Chapter 757 Puddle (Outside)

Zhong Cheng's intention is very clear, that is to speed up the preparations for manned landing on Mars and make it as complete as possible.

If there is really no choice, humans can only take risks.

There is no need to do any psychological preparation - this is a war, an interstellar war. The people living on the Forward are not ordinary employees, but soldiers of the Space Force. This is their mission.

The second phase of the Forward renovation project is currently just a draft plan. The main focus is on the design and research of the spaceport. In addition to adaptation and reliability testing, the state of the Forward will not change much when it goes to Mars.

The current Forward has only four docking ports. When it goes to Mars, it can basically carry enough supplies. According to the current plan of the Aerospace Development Commission, it will carry two shuttles, and the remaining two docking ports will be reserved for backup.

Although the possibility of a sudden mechanical failure of Firefly 1 cannot be ruled out, everyone has already thought of a lot of things tacitly.

As for what decision will be made above, everyone has some ideas. After all, the current situation is still unknown. It is definitely necessary for the space port to further detect the situation. It is just a matter of the magnitude of the action.

"Change the plan. Tianwen-2, -3, -4 are all ready to land and rescue Yinghuo-1. At least we need to find out what caused it to lose contact."

Lin Ju and Shen Zuozhou had no objection to Zhong Cheng's order, but the latter added:

"Since this has happened, should we..."

Shen Zuozhou put his fingers together and made a downward chopping gesture, obviously asking whether to prepare for military action.

But the other two did not dare to make a decision at will, and finally Lin Ju said:

"Of course there must be one, it is better than doing nothing, but if you want to do it, do it more fiercely, you can prepare a big one."

"Big? How big?"

"The explosion equivalent is at least more than 100 million tons. It is not necessary to launch it first. It is always right to make some preparations."

...

In 1655, Dutch physicist, astronomer and mathematician Christian Huygens first discovered Titan, the second largest satellite in the solar system.

A few centuries ago, astronomers did not have the powerful observation methods that they have today. Even the tools were all made by themselves, so they had to have a high level of hands-on ability.

In modern times, there are usually two means of observing celestial bodies: optical telescopes and electronic telescopes. But in the era when there were only optical telescopes and the observation accuracy depended on manual polishing, astronomers had another way: mathematics.

Why did the heliocentric theory defeat the geocentric theory and become an undeniable axiom? Because no matter whether the orbits of other celestial bodies in the solar system are calculated with the earth or the sun as the center, the final result shows that the sun is in the C position.

Similarly, when astronomers calculate the orbit of a celestial body, if the observation results do not match the calculation, it means that the gravity of a celestial body must have affected it.

Based on this, astronomers do not need to see it with their eyes. They can use paper and pen to "grasp" all the planets, their satellites, and comets in the solar system bit by bit, and gradually complete the star map of the entire solar system.

What if you want to observe planets in other galaxies? At this time, mathematics alone will not work.

The solution that modern astronomers have come up with is still "seeing".

For example, if there is a star 100 light years away from the earth, no telescope can see whether it has planets or how many planets it has, but it is also possible to observe the star.

Suppose there is a planet orbiting this star system, and it happens to pass through the side facing the solar system, then the light of the star will be blocked a little, and the brightness will decrease a little.

With more such records, people can naturally infer the orbital period of the planet and then infer its mass by comparing and finding that the brightness changes of the observed star are regular.

If the planet has an atmosphere, the spectrum of the reflected light will change due to the composition of the atmosphere. If the observed light is analyzed more carefully, the approximate composition of its atmosphere can be known.

In this way, even if it is a galaxy 100 light years away, people can get a lot of information from the brightness of the stars, and even if there are deviations, they can still guess some.

Conversely, if an observer observes the solar system from a long distance, the content obtained is also quite rich.

There is more than one planet in the solar system. Even with the most cursory analysis, observation can determine that there are at least giant planets and terrestrial planets in the solar system. If more cycles are recorded, the cycles are gradually summarized, and mathematical models are established, it can be known that there is more than one giant planet and more than one terrestrial planet.

