Deep Space Fleet

2265.9.27, the final departure day.

The top of the cold Europa is empty, and the starry sky port is empty, without the usual busy scene. All industrial spacecraft will make way for the departure of "Earth Age".

Looking down from the astronomical observation room, you can also see various industrial lights on the surface. They are arranged in a variety of regular images, constantly flashing.

This ancient aviation industry language, which will not be disturbed by electromagnetic radiation, is something every astronaut must learn.

Watching the time approaching minute by minute, Captain Ma said in a low voice, "I hope our future parent star will be better than this one..."

"In theory, it should be so." A nearby assistant responded, "Our parent star is brighter and has a more suitable gravity."

The mass of Gliese 581g is 3.1 times that of the earth, the radius is 1.4 times that of the earth, and the theoretical gravity is 1.08 times that of the earth, all in all not bad.

It's just that with the current observation methods, there is no way to know the specific atmospheric conditions of this planet.

"In the solar system, have the results of astronomical observations come out?" Captain Ma asked again.

"The result came out. The risk of being attacked by meteorites in the solar system is about 0.7 parts per million, which has been reduced to the lowest level."

"Then... let's go!"

The order from the captain's room was quickly distributed to various departments.

"The countdown to the launch of the spaceship, ten, nine, eight..."

"The main engine starts!"

Zhang Yuan watched the nuclear engine slowly warming up excitedly. One after another high-energy microwaves began to heat up the entire device, and the plasma quickly emitted a bright light.

At this time, there is very little that these staff can do, at most they can only pay attention to the changes of some parameters.

The artificial intelligence in the spacecraft can notice the mistakes earlier than humans like them.

Of course Zhang Yuan didn't want any accidents to happen.

Soon, the core temperature of the engine room reached a high temperature of 500 million degrees.

Plasma turbulence is also becoming faster and faster.

"five four three two one……"

He silently counted down the countdown in his heart, staring at the screen without blinking.

As the last second passed, suddenly, 16 bright blue lights appeared on the tail of the spacecraft!

These streaks of blue light are just powerful plasma pulses.

The nuclear engine will start at maximum power, providing the spacecraft with an acceleration of three thousandths of a second squared. The entire hull vibrated very slightly, especially in the engine room, where it felt more obvious.

Three hours later, as the distance from the space port gradually moved away, the Earth Age launched its huge light sail.

The large lasers from the surface shone on the light sail one after another, causing it to reflect a brilliant golden yellow like a mirror.

There has never been such a strong reflected light on the surface of Europa. So much so that the staff on the surface saw another small sun rising.

Huge cheers erupted from the crowd, and many staff raised their hands and raised their heads, witnessing the great miracle in the sky.

At this time, Senior Brother Zhao who was sitting on the side said softly: "Seven thousandths of the speed of light is a great achievement in the field of my cognition, which requires a lot of technical support. But for interstellar navigation, Still too slow."

"Have no idea……"

Zhang Yuan replied: "Without a breakthrough in the underlying theory, curvature navigation is still science fiction. If it is a small-mass spaceship, it can accelerate to 10% of the speed of light by using the optical path and nuclear fusion. No matter how fast our materials can't support it... ..."

"Do you think there will be breakthroughs in technology in this area in the future?"

Zhang Yuan thought for a while, "I don't know."

After a while, he said again: "Probably not."

Europa's gravitational force is very small, and within a day, the mothership broke free from its gravitational force and headed towards Jupiter.

The following voyage trajectory is very complicated.

First of all, in the first stage, use the gravity of Jupiter to do a gravitational slingshot effect and turn.

The gravitational slingshot has a limited ability to roll wool, but Jupiter's average revolution speed is 13.07km/s, and the average orbital radius is 5.2AU. According to the current speed of the spacecraft, it is not a problem to roll a little wool from Jupiter.

Immediately after entering the second stage, in the interior of the solar system, the elliptical orbit circles for 8 cycles, making full use of Europa, the light path device of the moon and the light of the sun itself to accelerate the spacecraft.

During these 8 cycles, the speed of the spacecraft will become faster and faster.

The last is the third stage, heading straight to "Gliese 581".

It sounds complicated, but the artificial intelligence in the spacecraft is more than capable of this kind of computing task, so there is nothing to worry about too much.

After all, the Earth Age is a new spacecraft, and all the designs have fully considered the long-distance voyage, and the probability of making mistakes in the short term is not high.

...

Two months later, the waking population has been reduced to 20,000, and it is still decreasing.

This part of the sober population is mainly the main crew members of the spaceship and postgraduate students.

Zhang Yuan also became more and more busy, he didn't have a lot of personal time like before, the work meeting after another made him dizzy.

Planned missions have begun to be issued in the spaceship, and he needs to learn some new things. For example, the operation of a nuclear power plant is mainly responsible for the normal operation of the unit, the supervision and control of the control interface in the main control room, the on-site operation of power plant equipment and systems, and so on.

"...The next time you wake up from hibernation and the population is extremely sparse, you need to take on greater responsibilities, which is equivalent to the real leadership."

"Graduate students are made for this purpose. Everyone needs to carry the burden on their shoulders."

After this meeting, his job level has risen to level 16, which can be regarded as the middle and high level in the spaceship. However, Zhang Yuan did not feel happy.

He saw that Li Zhendong was sullen, and went over to pat him on the shoulder: "What are you in a bad mood? You are already at the eleventh level, and you can be considered a middle-level cadre."

Li Zhendong laughed dryly: "It has nothing to do with the level of work, it doesn't matter if you are a little lower than a pervert like you, but... my girlfriend is in hibernation, and the next meeting will be hundreds of years away, so I feel very boring."

Life partners do not have the right to hibernate at the same time, only the right to wake up almost at the same time, the various assembly lines of the spaceship shrink, and do not support idlers.

Zhang Yuan joked: "It affects your mood. I would say that staying single is the best way to maintain a high combat effectiveness."

"You are just envious, jealous!" Li Zhendong suddenly thought of something, and made a playful smile: "Comrade Zhang Yuan, do you know what is the greatest wish in my life?"

"What?"

"That is...you can find a wife before I rest in peace."

"Get out!" Zhang Yuan blushed slightly, "Is it a matter of finding a wife?"