The rise of nanometers

May 24, 2022.

Bell Island, in the equatorial waters of the central Pacific Ocean.

When the last section of the elevator cable is docked, it means that the connection between Blue Star's synchronous orbit and Blue Star's surface has gotten rid of traditional chemical rockets and entered the era of space elevators.

Huang Xiuyuan stood on the top floor of Bell Island, looking up at the cable of the space elevator. This is a new starting point for mankind to step into the sea of ​​stars.

About 2,000 meters away on the west side, another cable is about to be docked.

A complete space elevator system must have two cables, one up and one down. Although at this stage, the Federation does not need to transport too many resources from outer space to Blue Star, the design of the two cables has been prepared from the beginning.

This is mainly for safety and efficiency. After all, if there is only one cable, it can only go up or down at one time, and once the direction needs to be changed, it means readjustment.

Therefore, setting up multiple lines can ensure maximum efficiency.

Huang Xiuyuan and a group of project leaders left the 3,500-meter-high rooftop and returned to the control center.

About seven hours later, another cable was successfully docked, and staff began a comprehensive inspection of both cables to ensure that there were no problems that had been overlooked.

Although the two cables weigh 450,000 tons, coupled with the Jianmu synchronous orbital space station that has been expanded to 320,000 tons, the synchronization station and cables of the Jianmu space elevator have reached an astonishing 770,000 tons.

However, due to the construction of the wooden synchronous orbit space station, it is not pressing down to the ground at this time, but pulling the cable to generate centrifugal force toward the outside of the Blue Star.

Therefore, the ground station on Bell Island is not actually bearing pressure, but is bearing huge pulling force.

The structure of the ground station must be very strong and the weight must reach a certain level.

In fact, the Bell Island ground station, in addition to the 350 million tons of man-made buildings, also has a weight of about 20 billion tons connected to the underground rock formations through ground piles.

This ground station will continue to expand in the future, on the one hand to ensure the stability of the ground station, and on the other hand to continue to improve the infrastructure here. In the future, this ground station will become the core transportation hub of the federation.

In the control center, Huang Xiuyuan did not disturb the busy staff, but discussed the future development of space with several other academicians.

"Xiuyuan, the Venus floating city you proposed is developing very fast now!" Academician Ouyang said with a smile.

Huang Xiuyuan smiled and shook his head: "Venus is still so-so. Although the surface gravity can reach about 90% of Blue Star, there is still a gap after all. We still have to consider rotating space cities in the future."

Academician Ouyang nodded, with a hint of worry in his eyes: "But large space cities have problems with coordinates being exposed, and now the top federal officials are undecided."

Regarding this problem, Huang Xiuyuan naturally has no solution. After all, the lessons learned from the giant civilization can serve as a wake-up call for the federation.

Now the federal Space Survey Agency has re-examined the galaxies within 200 light-years around the solar system.

During the re-examination process, two more galaxies were discovered that were suspected of containing intelligent life, and the criterion for judgment was flying objects inside the galaxies.

Based on this observation method, the Federation has reason to believe that other civilizations may also use similar observation techniques to observe the solar system.

This is also at this stage. Various spacecraft and space stations in the Federation have been upgraded one after another, adding a layer of protection to prevent observation.

Huang Xiuyuan said helplessly: "For the current plan, we can only use a protective layer to reduce the possibility of being observed by alien civilization as much as possible."

"In fact, as long as we don't use large structures to block solar radiation, there will be no obvious traces." Another academician expressed his thoughts.

Huang Xiuyuan said an idea: "Perhaps we can consider transforming irregular asteroids in the future to use them as camouflage for spacecraft."

In fact, many people in the Federation are already studying this technical direction, and their research projects are all centered around camouflage technology.

Including natural asteroid bunkers, imitation asteroid bunkers, and modulated radiation camouflage technology.

The ultimate goal of these technical directions is to allow observers to see no artificial creations in the solar system, but a large area of ​​natural asteroids.

Among them, the most advanced technology and the most difficult is modulated radiation camouflage technology.

The principle of this technology is very simple, that is, it absorbs the radiation coming from the outside and then emits modulated radiation.

You know, the most intuitive observation technology at present is to judge the internal temperature, mass, planets, etc. of the galaxy through its radiation.

As for gravitational waves, neutrinos, etc., it cannot determine whether there is intelligent life in the galaxy.

Unless humans take the initiative to edit gravitational waves and neutrinos and launch them in all directions, alien civilizations will be able to discover the secrets of the solar system by deciphering gravitational waves and neutrinos.

However, electromagnetic wave and light wave communication are actually difficult to be received by alien civilizations due to energy exhaustion and interference from cosmic background radiation.

Unless the distance between two civilizations is very close, the distance between the two civilizations usually needs to be no more than 10 light years to have a certain chance of receiving the ultra-long wave communication signal sent by the other party.

The Space Survey Bureau has focused on investigating all galaxies within a 30-light-year radius of the solar system, and has so far found no signs of alien civilization.

Therefore, long-wave communication can be used for the time being, and gravitational waves and neutrinos have now been brought under strict control by the federation.

Even if experiments on gravitational waves and neutrinos are to be carried out, they must be carefully reviewed to avoid exposing the coordinates of the solar system during the experiment.

While Huang Xiuyuan and others were discussing.

On the Jianmu Synchronous Orbital Space Station, an elevator cabin used for testing was projected from above. The electromagnetic catapult arranged on it gave the elevator cabin an initial velocity.

Since there is a near-vacuum environment between synchronous orbit and low-Earth orbit, after the elevator cabin is ejected by the electromagnetic catapult, it flies to the Blue Star ground at high speed.

The distance of 36,000 kilometers, for an elevator cabin with an average speed of 3 kilometers per second, is only 12,000 seconds, or 200 minutes.

In fact, the elevator car can go faster, but it is not necessary because it is too fast and difficult to control and brake.

Moreover, the cruising speed of 3 kilometers per second is only the speed between synchronous orbit and low-Earth orbit. At an altitude of 200 kilometers close to the ground station, this speed must be lowered.

At the stage of entering the atmosphere, if it is a cargo transport elevator cabin, the speed is generally not higher than 2,400 kilometers per hour, and it decelerates at a constant speed; if it is a passenger spacecraft, the speed is generally not higher than 1,200 kilometers per hour, and it also decelerates at a constant speed.

In addition, the elevator cabin can be stopped midway, but under normal circumstances, it will not be stopped midway.

If you want to transport materials to low-Earth orbit and mid-level orbit, you can use a special elevator cabin.

When the elevator cabin reaches the designated track height, the cargo cabin will be ejected while running to ensure the smooth flow of the elevator cable.

After 3 hours and 28 minutes, the test elevator cabin finally descended from the Jianmu Synchronous Orbit Space Station to the ground station on Bell Island.

The ground station was like a concentric elevator cabin, which was quickly unloaded by the staff and sent to the maintenance room for a comprehensive inspection.

At the same time, another elevator cabin was launched from another cable on the ground station, using electromagnetic ejection.

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