At the end of the week-long visit, the international friends invited by Celestial Trade began to return home.
The long carriage moved from the edge of the star ring to the center track and began to fall down along the narrow elevator track. Almost at the same time, at the other end of the star ring axis, the blue electric arc flashed for a brief moment, and a black dot was thrown into the vast universe …
"Phew."
The pilot let out a long sigh and moved his stiff fingers. The thumb of his right hand that was on the joystick gently moved and turned off the breathing assistance.
The feeling of electromagnetic acceleration was terrible. Although he had been injected with a medicine that strengthened his body and had undergone pressure resistance training, if he didn't have a breathing aid and a decompression cockpit, the acceleration of close to 12G and the acceleration time of more than a minute would still squeeze out the last bit of air in his chest.
Liu Qingpeng moved his stiff neck and opened the dial on the holographic helmet.
Half a year ago, he moved to Xin through Xin's space volunteer immigration policy. Originally, he only planned to work for two or three years and then become an electrician, but he didn't expect to become an employee of Celestial Trade because of his talent and eventually become the pilot of the Stingray P-1.
The plan was half a month ahead of schedule, but it didn't affect him at all. Although it was his first flight mission, his performance was quite calm. After all, he didn't know how many hours he had flown in virtual reality. Now, even if he closed his eyes, he could fly this aerospaceplane to the Bennu asteroid.
There was no reference point in space. Even if he was away from Earth at a speed of 7.2 kilometers per second, he couldn't distinguish any changes in the starry sky with the naked eye.
Liu Qingpeng pointed to the operation panel and opened the voice control system.
"Open the mission beacon."
The signal light on the side of the helmet flickered slightly, and an asteroid constructed by three-dimensional lines appeared in his field of vision. A line was drawn above the asteroid, marked with the word "Bennu".
Then, a pale yellow path appeared in his field of vision, drawing a slightly curved arc from the cockpit of the Stingray P-1 to the position of the asteroid.
"The route is set up."
"Plasma engine output power 40%."
"Forward!"
In the deep and gloomy starry sky, the tail of the Stingray P-1 released layers of faint blue light particles and turned into an arrow that left the string.
…
In the ground command center, a man and a woman stood in front of a large screen, watching the real-time video transmitted from more than 400,000 kilometers away.
Outside the atmosphere, speed and distance were always monotonous characters. If the figure of 400,000 kilometers was put back on Earth, it would be enough to circle the equator ten times. However, for the Stingray X-1 series spacecraft cruising at a high speed of 20 kilometers per second, the flight time was less than half of the civil aviation flight from Shangjing to California.
After he heard that the first mining spacecraft had arrived, he came to the Space Launch Center.
Out of curiosity, Xia Shiyu also followed.
In the picture, the Stingray P-1, which had completed the deceleration, turned off the engine and relied on inertia to slowly approach the asteroid entangled by graphene cables.
The Stingray with the mining module was like a water spider, and the ends of the first two mechanical arms popped out blue light blades. It was not a laser knife, but an ion jet with a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees. With such a high temperature, a light touch would be enough to poke a hole in steel, let alone cutting minerals.
The two laser knives crisscrossed and cut two holes in the ore body without any suspense. The other two robotic arms were like two pliers, fixed on the outer shell of the asteroid. The two tools in his forearms changed from laser knives to two alloy hammers, smashing down along the incision.
Seeing that the Stingray P-1 separated the ore into the ore body, Xia Shiyu couldn't help but open her mouth in surprise.
It was rare to see a surprised expression on her face.
"It's like shooting a movie," Xia Shiyu exclaimed.
"And it's a sci-fi blockbuster," Jiang Chen joked.
He had already seen the 3D simulation of the Stingray P-1. Of course, he would not be as surprised by such a sci-fi mining method as Xia Shiyu was.
At this time, Xia Shiyu suddenly thought of something and looked at Jiang Chen in confusion.
"Why don't we transport it to the synchronous orbit for mining?"
When he heard her question, Jiang Chen smiled and began to show off his aerospace knowledge.
"Although this asteroid with a diameter of 500 meters doesn't seem to be as big as Celestial City, its net weight is much heavier than ours. If it's too close to the Earth, gravity will directly pull it over. Of course, it's not impossible to move it to the synchronous orbit. As long as we add a spiral arm behind it as a counterweight like Celestial City, we can hang it in the sky. "
"But from a cost perspective, this is completely unnecessary."
"The pulse engine used by our Stingray is powered by a nuclear fusion battery, and the fuel cost is not high. In addition to the acceleration and deceleration phase, the aircraft with a set route is just cruising inertia for a long distance. "
"We just need to send the Stingray to the asteroid, cut the ore from its body, and pull it back through the cargo spacecraft."
At this time, the Stingray P-1 was like a mosquito on a piece of fat, constantly stripping the ore from the ore body and collecting it in the folded cargo box. Waiting next to it was the cargo spacecraft independently developed by Celestial Trade. It used the RM-400 plasma propulsion engine. Although its acceleration performance was inferior to the Stingray's pulse engine, it had higher thrust and was more suitable for large and medium-sized cargo spacecraft.
After all, the cargo spacecraft didn't need to make any high-maneuverability movements. It just needed to transport things in a straight line.
Xia Shiyu glanced at Jiang Chen, and a smile appeared on her face.
Unlike Ayesha, if you asked her when Jiang Chen's appearance fascinated her the most, her answer would undoubtedly be confidence.
Now the relationship between the two was much closer than it was at the beginning.
As promised last year, Jiang Chen selectively told Xia Shiyu about the apocalypse.
In fact, even if he didn't say it, Xia Shiyu had already guessed something, but she didn't say it.
However, when she heard it from Jiang Chen's mouth, she was still quite surprised.
Just as Jiang Chen expected, the answer in her mind was completely different from his actual situation. She originally thought that Jiang Chen traveled to a human country in the Milky Way that had already entered the interstellar era, and the reason why Jiang Chen spared no effort to develop aerospace technology was to help Earth fight against that interstellar civilization …
And because of some restrictions, he had to go back for a period of time at a specific time.
Needless to say, a woman's imagination was indeed big enough to make a Hollywood blockbuster.
After a while, the minerals collected by the Stingray P-1 filled a container. Two robotic arms clamped the hook of the container, and the Stingray flew the container to the side of the cargo spacecraft. Then, it slowly placed the container in the belly of the cargo spacecraft. At the same time, the robotic arm took out a memory alloy plate from the cargo spacecraft.
After the power was connected, the memory alloy plate unfolded into a container similar to the previous one.
Then it was to repeat the homework, which was no longer enjoyable.
Xia Shiyu still had things to deal with, so Jiang Chen took her away from the launch center and boarded a yacht at the port. Just as he was preparing to return to Coro Island, a phone call from the Presidential Palace suddenly rang his watch.
As soon as the phone was connected, Zhang Yaping said directly.
"We're in trouble."
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