It took less than ten minutes after the three Xuanwu-class spacecraft merged.
They slowly separated again, but this time, there was an extra net between the three Xuanwu-class spacecraft.
This net is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 300 meters. The material of the net is high-strength carbon nanotubes. In the dark outer space, even astronomical telescopes cannot detect the existence of this triangular net.
"The net is open."
"The fishing plan is ready." Zeng Baojiang shouted loudly, waving his fist.
"yes."
A group of staff in the remote control department began to stare nervously at the holographic computer. Their task was to assist artificial intelligence and correct errors in a timely manner.
Wang Tu looked at his watch again. It was December 10, 2019, 15:22 pm.
If their fishing plan fails, the next step will be the first attack of the planetary orbital gun plan at 17:34.
The other side.
Bazhong base.
Academician Ma, Zhao Hongxing and others are also watching the fishing plan. The success or failure of the fishing plan will determine whether the planetary orbital gun at the Bazhong base is activated.
"Lao Ma, get the planetary orbital gun ready." Zhao Hongxing looked at the time and ordered.
"Okay." Academician Ma nodded, then turned around and told his assistant: "Let the planetary orbital guns take their positions."
"Yes." The assistant quickly went to notify the operation department of the planetary orbital gun.
"Lao Ma, will your fishing plan succeed?" Zhao Hongxing asked while looking at the holographic star map.
Academician Ma tensed up and thought for a while before replying: "It's a 50-50 split. Communication delay is a fatal problem and may result in insufficient cooperation."
"..." Although Zhao Hongxing is very calm on the surface, his hands tightly grasping the handrail can be seen that he is nervous inside. However, no one is paying attention to his hands now. Everyone is staring at the holographic star.
picture.
As Academician Ma said, even Dongtang didn't know that the Galaxy Consortium had artificial intelligence, so they were worried about the communication delay problem.
Huang Junjie was the only one who was relatively calm, because under the control of the "Star" and with the assistance of the ground remote control department, the success rate of the fishing plan was very high.
In fact, the fishing plan was prepared by Huang Junjie for space mining. After Zhonghe and his long-term improvement, the asteroid capture technology has been relatively perfected.
It just so happens that we can take the opportunity to experiment this time. If we successfully capture the asteroid, it will be equivalent to obtaining 420 to 450 million tons of iron and nickel ore; if we fail, the asteroid will be destroyed at worst.
Beside the asteroid, on a parallel orbit less than five kilometers away from it, three Xuanwu-class spacecraft that had opened a large net were slowly changing positions with the help of auxiliary engines.
Why start the fishing plan on the parallel track accompanying the flight? Instead of setting up a net to catch fish when they meet head-on?
This is mainly due to engine power and relative speed.
The engine power of the Xuanwu-class spacecraft is not enough to hit the asteroid head-on. After all, the speeds of both sides are very fast, and the relative speed is even more terrifying.
With the little power of the Xuanwu class, even a hundred Xuanwu class ships cannot do it if they want to hit an asteroid with a speed of 15.59 kilometers per second and a mass of 420 to 450 million tons.
The result of hard work is that the Xuanwu-class spacecraft is completely wiped out, and after the asteroid scratches the skin, it continues to kill the Blue Star.
Therefore, the Space Development Committee chose to fly with the asteroid, slowly approaching the asteroid in a parallel orbit, and using the method of pushing the boat along with the current.
Just like driving a car, if a car driving at high speed makes a sharp turn suddenly, it will either derail or overturn; if it slowly changes direction, it can make a U-turn safely.
Under the operation of "Xing", the position of the Xuanwu-class spacecraft 004 gradually moved to the right and rear direction of the asteroid; the Xuanwu-class spacecraft 002 moved to the upper right direction; and the Xuanwu-class spacecraft 006 moved to the right, lower and forward direction.
The tracks on both sides gradually changed from the original parallel tracks to a small intersecting track, but this included angle is very small, only about 2 degrees.
The three Xuanwu-class spacecraft pulled the carbon nanotube network and slowly wrapped it towards the asteroid. This process was very slow. Under the adjustment of the "star", the speed of the three spacecraft reached 15.62 kilometers per second, which was only faster than
The speed of the asteroid is a little faster.
As time passed by slowly, the ground control center and space agencies or astronomical agencies around the world were sweating.
At 15:37, the three Xuanwu-class spacecraft finally wrapped the carbon nanotube network around the asteroid. Since the angle between the flight orbits of the two sides was very small, and the flight speeds were very close, the asteroid gave the three Xuanwu-class spacecraft a reaction force.
, still within the tolerance range of the spacecraft.
Bang! Wang Tu slapped the handrail heavily: "Don't let your guard down, everyone, we have reached the most critical moment."
In the Kaohsiung control center, the people in the remote control department did not dare to express their anger. They were all staring at the holographic computer, for fear that a mistake would ruin all previous efforts.
[Beep! Abnormal! Abnormal!] The remote control system suddenly sounded a loud alarm, and everyone felt tense instantly.
"It's the asteroid's mass anomaly. Its mass is heavier than we predicted, reaching about 490 million tons."
Zeng Baojiang frowned and immediately ordered: "It is 40 million tons larger than we predicted. Start the auxiliary engine immediately and increase the power of the main engine."
"yes."
Faced with this unexpected situation, "Xing" didn't know how to solve it and could only follow the established procedures. Fortunately, the ground control center corrected the engine data in time, otherwise the trouble would have been huge.
Of course, there are a lot of troubles now. The ground control center quickly modified this data and asked the supercomputing center to recalculate it. Because the quality has changed so much, everything else is also changing.
All the supercomputing power of Dongtang and Galaxy Consortium were fully activated, and the results came out after adjusting the data in less than three minutes.
"One good news and one bad news." Zeng Baojiang said helplessly.
"Say it!" Wang Tu said, staring at the holographic star map with an expressionless face.
"The good news is that the asteroid is still within the controllable range. The bad news is that the intersecting orbit of the asteroid and the Blue Star has changed from the previous 19,000 kilometers to between 1,000 and 2,000 kilometers." Zeng Baojiang on the Holographic Star
The latest orbit of the asteroid is marked on the picture.
"At least it's still within control." Wang Tu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"In addition, due to the increased mass of the asteroid, the time the spacecraft can be supported by fuel may be reduced by about 12% than expected." Zeng Baojiang continued.
"Start the spare Qinglong-class No. 002 and No. 004 to replenish fuel." Wang Tu immediately ordered.
"But..." Zeng Baojiang was about to say something.
"Nothing but, execute it immediately." Wang Tu said decisively.
"yes!"
At this time, the flight trajectory of the asteroid was slowly changing, and the three Xuanwu-class spacecraft were desperately trying to correct their direction.
After starting the engine for a long time, the nozzle became a little red. Fortunately, the Space Development Council discovered the problem of fatigue deformation of the nozzle and sprayed a layer of mixed gel on the engine nozzle to ensure that the mixed gel coating can withstand 14,000 degrees Celsius.
of high temperature.
If it were the previous nozzle, there would definitely be problems with the engine being used so intensively.