The rise of nanometers

The spider lander took a detour of more than ten kilometers and arrived at the other side of the ice sheet.

According to the work tasks set in the intelligent system, the spider lander's mission is to go to a hot fountain 73 kilometers away.

Thermal geysers are a special phenomenon derived from geological activities on Europa. The cause is the interaction between Europa's geological activities and the surface ice.

The ice layer with a thickness of about 100 kilometers exerts tremendous pressure on the underground ocean.

You can refer to how strong the seawater pressure is under the deepest trench of Blue Star.

The deepest trench of Blue Star is just over 10,000 meters, while the thickness of Europa's ice reaches about 100 kilometers, which is about ten times that of Blue Star.

If Europa's surface were a flowing liquid ocean instead of the current ice, the ubiquitous thermal geysers would not exist.

But the surface of Europa is made of solid ice with a thickness of 100 kilometers. Ice is a solid material, and it has fractures and hollow areas. For example, intense geological activities will cause cracks in the ice.

This is like a glass fish tank filled with water. Once the glass cracks, the water will definitely penetrate along the cracks and seep outside.

This is the case on Europa. The liquid ocean under the ice layer is under huge pressure, and geological activities have caused a large number of cracks in the ice layer, and high-pressure water will naturally erupt from the ground.

Of course, due to frequent geological activities, the location and time of such hot fountains' appearance are uncertain.

It may be here today, but tomorrow it will be covered by a fault, and the fault will create new cracks, which will bring out new thermal geysers.

The Spider lander went to the nearest thermal geyser because the geological activity on the back of Europa is less and weaker than on the front.

However, this journey was extremely slow.

The straight-line distance is about 73 kilometers, but the dense ice valleys along the way, as well as large and small cracks hidden underground, will test the intelligent system of the spider lander.

Although the orbiting orbiter has been used to collect the surface details of Europa in the early stage.

But the fatal thing is that Europa's highly active geological activities cause the surface ice to change all the time.

Therefore, the orbiter must always pay attention to changes in Europa's ice, especially during the path of the Spider lander.

After bypassing a snarling iceberg, we came to another ice field ahead.

But this seemingly calm ice surface is actually full of dangers.

Scanning electromagnetic waves and ultrasonic waves are continuously emitted in all directions from the spider lander, and then through the feedback information, the system generates a three-dimensional map of the surroundings.

The spider lander opened the inflatable air bag and turned into the mode of an air raft. It moved forward cautiously, making twists and turns along the way.

At a distance of 73 kilometers, it took the Spider lander four days to approach the target location 24 kilometers from the landing site.

Su Xiaoyu, who controlled the spider lander remotely, had just planned the route to the next area and had not yet had time to issue instructions.

[alarm! alarm! A large-scale earthquake occurred in the MWE16-36 area...]

"What?" Su Xiaoyu's expression changed. Although the 16-36 area of ​​Europa was not the location of the spider lander, it was not too far away.

The epicenter of the earthquake was only about 244 kilometers away from the Spider lander at this time.

But you must know that Europa is not a large planet, but a satellite with a diameter of only 3137 kilometers.

The intensity of this earthquake has reached 7.7 on the Richter scale, which is a very powerful earthquake for Europa.

It's just that Su Xiaoyu can't do anything at this time. After all, the communication delay is too long, and there is no time for him to make any useful instructions.

Now I can only leave it to fate.

Europa.

The moment it felt the seismic wave, the spider lander's intelligent system began to take countermeasures. In an instant, the mechanical feet and head retracted into the sphere, forming a round mechanical ball.

Just after the Spider lander responded, in less than 18 seconds, a large crack appeared in the ice not far away.

Many ice surfaces that were previously covered by ice and snow also revealed hideous ravines.

The spider lander was so small and powerless at this moment.

The vast power of nature is still something that human civilization is unable to confront head-on. Even the materials and technology that the Federation possesses at this time are still pale and powerless in the face of such frequent geological activities.

Suddenly, the ice surface where the spider lander was located vibrated slightly, and then began to tilt to one side.

The sound wave detection equipment receives bursts of high-frequency ultrasonic waves, and the source of the sound is underground.

A moment later, the hot fountain that had been set as the target was now squeezed by the ice, causing the cracks in the fountain to become blocked.

But the matter was not over yet. The tilted ice surface caused the spherical spider lander to roll to the low-lying side.

A bottomless ice crack valley appeared not far away, and the ball-shaped spider lander rolled directly down. Although the fall speed was not so violent due to the low gravity, this newly formed ice crack valley , but the depth is amazing.

Soon, a large amount of liquid water and water vapor erupted from the bottom of the crack in the ice chasm, pushing the spherical lander upward.

This hot fountain of water vapor and liquid water causes the ice around the chasm to collapse.

The large area of ​​ice quickly collapsed under the impact of the underground thermal fountain, and then filled the bottom of the ice crack valley, forming a new ice layer, blocking the continued eruption of the thermal fountain.

This process lasted for more than thirty minutes, until the ice chasm valley was completely filled with collapsed ice. The chain reaction caused by this earthquake gradually stopped.

What was just a helpless situation was that after the spider lander was washed up by a hot fountain, it fell into an ice fissure valley with a depth of about 1,573 meters.

Although the body was not damaged, how to leave has become a big problem that the spider lander must face.

Su Xiaoyu at the Mars outpost is still anxiously waiting for feedback from the Heather.

Finally, after waiting left and right for 19.7 minutes, the Spider lander fed back the latest situation to the Mars outpost through Heather's orbiter.

After reading the feedback information, Su Xiaoyu fell into helplessness. Although the spider lander escaped death, it is now located in a new ice crack valley with a depth of 1,573 meters.

According to the remote sensing detection of the orbiter, the length of this ice fissure valley is about 186 kilometers, and there is no suitable terrain along the way for the Spider lander to return to the surface.

Now we can only continue to do some simple detection work under the ice crack valley.

Three days later, Su Xiaoyu checked the Heather's orbiter again and discovered an unexpected surprise.

In the ice chasm where the Spider lander is located, there are two small thermal geysers, one of which is only 13.1 kilometers away from the Spider lander.

This unexpected discovery gave him the illusion that he could find it without any effort, and that it would take no effort at all.

Immediately re-adjust the Spider Lander's itinerary and head to a small thermal geyser 13.1 kilometers away.

Because this ice chasm is newly formed, the risk factor is very high. There are often unstable ice layers and ice blocks falling from both sides.

And the valley is also full of rugged ice.

Thank you for your support (ω｀). I’m very sorry. I encountered an unexpected situation yesterday and couldn’t update it. I’ll make it up today.