Titan has a thick atmosphere. The total mass of its atmosphere is even higher than the total mass of the Earth's atmosphere. Its main component is nitrogen, which is as high as 95%. An atmosphere with such a concentration represents severe atmospheric friction.
Xiao Yu slowly adjusted his posture and entered the atmosphere at a suitable angle.
Under the high-speed friction, the outer shell of the spacecraft quickly turned red. However, all this was expected, and Xiao Yu was not worried at all.
The altitude continued to decrease, from 3,000 kilometers to 1,000 kilometers, and then to 100 kilometers, entering the troposphere of Titan's atmosphere.
The speed began to decrease sharply, plummeting from two kilometers per second, to 1.5 kilometers per second, to one kilometer per second, to six hundred meters per second...
When he was three thousand meters above the ground, Xiao Yu opened his parachute. The thick atmosphere filled the parachute, and the speed suddenly dropped to three hundred meters per second.
This speed is just a snail's crawl in the universe. But it is still a little too fast for landing. Xiao Yu's hull is too fragile and cannot withstand any violent collision. Xiao Yu's ideal landing plan is
Landing slowly. So after the speed dropped to one hundred meters per second, Xiao Yu turned on the recoil rocket again.
After using a series of methods, the spacecraft began to land at a speed of several meters per second, and was still slowing down. Finally, when it was only two meters above the ground, Xiao Yu's speed dropped to a few decimeters per second.
This speed is already within the tolerable range. The high-temperature exhaust gas emitted by the reflection rocket melted the surface of Titan. A large amount of material began to volatilize, and then condensed when encountering cold in the air, turning it into patches of white.
Fog. In the thick white mist, Xiao Yu was like an immortal descending from heaven, landing on the ground.
When the white fog dissipated, Xiao Yu opened the hatch. Six robots came out with their heads protruding. They were lined up side by side, like a team of soldiers.
What caught Xiao Yu's eyes was a magical world.
It's Titan's night, and the sky is very dark. Under this thick atmosphere, there are basically no stars visible in the sky, and only a few bright stars can be observed.
Fortunately, it has a huge 'moon.' This huge figure is very conspicuous.
That's Saturn, slightly yellowish Saturn.
When you look at Saturn from Titan, its size looks like the size of the Sun when you look at it from Earth.
Saturn is 1.2 million kilometers away from Titan. This distance is enough to cover Titan within Saturn's own magnetic field, which helps to resist the solar wind from the sun. It takes about sixteen days for Titan to orbit Saturn
.
The earth is shrouded in a vast darkness, which can basically be described as being invisible. At least, the six robots standing in a row in front of Xiao Yu's spacecraft cannot take any pictures using optical detectors.
Xiao Yu turned on the night vision device. Then, a shocking scene unfolded in front of Xiao Yu.
There is a lake in front of him, just a few hundred meters in front of Xiao Yu. It is a huge lake. Under the wind blowing from Titan, ripples appear on the lake surface. There are some waves beside the lake.
It slapped the lake shore and made a splashing sound.
"This lake is so beautiful." Xiao Yu sighed, "Let's call you Weilan Lake."
Next to it, there is a winding river, and some liquid flowing from nowhere slowly merges into the lake.
Underfoot, there is a slightly mottled ground, like sand, and some stones, similar to the Gobi Desert on the earth. Behind, there is a small hill that is not very high, squat, lying there, like a
An ancient behemoth.
This is a place 1.5 billion kilometers away from the earth. Here, the earth can no longer be seen with the naked eye. There have never been human footprints here, and it can even be said that there have never been biological footprints. This place is completely shaped by the great nature.
It is made without any artificial force. As an intelligent and self-aware individual, Xiao Yu is the first person to come and see this place.
Above, there is the huge Saturn. In front, there is a sea-like lake. Behind, there are short hills, and next to it is a small river. Xiao Yu suddenly felt the urge to cry.
Then, the sensor on one robot detected liquid falling from the sky, and then the remaining five robots also detected it. Xiao Yu immediately realized a problem.
It's raining.
Yes, there is rain on Titan. But the rain on Titan is not made of water, but liquid methane. There are also lakes and rivers, all made of liquid methane.
The rain gradually became heavier, and Xiao Yu couldn't laugh or cry, so he had to command the six robots to return to the cabin and postpone the exploration plan until after the rain stopped.
After turning on the collection equipment and various sensors on the hull of the spacecraft, Xiao Yu began to feel the rain from the alien planet blankly. This feeling was very strange, as if Xiao Yu had returned to the carefree life before.
The ages above the earth.
