"Every time I look up at this space elevator, it makes me unable to restrain the urge to kneel and worship. Only a miracle can describe this magnificent project. May God bless mankind and not lose its way in the vast sea of stars. Amen. "
Standing at the foot of the space elevator and looking up, the gray-bearded old man in a priest's robe reached out and touched the outer shell of the space elevator. He drew a cross on it with his old finger and chanted an unknown prayer.
Today was the first day of the space elevator passenger track. Among the 70 people who would take the space elevator to the terminal space station, in addition to the 30 astronauts who had received basic training, there were also 20 selected representatives from all walks of life in Xin and 20 foreign invited guests.
Celestial Trade generously handed over the 20 spots to the United Nations. Except for a few spots that had been negotiated with Hua, the UA, Russia, Britain and other countries, the other spots were voted on by the special committee established by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
The white-bearded "Santa Claus" was the former Pope Joseph Ratzinger from the Vatican City. He was also the oldest passenger on the first train. In order to take care of the old man who was nearly a hundred years old, Celestial Trade specially adjusted the acceleration of the space elevator during the acceleration and deceleration stages. This would slightly extend the acceleration time, but compared to the entire 36,000-kilometer journey, it did not have much of an impact.
The man withdrew his gaze from the old man, took out a small wooden box from his arms and slowly stuck it to his chest. His skin was very white, his short brown hair was slightly curly, and his expression was a little nostalgic.
"In 1895, the Russian scientist Siorkovsky was inspired by the structure and shape of the Eiffel Tower and imagined a 'castle in the sky' that moves synchronously around the earth." Looking up at the space elevator, the man muttered to himself, "Fascinating greatness, the charm of civilization lies in this. We can always get inspiration and inspiration from our own culture, to imagine unrealistic dreams, and in the end, to turn our dreams into reality. "
"You are?" The black man standing next to him looked at him in surprise.
"A writer." After a pause, Rudolph Clark looked at the wooden box in his hand and a touch of reminiscence appeared in his pupils. "Just like my grandfather."
In 1978, his grandfather, Arthur Clark, drew inspiration from Pearson's description of the United States Space Mechanics Research Laboratory and wrote the book "The Fountain of Paradise", which described the blueprint of the space elevator and influenced a number of subsequent science fiction works.
The text even mentioned "carbon nanomaterials" and "ocean-equatorial space station", which in a sense predicted the future. The main material used by Celestial Trade to build the space elevator was "graphene", and the destination of the space elevator was the space station named "Celestial City".
"You seem surprised?" Rudolph looked at the black man.
"Indeed." The black man nodded. "I see at least two authors here."
With that said, he cast his gaze to the side of the space elevator.
There stood an old Asian man who didn't seem to fit in with the crowd.
"There is a line of words here, written in Chinese." Haruki Murakami stretched out his hand, his finger gently stroking a line of square characters at the bottom of the space elevator as he muttered to himself, "Who could have left this?"
"I know we can solve the next problem because we have solved all the problems that have appeared before … If it is translated into English, this is probably what it means." Liu Haotian walked to the side of the old man from Nippon and replied casually in English, "As for who left it, who else could it be?"
As he said this, a nostalgic smile appeared on his face.
When he was in Shangjing and Wanghai, he and Jiang Chen interacted for a while, but now his official position was no longer the Concierge, and the Liu family couldn't let him stay in that position and waste time. This time, he represented the Hua official in participating in the First Train ceremony that transcended the era because of the power of the Liu family.
It was just that he regretted that he didn't get to see Jiang Chen again on this trip to Xin.
While they were holding the First Train ceremony here, Jiang Chen probably already flew to Canberra with the President of Xin to participate in the United Nations Outer Space Summit.
"I'm Haruki Murakami." The old man in his sixties was surprised that Liu Haotian talked to him. He extended his hand to him. "It's nice to meet you."
Liu Haotian didn't mind because of the old man's nationality. He shook the old man's hand gently.
"Liu Haotian, it's also nice to meet you."
Of course, not everyone would show a fascinated expression towards this space elevator. For example, the expert from the European Space Agency sneered at the BBC reporter next to him and pointed at the design of the space elevator.
"Have they considered the impact of high-altitude airflow on the structure of the elevator? You'd better take some motion sickness pills. When we go up to 10,000 meters, I'm afraid we'll tremble like ramen. "
The European Space Agency expert added sarcastically.
"Maybe we'll break like noodles."
Along with all the invitees, there was also a Stingray X-1 aerospaceplane hanging on the cargo track outside the space elevator.
To be precise, its name was Stingray C-1.
According to the data released by Celestial Trade, the Stingray X-1 would be a multi-purpose aerospaceplane that could be mounted with multi-function modules. The transport module was named Stingray C-1, and it could carry a small amount of cargo between the space station. The mining Stingray was named P-1, and so on. The attack model was named A-1.
However, Celestial Trade did not admit that it had a production plan for an attack aerospaceplane. At least for now, humans had not discovered the existence of other civilizations. In this case, it didn't seem to make much sense to mount an attack module on the aerospaceplane.
After all, according to the design drawings of Pan-Asia Cooperation, the weapon used by the Stingray A-1 was a laser cannon. The power attenuation coefficient of laser weapons in the atmosphere also made it impossible to become an efficient medium and long-range weapon. Moreover, using an aerospaceplane without aerodynamic design to fight in the atmosphere was far less effective than using the Aurora-20 with wing design.
"Train Ch-001 is ready. Please go to the waiting room and board the train in order …"
A polite and clear voice sounded. With the assistance of Celestial Trade staff, the first 70 passengers boarded the vertical train via a small elevator.
Liu Haotian's ticket was A07-9, which represented Seat 9 on the 7th floor of Carriage A.
Under the guidance of the flight attendant, he sat in his fixed seat and fastened the strangely shaped seat belt. During the ascending and descending stages, the carriage would enter an overweight and weightless state. During these two stages, passengers were prohibited from leaving their seats. However, when the elevator was traveling at a constant speed, passengers would be able to leave the cabin and stand by the window to enjoy the beautiful scenery gradually disappearing from the earth.
After Liu Haotian sat in the seat, he took a deep breath, put the back of his head on the soft pillow, and relaxed his tense body.
Under a uniform traction force, the carriage began to move sideways and then upward under the traction of the robotic arm. Like a bullet being pushed into the rifling, after a short and slight tremor, the carriage entered the No. 1 ascending track.
"Welcome to Celestial Trade Outer Space Orbit Development Co., Ltd.'s Ch-001 train. This train travels from the sea base station to Celestial City, with a distance of 35860 kilometers. The estimated air travel time is 5 hours and 12 minutes, and the maximum speed is 2 kilometers per second … "
"The elevator track has been confirmed to be clear, and Ch-001 train has entered Track 1. Please make sure your seat belt is fastened …"
With their own thoughts, all passengers closed their eyes in the soothing music.
"The train departs. I wish you a pleasant journey."
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