Capturing a meteorite is just a trivial matter in scientific research, as long as the detection of microorganisms is done well.
But capturing an extraterrestrial probe has risen to the level of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations and has become a major diplomatic event.
Therefore, in less than a quarter of an hour, many scientists, military personnel and think tank members had gathered in the captain's room.
"Be careful and try not to break it!" An expert is directing the operation.
UAVs cannot automatically complete such complex capture work. People must specify relevant targets and send corresponding command plans.
From the calculation data on the screen, we can know that this ancient space probe is moving at a high speed due to inertia, with a speed of approximately 36.8 kilometers per second.
This speed is dozens of times that of ordinary gunpowder bullets, and the kinetic energy is quite amazing. In order to avoid directly damaging it, people want to use a more gentle capture method.
"Keep the same speed, yes, that's it. Approach slowly, get closer, get closer... Do you see that pole? It should be a load-bearing pole... What is the distance between the two sides now?"
"89.9 meters!"
"Okay, keep this distance...launch the micro-claw at the target location!"
"Three, two, one... launch!"
Due to the signal delay, the micro-claw is launched after a few seconds.
In the silent universe, there is no sound, and it is impossible to hear the sound of metal collision. However, people can see from the screen that the metal hook has successfully wrapped around the pole, circled it several times, and successfully wrapped around the pole.
Suddenly, there was a burst of small applause and cheers from the captain's room.
The soft nano-rope is tied to the load-bearing pole, and then the probe is driven by the drone, slowly turning its direction, trying to bring it closer to the Deep Space.
"Captain, do you want it to be faster or slower? We suspect that this detector is too old and the load-bearing rod cannot withstand very large forces."
"Take your time and use a more conservative plan." Yu Yifeng pondered for a while and said, "The Deep Space still needs to stop here to replace the engine, so there is no rush."
Soon, the military estimated that the entire pullback process would take two days.
"Two days...then everyone can go back and work as usual."
However, the crowd did not disperse immediately. Instead, they discussed it enthusiastically. Many people were in front of the screen, looking at the detector curiously.
Under the strong light of the drone, the external structure is clearly visible.
This is a typical deep space probe, engine and energy device, occupying most of the volume.
The salient features of deep space probes are that they fly for a long time in the universe and cannot perform real-time remote control on the ground, so they must have certain autonomous navigation capabilities; they fly outside the planetary system and away from stars, so they use solar light sails and nuclear energy systems at the same time.
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Finally, it has to withstand very harsh space environmental conditions and requires a special protective structure.
"The only difference is that the device behind the engine seems to be equipped with a... deceleration parachute? This means that this probe once had the ability to land on a planet with an atmosphere."
"...But judging from the overall structure, it is most likely an external probe of a low-level civilization. A very enterprising low-level civilization actually wants to use a probe to visit another planet in another star system...
This fantastic idea may take tens of thousands of years. Can they wait tens of thousands of years?"
"However, they seem to have failed...the probe was damaged before it reached another star field. It was a failed scientific expedition."
After hearing this discussion, Yu Yifeng turned his gaze to the distant starry sky...
He said with emotion: "Like us and the earth's civilization in the past, this civilization is curious and confused about the boundless universe, and then launches detectors... to find some truth in the dark."
An expert nodded and said: "Yes, and this detector seems to contain something... it should be some information..."
"Information about one's own civilization."
When the answer was discussed, there was a sudden silence in the captain's room.
Humanity actually discovered an external detector of a low-level civilization!
Many first-generation old people recalled their distant memories, and Qi Sensen had almost the same association...
This feeling is difficult to express in words.
Yu Yifeng also felt a little touched in his heart.
During the human era on Earth, the same detector was launched, representing humankind's beautiful fantasies and expectations for the universe.
For example, the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 detectors each carry a gold-plated aluminum metal disk.
This metal disk records some patterns and information, telling possible extraterrestrial intelligent life: where the detector came from and when it was launched.
The Voyager 1 probe also carried a copper disk record, which is said to be able to remain in space for a billion years without being damaged!
The record contains a lot of content, including greetings from the then President of the United States and the then President of the United Nations, as well as greetings in various languages, various music, etc...
Now, such a similar gift is sent to the hands of the new human civilization by another low-level civilization.
This detector, like a diplomat from a low-level civilization, silently tells humans their curiosity, confusion and loneliness about the distant starry sky...
Perhaps, they were wondering why the starry sky was so dark;
Perhaps, they are also striving to reach the stars.
This feeling is very wonderful, and everyone's hearts are touched slightly. Not because humans are currently the dominant party, but because humans were once a low-level civilization and also had the same emotions...
Slowly traveling a long way, we can meet each other because of fate...
Judging from the size of the detector, the data inside may be more than that launched by humans. Moreover, they seem to be more prepared than humans, but it is strange. On the surface, their technology is not better than that of humans on earth.
Not as good as the Knicks, not even as good as the Diggs...
This is an extraterrestrial civilization that has spent huge economic costs and speaks alone in the vast universe.
People are strange and curious...
Of course, despite being moved, necessary safety inspections still need to be carried out.
Two days passed quickly, and the probe was brought closer to a location three thousand kilometers away from the Deep Space, maintaining almost the same speed as the mothership.
Immediately afterwards, another medium-sized transport ship flew over. It was an unmanned scientific research spacecraft, which was loaded with a large number of safety inspection equipment and robots. These equipment will conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of the detector.
A large number of staff are already waiting.
…The specific test results are almost consistent with what people imagined.
"It's just an ordinary instrument, nothing particularly dangerous... The engine uses nuclear fission energy and solar energy, and all energy has been exhausted."