"I no longer have a home." Xiao Yu thought sadly, "I don't have any similar people anymore."
"I don't have a body anymore, so I can't be considered a real human being."
The heavy rain made Xiao Yu's thoughts drift far away. For the first time, Xiao Yu began to let go of his fanatical desire to explore and began to have the energy to think about other things.
For the first time, Xiao Yu really wanted to talk to someone. However, here, besides Xiao Yu, the only thing that could barely be regarded as a living thing was the 'No. 1' captured from Jupiter in the metal box.
Xiao Yu sent out a burst of high-frequency pulses like a prank. Looking at the restless No. 1 in the box, rushing left and right, he suddenly felt a little better.
This heavy rain lasted for several days. The swollen lake water almost did not reach Xiao Yu. However, Xiao Yu was not worried at all. He was quite confident in the sealing of his spacecraft. Moreover, the lake water would recede sooner or later.
, taking advantage of this time, Xiao Yu can also conveniently collect some methane as a reserve.
Xiao Yu dismantled an engine on the spacecraft and made some modifications to change it from burning liquid hydrogen to burning methane. After testing it, everything was in good condition.
After the rain, the sky clears up, and daytime has arrived on Titan.
The sky of Titan is an intoxicating dark blue. When Titan rotates to the side of Saturn facing the sun, sunlight will shine on Titan, and after most of the sunlight is reflected away,
A slightly smaller part of the sunlight will penetrate to the ground, and after being diffusely reflected by Titan's thick atmosphere, the sky will turn blue like this. The principle is similar to how the sky on Earth is blue.
However, Titan's daytime is still very dim, just like the night on Earth when it is clear and the moon is not very bright, but at least you can see a little something with the optical detector. Due to human beings' inertial thinking, Xiao Yu has never been able to see anything.
It’s too suitable for the pictures taken by night vision devices, but the scenery in the visible light band is more beautiful.
Sunlight shines in, the temperature rises a little, and then the liquid methane begins to sublimate into a gaseous state, just like the evaporation of water on the earth, and the high water level slowly recedes. Xiao Yu knows that this is unique to Titan
Methane gas-liquid circulation system.
The wet, muddy ground began to dry. Xiao Yu re-sent a formation of six robots and began to conduct on-site surveys of the surrounding terrain.
For convenience, the robots made by Xiao Yu are all battery-powered. A single charge can support them in the field for six to eight hours. Of course, in order to adapt to field detection activities, Xiao Yu has also made some changes to them.
Transformation. The remaining two robots will stay in the cabin of the spaceship to prevent any accident and all robots will be lost.
Under the unified command of Xiao Yu, these six robots followed a circle, with the spacecraft as the center, and began to explore the terrain.
The terrain of Titan is very flat, with no major undulations. According to previous three-dimensional images taken in orbit around Titan, the highest peaks on Titan do not exceed 300 meters.
The reason for this phenomenon is not yet clear to Xiao Yu, but according to speculation, it is probably related to some special geological activities, or it may also be due to the influence of Saturn.
The detection of the terrain is slowly unfolding, and a place one thousand meters away from Xiao Yu has been detected. An iron ore has been detected in this area before, and Xiao Yu now wants to find the best mining point for this iron ore.
Ahead, a large piece of dark red caught Xiao Yu's attention. Xiao Yu directed a robot to approach, then squatted down, turned on the flash, and the image data about these things was transmitted back.
Xiao Yu immediately launched an analysis.
Dark red iron ore. An idea appeared in Xiao Yu's mind. Xiao Yu's mood suddenly became anxious.
"My luck is so good?"
Xiao Yu looked at the test data in disbelief.
This is hematite, whose main component is iron oxide, which can be separated into iron and oxygen through technical means. Iron can be used to make steel, and oxygen can be used as an oxidant.
Xiao Yu currently has many burning agents. Even the almost unlimited reserves of methane on Titan can be used as burning agents. The only thing that worries Xiao Yu is the oxidant.
The hematite discovered almost exactly made up for Xiao Yu's shortage of supplies in two aspects. This discovery made Xiao Yu sigh.
Moreover, Xiao Yu also discovered that most of this hematite ore is an open-pit vein, and there are many associated miscellaneous ores with a wide variety of types.
Such as copper, tin, gold, silver, silicon, chromium, nickel, etc.
"This, this is simply a gift from God. Could it be that God finally felt that I have been working hard recently, so he sent me this great gift? Well, that must be the case."
Xiao Yu was overjoyed and immediately directed the six robots to move closer to him, and then together they moved the mining equipment one after another.
Mining, refining, building bases, building spaceships...