Chapter 186, Expedition

On March 1, 2022, not long after the Spring Festival, Luo Xiaoyao, Zhan Fei, Tang Boyuan, and Dong Zhifei, together with a total of ten other asteroid mining teams, arrived early at the "City in the Sky" in space. "Here, prepare to embark on a long expedition.

Luo Xiaoyao and Zhan Fei are now one of the best astronauts in the Fuyun Group, and they are also the most experienced astronauts. They basically travel to and from space for a long time, and have very good physical and mental qualities. They are the captain and captain of this operation. vice captain.

Tang Boyuan and Dong Zhifei are top students who graduated from the Department of Astronomy, and are also the main decision-makers for this mining of asteroids. Navigating in the universe cannot be done without astronomers, especially for the technical work of mining asteroids, astronomers or Scientists calculate the mass of asteroids, the ingredients that make up asteroids, etc., while maximizing their profits from this trip.

In addition to pilots and scientists, there are also ten people responsible for driving small spaceships, maintaining spaceships, responsible for communications, responsible for daily life, etc. There are a total of ten people. Each one has their own area of ​​expertise, and they also have expertise in other areas. If you understand, you can be considered a generalist.

In space at this time, the second generation of "Hercules", also commonly known as Dumbo, has been built long ago. At this time, its huge belly is slowly opening, and the mechanical arm is replenishing it with materials. Materials, Once the energy is replenished, it’s time to set off.

"Your mission this time does not mean that you must bring back any size asteroid. Your mission is more like conducting a scientific experiment. The most important thing is safety first. Don't do anything dangerous. If you encounter something special, In an emergency, you can abandon the mission and return home directly.”

In the "City in the Sky", Li Fu was seeing them off at this time. In fact, Li Fu didn't care very much about how big and valuable the asteroids could be brought back. What Li Fu cared about was that he wanted to use this incident to promote China's power is marching towards asteroids. Only by obtaining more resources in space can we build larger spaceships, even space battleships, etc.

The huge resources contained in the countless asteroids in the asteroid belt are definitely the best and easiest to obtain resources in the early stages. Once asteroid mining becomes popular, China will be able to obtain endless resources from space. Space The time has truly arrived.

"yes!"

Luo Xiaoyao and others responded respectfully, and at the same time they were slightly excited. They would become the first people to mine asteroids in human history, and they were destined to go down in history. Although Fuyun Group was relatively low-key, the news was still leaked to the outside world. As you know, major media outlets around the world are now rushing to report on this.

"Brother Fu, all supplies and energy have been replenished, and we are almost ready to set off."

Chen Bin, the chief engineer of Dumbo, floated over, looked at the time, and said, The huge belly of the Dumbo outside had slowly closed at this time, and it had completed the replenishment of supplies and energy.

"Set off."

Li Fu gave the order gently and watched Luo Xiaoyao, Zhan Fei and the other ten people drifting away into the distance.

Soon, ten people came inside Dumbo, sat on their chairs, and fixed them.

“Connect Dumbo!”

Luo Xiaoyao lay on the chair and connected to Dumbo's control system through the virtual machine in his hand.

"The system is connected successfully and begins to recognize biological brain waves."

"The brain waves are accurate. Welcome to Captain Luo Xiaoyao, Vice Captain Zhan Fei, crew members Tang Boyuan and Dong Zhifei..."

A series of information flashed through the minds of Luo Xiaoyao and others. Biosensing technology is one of Fuyun Group's trump card technologies. Naturally, it is also applied to spacecraft. All Fuyun Group's aerospace planes, spaceships, etc. are all Using virtual induction control technology, if the corresponding biological brain waves are not input for binding and identification, there is no way to fly the aerospace aircraft produced by Fuyun Group.

"The communication signal is normal!"

"Energy 100%!"

"100% Compressed Air"

"..."

“Perfect condition and ready to start.”

Various data about the spacecraft kept flashing through Luo Xiaoyao's mind. This was because the spacecraft had started its self-check program and was checking the various statuses of the spacecraft.

"Command center, command center, this is Dumbo, this is Dumbo, Dumbo is asking to take off, Dumbo is asking to take off, Dumbo is asking to take off, Dumbo is asking to take off."

"Allow takeoff, have a nice trip!"

After receiving the permission to take off, the mechanical arms holding Dumbo around were slowly released, and Dumbo slowly left the space port. Soon after, its two high-power plasma engines began to eject a dazzling white long tail.

