Through Wang Qing, Du Xingyu contacted Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.
This observatory is one of the main implementation points of the United States' "Pan Star Plan". The Pan Star Plan is an astronomical plan that uses a panoramic sky survey telescope and a fast response system to perform optical measurements of celestial objects throughout the day.
"We have four ultra-wide-angle astronomical telescopes with a caliber of 18 meters. We patrol the starry sky every four to seven days. Compared with the previous inspection results, we can find asteroids or comets that are threatening to the earth." Beth, a female professor at the University of Hawaii School of Astronomy, told Du Xingyu during a video call.
"In fact, through this plan, we have discovered some new asteroids or celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt."
Du Xingyu said in English: "So Professor Beth, have you discovered that there are asteroids with abnormal movement trajectories recently? That is, they are threatening to the earth."
Professor Beth shook his head and said, "No, our observations of the Kuiper Belt are also limited. The original intention of our Pan-Star Plan was to observe asteroids or comets that may pose a threat to the Earth."
"If there is really an asteroid thrown out of the Kuiper belt and flew towards the Earth, with a diameter of tens of kilometers, it will be difficult for us to directly observe it. Unless it has reached the distance between Uranus or Neptune and Earth, we can only observe it in advance."
"It will take about twenty years for the celestial body to fly to Earth at that distance. At that time, we can only pray to God, right?"
"I hope this won't be the case." Du Xingyu said.
He felt a little relieved. Since that's the case, he still had some time before he observed the asteroid hitting the earth.
"Professor Beth, the communication with you is very pleasant. If there is important observation news in the future, I hope we can continue to communicate if conditions permit." Du Xingyu said.
"Very happy." The other party did not refuse.
...
"Will the things I foresee happen?" Du Xingyu was puzzled. If he followed the original development trajectory, China would land on the moon in ten years and asteroids would destroy humans.
But now it seems that this kind of thing should not happen within ten years.
He asked about the tech simulator and wanted to know the answer.
The technology simulator replied: "The space-time annihilation bomb is a cosmic rule weapon, without any entity. My ability can only collect information in the universe for preliminary speculation. If you make this space-time development trajectory deviate from the original track of the world, it will also have an impact on the space-time annihilation bomb."
"The disaster that destroys mankind will surely come, it's just a matter of time and method."
"Then can't you foresee more?" Du Xingyu asked.
"I need to collect more information in this time and space." The technology simulator said, "The universe is composed of matter and energy. The trigger of the space-time annihilation bomb will definitely affect matter or energy in time and space. These are information."
"After collecting enough information, it is possible to make more detailed predictions."
"How to collect information?" Du Xingyu continued to ask.
"Go to space." The technology simulator said, "Particles and energy in spacetime carry information. If I travel at a sufficient distance, I can collect more information."
The open areas of space are not nothing. Various radiation is the celestial bodies in the universe constantly spreading energy and information, and the sunlight is the electromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye. In addition, there are various micro particles and dark matter that are invisible to humans.
Du Xingyu thought that he had already entered the moon, and the technology simulator still failed to collect enough information. For longer-distance space travel, judging from the current situation, then, it is only possible to go to Mars!
Go to Mars! Du Xingyu made a quick decision and resigned from his position at the lunar base to the bureau. Now the construction of the lunar base has been on track and he doesn't need to worry about it anymore.
Du Xingyu devotes all his energy to the Mars mission. In more than half a year, Mars and Earth will move to orbits of similar distances again, and then a window of exploration of Mars will usher in.
Last time, the Tianwen-1 Mars rover and Mars rover launched by the China Space Administration had logged into the Mars surface and obtained some information about Mars.
This time, the Space Administration intends to continue launching unmanned probes and rovers in preparation for landing on Mars.
But Du Xingyu suggested that the manned spacecraft should be launched directly this time and landed on Mars for scientific research!
"Flying to Mars, exploring satellites, Mars rovers, etc. are all mature." Du Xingyu thought, "It must be no problem to land. With experience in the moon, it is not a problem to establish a simple Mars base."
"The biggest problem then is to build a Mars spacecraft!"
The spaceships heading to Mars are different from the lunar spacecraft. The lunar spacecraft only needs to conduct short-distance space navigation, and the requirements for speed and material carrying are not high.
When Mars is closest to Earth, it will be more than 50 million kilometers, which is more than 150 times the distance between the earth and the moon!
This requires more high-quality spacecraft, requiring it to have faster speeds, stronger load capacity and navigation distance!
"The overall design of the spacecraft should not be difficult, and the most difficult thing is the thruster." Du Xingyu quickly found the problem.
According to the current experience of human exploration of Mars, it takes about two hundred days for unmanned spacecraft to fly to Mars.
This is because the journey is long, and in order to reduce fuel consumption, the spacecraft had to fly along the "Hormann transfer orbit" of Earth Mars, that is, an elliptical transition orbit tangent to two concentric orbits in the same plane.
On this orbit, the spacecraft has to accelerate or decelerate twice in the elliptical orbit, which adds a lot of additional navigation distance.
This will waste a lot of time. In Du Xingyu's vision, the speed and time of space navigation from Earth to Mars are more important than fuel consumption.
If you go straight-line distance and use more advanced thrusters, the time from Earth to Mars will be shortened to one-sixth of the original!
Du Xingyu has turned on the technology simulator and he calls out the original nuclear heat rocket thruster.
The nuclear heat rocket thruster absolutely meets the speed requirement. It can accelerate the spacecraft to the third cosmic speed in a short time, which is enough to be at least 16.7 kilometers per second.
Today's chemical energy rockets generally have speeds of about 10 kilometers per second, and they also need to carry a large amount of chemical fuel.
However, in space navigation, spacecraft mainly relies on inertia to advance. If it continues to accelerate, nuclear heat rockets will also consume liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Once the distance is long, the fuel will not be enough. This is why spacecraft have not been fast so far, and relying on the acceleration of the planet's gravity, existing spacecraft cannot carry so much fuel!
"In comparison, nuclear thermal rocket thrusters are more suitable for flying in the atmosphere and near-Earth space. Mars spacecraft needs to fly in the Earth's atmosphere, space and Mars atmosphere. Nuclear thermal thrusters can be used to fly in the atmosphere to escape from planetary gravity."
"Flying in space requires a propulsion system with higher energy conversion efficiency." Du Xingyu quickly thought of the nuclear power rocket in the Rocket Technology Branch!
Nuclear power rockets, as the name suggests, use nuclear energy to generate electricity. These electricity are used to create electromagnetic fields, control ion jets, and start ion propellers!
That is to say, this will be an ion propeller for nuclear power energy!
Ion thrusters can ionize the working fluid and accelerate the ions to eject under the action of a strong electric field, and push the satellite to perform attitude adjustment or orbital transfer tasks through reaction forces.
Ion thrusts have the characteristics of higher impact, higher efficiency and smaller thrust. They have extremely high energy conversion efficiency and only consume a small part of the mass to give the spacecraft a higher acceleration, which is more suitable for long-distance space navigation than traditional thrusters.
Chapter completed!