Assuming that the observers here are also carbon-based creatures, with a body size similar to that of humans and a similar level of technology, they will think like this:

There are terrestrial planets with atmospheres, which means that there is potential for habitation (the atmosphere is not only used for breathing, but its biggest function is actually to resist cosmic rays. No organism can survive directly in the flood-like impact of high-energy particles), and the volume and weight are moderate;

Further observation may also find evidence of the existence of water (if they need water).

There is a possible living environment, and the second is resources.

When interstellar dust gathers together, gradually approaches under the action of gravity, and condenses and explodes into a star, many light and heavy elements will be thrown out and gathered to form planets orbiting it.

Giant planets (gas planets) mean a fairly rich reserve of elements, and the proportion of light and heavy elements must be not small, and the foundation for development is also in place.

For far-sighted observers will silently mark the solar system in the database. If they plan to colonize other galaxies or build a transit station in the future, the solar system is worth taking a closer look.

Just take a closer look. The solar system is at the edge of the Milky Way, and there are countless star systems like it. There is no reason for distant observers to pay too much attention.

The scale of the Milky Way reaches an astonishing 100,000 x 100,000 light years, with four cantilevers about 4,500 light years apart and hundreds of billions of stars.

Assuming that one in ten thousand galaxies may be suitable for survival, there are tens of millions.

Even if there are one million civilizations in the Milky Way with the ability to travel between stars, a civilization needs to visit dozens of galaxies to explore them completely.

And if we use human history as a reference, the time of an interstellar journey is enough for civilization to undergo earth-shaking changes.

According to the theory of relativity, an interstellar spacecraft that travels at an infinite speed close to the speed of light may only have passed a few hours when it crosses 10,000 light years.

Ten years is enough for a major local mutation to occur, enough for a new technology to be born;

Twenty years, a technology can come out of the laboratory and be applied to each individual;

Thirty years, the generation that controls the main body of civilization has gradually completed the replacement, and the new situation is unpredictable;

Fifty years, the traces of the old era have almost disappeared, and the new humans will propose ideas that were simply incomprehensible in the past;

A hundred years, even the greatest political entities cannot avoid conflicts, and history will inevitably usher in a turning point;

Ten thousand years is enough for this cycle to go through a hundred times.

When the passengers on the spacecraft arrive at their destination, the mother planet on the other end of the communicator may no longer exist, and even civilization may have died.

But this cannot deny the possibility of a civilization or an ideology existing for a long time. The Zhou Dynasty has a continuous history of 800 years that can be verified, and the Warring States Period, which is recognized to be chaotic and rapidly changing, also lasted for more than 200 years. When civilization develops to a certain extent, it may indeed begin to maintain the status quo and no longer change.

But even if the possibility of change is low, time can give it enough opportunities to make chance become inevitable.

This unpredictability of the future has limited the pace of civilization expansion to a certain extent. Interstellar colonization is not a trivial matter for any civilization, and the resources that cannot be ignored will not be thrown away without any burden.

From this perspective, no civilization will travel thousands of miles to a strange star and then have a hearty urban street battle with humans (crossed out).

Humans always hope to hear the voice of intelligent beings in the universe, regardless of whether the outcome is good or bad, and have put forward countless speculations and hypotheses.

In the 21st century, the theory of the Great Filter is agreed by most people, suggesting that almost no civilization can abandon all burdens and expand desperately without any burden, while constantly maintaining the rapid development of technology, so that it can show its existence in the universe.

Some people are therefore pessimistic about the future of mankind, which is also consistent with the appearance of the world being in harmony with each other.

Therefore, people who have a certain understanding of technology and industry, and who have a little knowledge of cosmology and sociology, know that the purpose of alien invasion of the solar system is not for a little barren minerals, or to enslave humans. This behavior is no different from modern humans catching monkeys to screw on the assembly line.

However, a more accurate analogy would be Abraham Lincoln driving a muscle car from America across the Bering Strait, across Eurasia to Africa. Humans do not need to go to great lengths to obtain the labor of monkeys, nor do they covet their wild bananas.

If one day humans really intend to do this, then the purpose must be more than just that.

"Crack... crack..."

In the deep darkness, a few cracks appeared on the "ground" composed mainly of ice, which expanded in the constant tearing, making a dull but dangerous sound.