Similar to the aerospace plane flying to the moon, Dumbo first flew around the earth for dozens of times, and its speed became faster and faster. Until it reached the ideal speed, it directly left the earth's orbit and headed straight towards the moon. Flying to the outer reaches of the solar system, heading towards the asteroid hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

"Speed ​​23 kilometers per second, coordinates X2323, Y9988, Z23678, 40,000 kilometers away from the earth!"

"Communications are normal, life support systems are normal, and energy remaining is 99.8%."

"Keep accelerating!"

In Luo Xiaoyao's mind, all the data about the spacecraft were displayed. The only order he needed to give now was to accelerate, accelerate, and accelerate again.

This journey is too far. Even at a speed of 23 kilometers per second, it will take more than two months to reach the asteroid belt if the distance is calculated based on the nearest straight line. If the distance is farther, more than 200 million kilometers, it will take four months to arrive.

Therefore, Tang Boyuan and Dong Zhifei, who are responsible for positioning and navigation, are very busy at this time. They need to calculate the appropriate position for the spacecraft to arrive at the asteroid belt and the speed at which to fly to reduce time and energy consumption as much as possible.

This not only takes into account the position, speed, direction, mass, etc. of the spacecraft, but also the position and speed of the earth. You must know that the earth is moving around the sun at a speed of tens of kilometers per second at all times. The most important thing is that these data are constantly changing, so the work pressure in this area is still very high.

At this time, the spacecraft has just set off not long ago, and it does not require much adjustment in angle and direction, and the energy consumption is very small. Therefore, Tang Boyuan and Dong Zhifei are controlling the supercomputer on the spacecraft to continuously calculate the spacecraft's route, energy consumption, the position of the asteroid belt, the orbit and position of the earth, etc.

"Adjust the direction by 2.21 degrees, start the left wing auxiliary engine."

Taking advantage of the fact that adjusting the direction and position now saves energy, Tang Boyuan and others did not hesitate to keep in touch with the command center. The supercomputer constantly simulated various possibilities, and the spacecraft also kept modifying the direction and so on.

The direction of the spacecraft is the same as the direction of the earth's revolution. The purpose is naturally to save distance when returning and fly ahead of the earth's forward orbit in advance. If it flies in the opposite direction, it will really have to wait until next year to return.

"Speed ​​50.12 kilometers per second, direction adjustment completed, turn off the engine, and start inertial flight!"

A few days later, under the continuous acceleration of two powerful plasma engines, the speed of the spacecraft has reached 50 kilometers per second. This speed is the speed that Tang Boyuan, Dong Zhifei and many scientists at the Earth Control Center finally came up with. No matter how fast the speed is, the energy consumed by acceleration will increase exponentially. At that time, deceleration will waste too much energy, so it is unnecessary to continue accelerating.

If the speed is too slow, it will take a long time to reach the small belt, and then it may miss the closest distance to the earth. It will be very troublesome to return to the earth, and it may even take another year.

The engine is turned off and the direction has been finally determined. There is nothing left to do. The ten people on Dumbo can easily exercise, contact their families on the earth through virtual machines, read, study, play games, etc., which is the most relaxing time.

Of course, this kind of relaxation is only relative. The spacecraft is flying in the void. If you look at it with the naked eye, it seems that there is no change, just like it is quietly suspended in the void. Only through the radar, laser rangefinder, etc. on the spacecraft to continuously locate the massive planets in the solar system can we know that the spacecraft is constantly flying towards the outer edge of the solar system.

This long tour is very boring and tedious. In addition, for their own health, astronauts need to exercise for at least 4 hours every day.

Exercising in space is not as simple as on the ground. They need to pedal a specially designed bicycle, which is very strenuous and requires pulling force, etc. They need to exercise every important bone in the body to prevent the loss of calcium in the bones. Otherwise, once they return to the earth, they will be paralyzed for life.

In addition, the scenery in the starry sky seems to be unchanging forever. Only when you turn back to the direction of the earth, the earth becomes smaller and smaller until you can't see the existence of the earth with your naked eyes and can only observe it through a telescope.

The buffer time required for contact with the earth is getting longer and longer, from the initial delay of 1 second to the delay of 2 seconds, and the spacecraft is getting farther and farther away from the balloon.

Fortunately, the application of virtual machines, plus Li Fu's realization of the plant planting area that Chen Bin has added, is still very smooth along the way, and nothing happens.

One month later, the spacecraft flew over the orbit of Mars and was very close to the asteroid belt. It will soon reach its destination!

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It's too cold at home, my hands are always cold, cold, and the winter of southerners is actually more difficult 555