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Earth, Houston Space Center, USA.

June 22, 2028, at 17:22 New York time.

"The latest newsletter from 'Noah'...here it is! It's here! They're here! They've arrived safely on Mars..." The female staff staring at the screen was a silent reader at first, and she was excited when she saw the contents of the newsletter clearly No way, the news spread quickly.

When the Houston Space Center received the latest message from the "Noah", the entire NASA headquarters was in a state of ebullition, and even Charles Boll was unavoidably excited. The news was spreading at an astonishing speed, and NASA immediately spread the news, and almost all the headlines in the world were about the successful arrival of the "Noah" on Mars.

The American media even covered the sky and covered the sky.

This is undoubtedly a phased victory. The five astronauts carried by the "Noah" have further refreshed the "horizon" of mankind. The meaning is extraordinary.

In Washington, the capital, the White House also sent a spokesperson to congratulate this staged victory.

...

On June 22, when the American "Noah" successfully and safely reached the orbit of Mars, and its news sent back to the earth caused a sensation all over the world, the "Mars Express" that had already set off in mid-May was at this moment It has also sailed long-distance for more than a month, and the voyage has exceeded 129 million kilometers.

The propulsion system of "Mars Express" is very special. Compared with the conventional ion engine engine, which ejects argon atoms backward at super high speed to obtain thrust, the propulsion system of "Mars Express" has a bit of the opposite flavor. Its propulsion The engine is not only a conventional fuel propeller at the rear, but a front engine, which uses thousands of lasers to irradiate hundreds of thousands of lasers and uses light sails to propel the Mars Express and its "Firefly".

Although a thousand sets of lasers will generate a reverse thrust when activated, the kinetic energy is completely acceptable compared to the thrust generated by the light sail. Only a small part of the thrust is needed to offset the reverse thrust, and the light sail pushes the acceleration of the entire object. It is indeed very fast, but it does not appear to be too shocking. On the one hand, it is due to energy issues, and on the other hand, it is also due to the fact that there are astronauts on the spacecraft.

Even so, during the long voyage stage, more than ten times of acceleration, the continuous acceleration of batches for the entire spacecraft along the way, can also bring quite fast acceleration to the spacecraft after a long period of accumulation. Theoretically, in an ideal state with sufficient material strength and energy output, continuous acceleration can bring the entire spacecraft infinitely close to the speed of light,

Infinitely approaching the speed of light only needs 8 months of continuous acceleration, of course, this is an ideal state.

But none of these problems are the key to making the "Mars Express" design a front-engine. The most critical factor is the size of the entire aircraft. The outpost base and a surface crystal cutting laboratory, plus two landing vehicles, and other miscellaneous materials.

The total volume of the entire aircraft is quite amazing. The "Firefly" orbiting Mars alone has a volume of nearly 1,500 tons. Adding other parts, the entire aircraft is almost 4,000 tons. The volume is equivalent to half of the "Tiangong Circular Orbit Starport".

The actual situation of such a huge body can only use the front engine to safely shuttle this big guy between the stars. .

Just imagine if it is a conventional propulsion system, such as an aircraft with a rear engine like a rocket, its hull structure and material properties must be strong enough to handle the thrust of the engine. In other words, the structure of the entire aircraft must be built like a skyscraper with a solid middle part and bottom part, so as to ensure that such a huge spaceship will not collapse and fall apart in the face of strong thrust.

This is also the reason why the outline of the rocket is like a spire, with a small upper end and a huge middle lower layer. For example, the American "Saturn 5" and the current American "Noah" are designed in this way.

But the front engine is quite different. The hull does not need to be designed to be as thick and strong as a super heavy rocket or a building. The biggest requirement is to be as durable as a rope. This is why the "Mars Express" and its "Firefly" The total length of "Huohao" once exceeded 1,000 meters, and the biggest reason why the structure is so slender.

The design of the front engine can greatly reduce the weight of the hull structure, making it possible for a super-large spacecraft to travel across long-distance interstellar travel. Going to the asteroid belt for mining operations and transportation is not a far-fetched fantasy. There is no doubt that This is of great significance for interstellar travel.

Otherwise, why is the American "Noah" so "small"? Why is it in the shape of a tower top? Moreover, due to the carrying capacity of the Americans, the "Mars Project" will be divided into three times, and a one-way journey will take nearly half a year, and a round trip between the Earth and Mars plus mission time will take almost a year. Waiting for the relative distance of the golden voyage stage, how precious time is under the current rapid technological change.

It's not that the Americans don't have that kind of financial resources. It's just that several giant companies participating in the "Mars mission" are not without money, and the United States is not without money.

The real reason is that the field of laser technology is not as good as that of China, and the field of light sail technology and solar panels is also far ahead of China. The vast ocean of solar panels in Qinghai alone is enough to explain some problems.

Not to mention the most critical issue of energy supply, for Americans who do not have Amethyst, this is a real knot that cannot be untied, not to mention the problem of mature laser technology, just want to get enough thrust. More fuel is needed to supply the energy output of the laser column, and carrying more fuel means that the volume of the spacecraft will increase, which in turn requires stronger thrust. Obviously, this is an endless loop.

But Amethyst helped CMSX to untie the biggest dead loop, that is, to reduce the volume of the spacecraft without dropping the energy supply.

At this moment, in the space of "Firefly".

Ren Hong was sitting on his desk in the centrifuge cabin, staring at the dizzying data on the screen without saying a word. This time, he spent a lot of money and went to Mars with a distance of hundreds of millions of kilometers. The purpose is to get the purple source above. spar.

But obviously, it is not a simple matter to obtain these fatally attractive crystal ores on Mars. Ren Hong's biggest worry and concern is how to get a small piece of purple stone from such a large piece of purple stone. According to the current understanding of the characteristics of the purple source crystal, it is a bit unrealistic to estimate that it is a bit unrealistic to collect scattered crystal fragments at the falling point first.

It is impossible even for nuclear bombs to decompose this kind of stone. This time, when the huge "Terminator" crashes into the surface of Mars, maybe even a piece of debris will not fall off. Manual cutting.

Ren Hong did invent the technology of cutting Amethyst, that is, the "condensation cutting method", but that is because of the favorable external environment on the earth and the advantages of cutting the size of the object, but in the face of an "end-of-life" calculated in kilometers. Those", it is really anxious to scratch the head.

Here is Mars, not the earth, and the environment is harsh. It is relatively difficult to create an ultra-low temperature environment with infinitely close to absolute zero. The unavoidable harsh actual environment requirements require a mobile low-temperature laboratory to meet.

Fortunately for him, at present, he has a large amount of amethyst crystals full of energy, and a series of activities to be carried out on Mars will require massive amounts of energy as support, whether it is an outpost base, a mobile cutting laboratory, especially It is a mobile laboratory that creates an ultra-low temperature environment. It is driven by a large consumer of energy. Fortunately, the amethyst with high energy storage can support the huge energy consumption of a series of equipment.

"Old... er no, Professor Wang. There was a message from the Earth Command Center seven minutes ago." At this moment, Shockerui, who played the role of his assistant, came to him.

………

...

…(to be continued.)

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