"The metal material used is ordinary titanium alloy... The composite material is the result of bonding fiber textile materials and synthetic resin layer by layer. Basically all of them are damaged. It has a very long history..."
A biologist suddenly wondered: "Hey... there are some low-level life-support equipment inside. Is it intended to carry living things?"
"It's strange. There seem to be ultra-small microbial ecosystems inside these glass balls, which use light to replenish energy. Is there any purpose for placing so many micro-ecological circles?"
"However, after the energy was exhausted, all the species inside seemed to have died... It took too long, and it is not yet clear whether the genetic material was damaged. Captain, do you want to open it and take a look?"
Everything has its own lifespan, whether it is protein or genetic material, it has its own shelf life. Some scientists have proposed that DNA can be preserved for up to 1 million years, but it will certainly not exceed 5 million or 6 million years.
Therefore, it is no longer possible to clone dinosaurs using dinosaur eggs or dinosaur blood, because the genetic information has been lost.
Now people just don’t know how long it took for this detector to be launched, and whether the genetic material in the ecosystem has been preserved...
If there are any, you can also see the alien microorganisms sent by the other party.
Yu Yifeng thought for a while and shook his head. It would still be somewhat unsafe to use robots for biochemical control.
"Put these small ecological circles aside for now and let our biologists open them on their own. No rush!"
After a vigorous search, a robot carefully took out an aluminum box.
This is... the most significant discovery.
"There seems to be some information in this box! It can be easily taken out. It should be the specific information of the other party's civilization. Other equipment, including detection devices, circuit boards, nuclear engines, etc., all look very old.
Yes, some lines have been damaged."
After a few hours, people have completed preliminary exploration of the detector. The space inside is not very large, just a large suitcase.
"Captain, do you want to completely disassemble the detector?" a staff member asked.
Yu Yifeng thought for a while and frowned.
An item from a low-level civilization, from the current perspective, seems to be very crude, and there is no technology to analyze it.
Speaking from a specific technological era, it is still not up to the level of mankind at the beginning of the 21st century.
After a long journey, I flew here and dismantled it like this. It seemed a little bit unbearable.
"Forget it, let's keep it in isolation for now. It's not bad to keep it as a historical relic. Take out all the data inside and read it!"
Inside this box of data is a piece of high-purity uranium-238, part of which has decayed into plutonium-239.
There must be a meaning in doing so.
The answer is simple. This piece of high-purity uranium-238 represents the age of the detector.
This is...a small tacit understanding between different civilizations. Human beings have almost done the same thing.
"If the purity of uranium-238 was close to 100% when it first set sail, its half-life was about 4.17 billion years, then... judging from the existing decay phenomena, it has already passed... 150 million years!"
"This is a... drifting bottle from 150 million years ago!"
After coming to this conclusion, everyone was slightly shocked. The vicissitudes of history came to them. What a long time ago, what a long time ago detector!
This kind of history inexplicably adds a heavy weight to the detector.
150 million years ago, the earth was still in the age of dinosaurs, right?
To come here across the ocean, not to be swallowed by a star or captured by a planet, but to be passed on to human beings like this, is really a kind of fate...
This also makes people more curious about the content in the information.
Also, 150 million years ago, there was already... an intelligent civilization in the Milky Way!
Soon, the robot carefully took out the gold-plated aluminum sheets one by one from the metal box. They were very thin, very thin, less than 0.1 mm, but there were more than two hundred sheets!
The gold-plated aluminum sheets are cleverly spaced by less than a millimeter, so the metal sheets between them are not stuck together due to time.
There is also a metal disk with a diameter of more than thirty centimeters at the bottom, which seems to store a large amount of information.
The scales painted on the metal plate are also very rough, like a classic old record.
Only this kind of rough thing can withstand the test of time and can transmit information to humans 150 million years later.
Things that are too delicate will lose information due to the interaction between atoms. Just like human electronic disks, they can never withstand the journey of hundreds of millions of years.
People first looked at the thin gold-plated aluminum sheet, which had a large number of pictures and texts. This unknown civilization seemed to be passing on the entire dictionary.
The first picture is actually a colorful image drawn with different colors of metal.
It is an abstract, artistic starry sky picture.
In the glazed sky, a star as big as a bowl is rising slowly in the upper left corner of the picture. On the right side of the two "moons", one is setting and the other is in mid-air.
People easily recognized that these two were the moon, "So, this unknown planet should have two satellites, one large and one small."
The most amazing thing is that some of the stars in the image are just small dots, and some are as big as grapes. They are spinning and tumbling, trying to compete with the sun, but helplessly setting together with the moon.
It's hard to guess whether these large and small stars are artistically processed or real.
At the bottom of the image is a black shadow, a shadow that represents despair... such a powerful lineup of light can still not illuminate the shadow.
It's a bit confusing, but it's this shadow that sublimates the idea of the image.
"If the distance between stars is relatively close, it is indeed possible for them to become the size of grapes. Or if there are red giants or the like nearby, they will look larger..." An astronomer wanted to forcefully explain, but his words were only
Half of the time, art cannot be explained by science.
This image undoubtedly represents the top art of a civilization.
Only the most top-notch and proud things will appear in the rare and precious information. For low-level civilizations, sending every gram of space material requires a large amount of economic resources.
A beautiful image.
Through the starlight outside, everyone felt a silent emotion.
This feeling is not sadness or loneliness, but understanding. In all kinds of worlds, there are always some lonely souls, and there are always some things that cannot be solved.
And lonely souls can also have strong resonance. Although we are not of the same era or even the same region, we have had common emotions.
We are just ordinary members of all sentient beings.