The cracks were only the width of a palm at first, but quickly expanded under the force of the plates from bottom to top, and soon formed a huge abyss with a length of several kilometers and a maximum width of nearly 10 meters at an exponential expansion rate.

After the ice surface at -197 degrees Celsius was migrated and separated, large and small light blue/white turbid objects on the surface continued to fall into the still expanding cracks, like the sudden collapse of old snow, quickly forming a spectacular "waterfall".

The main components of these unidentified objects on the ice surface are alkanes, which liquefy or solidify in ultra-low temperature environments and combine with ice and nitrides to varying degrees, eventually forming large and small, gravel-like substances.

Under one-sixth gravity, it took them a long time to completely fall into a dark abyss, and finally landed on the water surface that was also as black as ink, and quickly absorbed the heat of liquid water and began to vaporize.

The first alkane fragments that came down almost completely froze the sea surface, but were immediately broken by the later ones and continued the process.

In addition to alkanes, there are also a lot of hydrogen, nitrides, etc. that are rapidly expanding in the gaps between floating ice, stirring up violent bubbles.

The water surface is "boiling", a different kind of boiling at extremely low temperatures, and the solidified alkane mixture is rapidly dissolving, bringing up water mist and particles that make the entire sea surface form a white expanse, as if it was heated and evaporated.

There is a water level drop of nearly 100 meters from the ice surface to the abyss. The extremely low temperature of nearly minus 200 degrees Celsius rises sharply below the abyss, almost reaching 10 degrees Celsius.

According to the good explanation of human geology, as long as the core of the planet is not completely silent, it will continuously emit heat, or emit it in the form of submarine volcanoes. The water molecules at the bottom can rely on this heat to remain liquid and form an ocean under the ice.

The closer to the bottom, the higher the temperature, which may provide a warm environment for microorganisms to survive and synthesize most organic matter.

It is also based on this that people can speculate that there may be life on Titan - there is water, temperature, and organic matter, at least there is some hope near the submarine volcano.

But this situation is obviously not included now - the core of Titan is not so hot that it can maintain water flowing so close to the surface.

Under the crack is not a vast ocean, at least not the one formed naturally more than a thousand meters below, but just an insignificant puddle.

On the side of the "puddle" close to the crack, a huge irregular geometric body is embedded in the geology of the mountain under the ice, revealing an angular protrusion.

The end of the protrusion continuously releases violent bubbles, and the high temperature of hundreds of degrees Celsius continuously vaporizes the water molecules that try to approach it, forming countless short-lived cavities.

In addition, it also radiates microwaves of considerable intensity, continuously heating the surrounding ice to melt it, and finally stops at a certain equilibrium point.

The rest of the horn-shaped protrusion is obviously buried, and the exposed part is like a spike. With the spike tip as the center, it uses microwaves and directly emitted heat to create a "puddle" of considerable volume.

It is unknown how long the puddle has existed, and it has undergone continuous changes, but it has maintained its general shape under the almost constant heat release of the spike.

The cracking of the surface ice is obviously not intentional. Titan's geological movement often creates different levels of geology, but this time it just happened to affect the existence of the puddle.

This is a low-intensity geological activity, and the final consequence is just to tear up an ice layer that is not large to begin with, and the impact is limited to this.

However, when the width of the crack slowly expands, the microwaves emitted by the "spike" are finally no longer blocked by the nearly 100-meter thick ice surface, and escape from this puddle that has bound it for an unknown number of standard hours at the speed of light.

More and more microwaves escape from the cracks. Their intensity is not small, but the intensity that can be sent out after being blocked is too weak. It is only possible to receive at a specific angle, and it will decay to the point of being unrecognizable after a short period of transmission.

This is only a very small part of the microwaves emitted by the "spike", a small part that escapes after being diffusely reflected by the ice cavity surface of the puddle. It has very low directivity and will soon be mixed with the natural stellar radiation and disappear.

The microwaves radiated by the spike are not disordered, but are repeated and very regular short frequencies, which obviously carry some information.

