onto small carts, and transported them to the elevator nearby.

Although these spheres were actually very light and could easily roll, the staff did not choose to roll them directly to Chen Xin's lab.

When Chen Xin had finished inspecting the Titan used for mountain rescue and inquired about related situations from the driver, he returned to the lab to find the silver spheres already delivered there. Several researchers had begun examining them.

Chen Xin put on his lab coat and protective gear before approaching one of the spheres and asked a researcher who was inspecting it, "How are the conditions of these emergency survival pods?"

These emergency survival pods were the same batch of old field survival pods previously sent to Chen Xin, but after his upgrades and improvements, their practicality had changed. They were thus equipped to the expedition team as emergency survival supplies for protection while undergoing field testing.

Although Chen Xin and the Disaster Response Research Institute had not intended to do such a real-world test, it was clear that the expedition team had used these emergency survival pods immediately following the avalanche.

So even though the first usage test did not meet Chen Xin's expectations, since it had been used, it was best not to waste the valuable opportunity to examine the usage of these emergency survival pods.

These emergency survival pods were no longer the typical dried field survival pods Chen Xin had seen before; the used survival pods were all inflated into these silver spheres.

This silver layer was not painted on but was a special insulating material. Its silver color served the purpose of blocking thermal radiation.

Chen Xin picked up a utility knife and tried to cut the material's surface, but it left no marks.

This greatly satisfied Chen Xin. He had not gently scraped it but had used enough force to pierce the outer layer of the emergency survival pod. Still, the material remained intact, indicating it was reliable enough.

This meant that even if encountered with broken ice or sharp stones in the field, there would still be some defensive capability.

However, Chen Xin nonetheless used another tool to cut through this outer insulating layer.

Somewhat unexpectedly, although the outer layer of the emergency survival pod was breached, causing an air leak, the entire survival pod maintained its spherical shape without collapsing.

Chen Xin wasn't surprised by this and continued to peel off the emergency survival pod's outer layer, revealing a black grid inside.

These black grids were distributed in triangular shapes, with each line about the thickness of a pen refill, resembling a mesh woven from black thread on the inner layer of the emergency survival pod, forming a structural support.

This wasn't inaccurate; the black thread-like grid was indeed the structural support for the emergency survival pod. However, it was not made from threads but from non-Newtonian fluid materials previously used by the Disaster Response Research Institute.

This material hardens rapidly upon impact, and Chen Xin exploited this by first making a triangular grid-like pipeline of flexible materials on the inner layer of the emergency survival pod and then filling these pipelines with the non-Newtonian fluid material.

Thus, when not in use, the flexible material and liquid non-Newtonian fluid material could easily fold without taking much space, and could be installed in a backpack as an airbag-like existence.

But once deployed and inflated, under internal gas pressure, the formerly liquid non-Newtonian fluid would rapidly solidify and harden, serving as a support that holds the emergency survival pod's structural integrity.

This non-Newtonian fluid material, once hardened, has high strength and is difficult to break or deform even under pressure.

This meant that even if the outer layer of the emergency survival pod was damaged and leaked, it could still maintain some external strength, protecting the occupants inside from external impacts.

However, compared to the initial design by the Disaster Response Research Institute, where the outer layer was entirely filled with this material, the defense was somewhat weaker, but considering the cost, this design was more economical.

Chen Xin initially wanted to use memory metal as the structural support for the emergency survival pod. This material had excellent performance; it could quickly restore its shape with temperature changes, having the strength and toughness of metal.

Even if objects made from memory metal were flattened or crumpled into a ball, they would automatically recover when temperatures change.

This type of material had existed long before the disaster but was not widely applied due to manufacturing cost issues.

Chen Xin also considered this point carefully, and thus did not use memory metal as the raw material, opting instead for the more economical use of previously mentioned non-Newtonian fluid material.

Judging by the current usage, this non-Newtonian fluid material performed excellently, perfectly meeting Chen Xin's design requirements.

If there were any shortcomings, it might be that the material could not recover once hardened, making it a single-use material, which meant the entire emergency survival pod could not be recycled and reused.

Chen Xin wasn't too concerned about this, as the item was intended for life-saving, and you wouldn't use it daily without necessity, right?

Aside from these issues, Chen Xin was also very concerned with the feedback from the expedition members who spent a night inside the emergency survival pod to see if there were any structural improvements worth considering.

Initially, Chen Xin only considered emergency shelter usage without accounting for scenarios where someone might be trapped inside long-term after the pod's deployment.

Now with clear usage cases, he certainly hoped to understand as much as possible to make improvements in future iterations.