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Earth, Houston Aerospace Center, USA.

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

"The latest news from'Noah'...here! Here! They are here! They arrived on Mars safely..." The female staff staring at the screen was a silent reader first, and she was excited when she read the content of the newsletter clearly. Endlessly, the news spread quickly.

When the Houston Aerospace Center received the latest newsletter from the "Noah", the entire NASA headquarters was boiled, and even Charles Boll was unavoidably excited. The news was spreading at an alarming speed, and NASA spread the news for the first time. The headlines of the world’s headlines were almost all about the successful arrival of the Noah on Mars.

The U.S. media even reported on this.

This is undoubtedly a phased victory. The five astronauts onboard the "Noah" deservedly further refreshed the "horizon" of mankind. The last time it went to the farthest was the moon, and this time it was the more distant Mars. The meaning is extraordinary.

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

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

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

Although thousands of lasers will generate a reverse thrust when starting, it is completely acceptable compared to the thrust kinetic energy generated by the light sail. Only a small part of the thrust can offset the reverse thrust. The acceleration of the light sail pushing the entire object It's really fast, but it doesn't appear to be too shocking. On the one hand, it is the energy problem, and on the other hand, it is also the factor of the astronaut on the spacecraft.

Despite this, in the long voyage phase, the acceleration of more than ten times, the continuous acceleration of the entire spacecraft in batches on this road, can also bring quite fast acceleration to the spacecraft after a long time accumulation. Theoretically, in an ideal state with sufficient material strength and energy output, continuous acceleration can make the entire spacecraft infinitely close to the speed of light. It only needs to continue to accelerate for 8 months. Of course, this is an ideal state. .

But these issues are not the key to the design of the Mars Express as a front engine. The most critical factor is the volume of the entire aircraft. The Mars Express, the Firefly, and their accompanying must be built on the surface of Mars. An 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" operating in Mars orbit alone has reached a volume of nearly 1,500 tons. With other parts, the entire aircraft is almost 4,000 tons. The volume is equivalent to half of the "Tiangong Ring Star Harbor".

The actual situation of such a huge volume is that only the front engine can be used to safely carry this big guy through the stars. .

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 cope with the thrust of the engine. In other words, the entire aircraft structure must be built like a skyscraper with a solid middle and bottom structure to ensure that such a huge spacecraft will not collapse when facing strong thrust.

This is also the reason why the rocket's body contours are all spire-like structures, with small upper ends and huge lower layers. 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 the "fire" once exceeded 1,000 meters, and the biggest reason for the slender structure.

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 distances between the stars. Mining operations and transportation in the asteroid belt are not an unattainable fantasy. Undoubtedly, This is of great significance to interstellar navigation.

Otherwise, why is the American "Noah" so "small"? Why is it like a tower top? Moreover, because of the carrying capacity, the Americans’ "Plan to Mars" has to be divided into three times, and a one-way journey takes nearly half a year. A round-trip between the Earth and Mars plus the mission time will take almost a year. In the golden voyage phase of waiting for the relative distance, time is so precious under the current rapid technological changes.

It's not that the Americans don't have the financial resources. The 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 China, and the field of light sail technology and solar panels is also far ahead of China. The solar panels in Qinghai area are enough to explain some problems.

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

But Ziyuanjing helped CMSX to solve the biggest infinite loop, that is, reducing the volume of the spacecraft without dropping the energy supply.

At this moment, in the "Firefly" space.

Ren Hong was sitting at his desk in the centrifuge cabin staring at the dizzying data on the screen without saying a word. This time he spent a huge investment and went to Mars not far from hundreds of millions of kilometers in order to get the purple source above. Spar.

But obviously, it is not a simple matter to obtain these deadly attractive crystal ores on Mars. What Ren Hong is most worried and concerned about is how to get small pieces from such large purple stones. The pieces were cut, and based on the current understanding of the characteristics of the purple source crystal, it is estimated that the idea of ​​collecting scattered spar fragments at the falling point first is a bit unrealistic.

Even a nuclear bombardment would not be able to decompose this kind of stone. This time the huge "Terminator" crashed into the surface of Mars, and perhaps even a piece of debris would not fall off, which means that it must be carried out piece by piece from this big guy. Manual cutting.

Ren Hong did invent the technology of cutting amethyst crystal, that is, the "condensation cutting method", but that is the advantage of the favorable external environment on the earth and the size of the object to be cut, and faced with a "end" calculated in kilometers.者", really anxiously scratching his head.

This is Mars, not the earth, and the environment is harsh. It is also a relatively difficult problem to create an ultra-low temperature environment that is infinitely close to absolute zero ~www.readwn.com~ The unavoidable harsh actual environment requirements that require a mobile Only low temperature laboratory can satisfy.

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

"Old... uh no, Professor Wang. There was news from the Earth Command Center 7 minutes ago." At this moment, Xiao Kerui, who played the role of his assistant, came to him.

………

...

…(To be continued.)

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