For more than 400,000 standard hours, it has been trying to contact the repeater in orbit - it may not be in orbit, it may have been smashed into pieces by meteorites, or it may have failed long ago. After all, it is just a small thing pieced together in a hurry, and it may be scrapped in a few hundred standard hours.

But now the only hope for the spike to get in touch with the outside world is the repeater. The main part has been almost completely destroyed. The communication system is not a solid thing. In fact, the active antenna has long failed, and the crucial medium-wave communicator cannot be repaired at all. The string of the long-wave communicator has not been completely spared.

Among all the proper communication systems, only the long-wave communicator has a receiving string left, but the accuracy is very low after being destroyed, and there is no transmission capability. Unless the transmitting source is within 90 light hours, it cannot be effectively received.

90 light hours just covers the star field of a star. The ship of the first world can find it without sending a signal.

The spike tried to use all the remaining things that can still work, and could only use the simplest primitive waves to send signals to the outside world, hoping that the repeater on the orbit of the sixth star body is still effective and can receive the signal.

This attempt has never stopped since it was trapped here. For a full 400,000 standard hours, the fragile primitive waves were blocked by the ice layer most of the time. A few times, they leaked a little during the geological activity cycle, but never received a response.

But the spike is not anxious. It has no life, but just faithfully executes the commands written from the moment of birth, and will not stop until the moment of death - it is not far away.

More than 400,000 standard hours passed like this, until 30 standard hours ago, when the only remaining string of the long-wave communicator was plucked. It was a long wave that was equally weak, but the source of the emission was extremely close. The spike recognized it and responded as the highest existing command level.

The original wave of the response was still trapped, so it repeated like the past 400,000 standard hours.

That's all.

The low-entropy body that once existed in the main body no longer exists. They only left information and instructions. What the spike has to do is to execute orders and transmit information.

A steady stream of microwaves is emitted from the ice cracks on the surface of Titan. After experiencing atmospheric attenuation, it is greatly discounted. Only by approaching Titan's orbit and passing through a specific window can these signals be received.

Saturn has the most spectacular Saturn rings in the solar system, and Titan also has its own satellite system, but it can be almost ignored and will not have any impact.

In the direction where microwaves are emitted from the cracks, the space 1,000 to 5,000 kilometers away from the surface of Saturn has the greatest possibility of receiving signals. This is because the atmospheric altitude of Titan is 975 kilometers, and the signal attenuation beyond 5,000 kilometers is too serious.

A very small meteorite passed by at high speed in the ring of Saturn 4.7 million kilometers away from Titan.

Its surface is covered with compounds such as ice. From a distance, it looks like an ordinary micro-ice meteorite, or it can be regarded as a large ice block.

On the side where the sun can shine, these compounds are heated and vaporized, and then quickly disappear into the vacuum, but the scale is too small to form a tail like a comet.

The gas evaporated from the surface of the meteorite still produces a weak reaction force, causing the meteorite to deflect slightly.

The orbit of the meteorite is constantly pushed and deviated by the gas evaporated from the surface. It should have passed by Titan, but now it may be captured by its gravity.

In the endless space, the meteorite passing through the star ring is always moving and spinning slowly under the force of gas.

The compounds attached to one side under the sunlight were almost evaporated, and the trend of changing the orbit began to slow down, and the gray-black rough surface of the meteorite began to reveal its slightly reflective surface.

Just as the sunlight was about to fully expose one side of its surface, the meteorite slowly rotated about 120 degrees around its long axis in an incredible way, exposing the side covered with more ice compounds to the sunlight.

The new compounds began to evaporate again, continuing to maintain the previous approximate acceleration and keep changing its own orbit.

The surface covering of the repeater was getting less and less, and it had almost lost all its ability to move. It had been wrapped in these coverings and was in a deep silent state.

Thirty standard hours ago, a long wave awakened it, and the repeater made a logical decision to find the closest ship.

The ship was on the sixth companion star of the sixth star body, and was also out of contact. The repeater needed to slowly approach in the most fuel-saving way and confirm the status of the ship.

The ice compounds attached to its surface are a source of power that can be used. It has circled the sixth star many times, slowly pulling the ellipse of its orbit further and further away, and now it is almost crossing with the sixth companion star.

Compared to the long time it has waited, its arrival is almost imminent.