Although it is called an elevator in reading and writing, the base of this elevator is much wider than that of ordinary high-rise buildings. However, even so, at a length of more than 30,000 kilometers, this vertically suspended elevator looks as slender as a noodle.
Taking the Starlink Trading warship, Jiang Chen boarded the sea surface base station of the space elevator.
Not long after leaving the port, a group of people came towards him.
"We made it!"
When Jiang Chen returned to reality and saw Kerwin for the first time, this arrogant middle-aged man was as excited as a child and held his hand.
Jiang Chen, on the other hand, seemed more steady. Compared with the excitement of witnessing the birth of a miracle and the excitement of leaving a mark in history, at this moment, he felt more relieved that he had achieved his wish and breathed a sigh of relief in the distant future.
"Yes, we succeeded."
After letting go of Kerwin's hand, Jiang Chen looked up and admired the space elevator, then suddenly looked at the technical director standing next to Kerwin and asked.
"If I wanted to engrave a line of text on the bottom of the space elevator, what pen would be better to use?"
The technical director was stunned for a moment, and then said, "A laser welding gun will do."
"Get me a laser welding gun."
Although he didn't know what the chairman was paying attention to, the technical director still winked at the engineer next to him. Soon, a laser welding gun weighing five or six kilograms was handed into Jiang Chen's hands. Jiang Chen took it and weighed it in his hand. Kerwin, the technical director standing next to him, was amazed.
To be able to hold this five or six kilogram welding gun in one hand and play with it like this, the chairman's hand is much stronger than it looks.
Walking to the space elevator, Jiang Chen pressed the switch of the welding gun, and used the gun tip that emitted a dazzling white light to carve a line of boxy simplified Chinese characters on the titanium alloy shell of the space elevator base.
Taking two steps back, Jiang Chen looked at the words he had carved and nodded with satisfaction.
"I know we can solve the next problem because we have solved all the problems that have arisen before." Kerwin, who has already learned Chinese, frowned and read the sentence again, looked at Jiang Chen and asked, " Is there any deep meaning in this sentence?"
"It's nothing, just a souvenir." Jiang Chen laughed, turned off the power of the welding gun, and threw the welding gun back into the engineer's arms, "Let's go, take me to see inside the elevator."
Walking into the interior of the space elevator, Jiang Chen understood the entire space elevator orbit and its operating mechanism through the engineering holographic concept drawing displayed by Kerwin. There are a total of six passenger tracks, three of which lead upwards and the other three lead downwards. The tracks will be changed after the carriages arrive at the terminal.
Because of the one-way design of the monorail, multiple carriages traveling at the same speed can run on one track at the same time. It is foreseeable that in the not too distant future, space activities will be quite frequent. People taking the space elevator to outer space will even be as convenient as we take the high-speed rail today.
This design can also be regarded as a precautionary plan for future rail traffic congestion.
After the visit, Jiang Chen had lunch directly in the canteen of the offshore platform with senior officials of the space launch center, including Kerwin. At the dinner table, Jiang Chen asked Kerwin about the progress of the asteroid capture plan.
"The landing and web-weaving work went very smoothly, but the orbit change work progressed slower than expected," Kerwin put down the fork in his hand and said with a look of embarrassment, "Although the supercomputing center has carried out the asteroid orbit Accurate calculations have been made, but how to ensure the speed and orbit of the asteroid at the same time still has certain difficulties with current technical means. Every acceleration of the tow rocket is very critical, and even if it is a wrong step, it must be recalculated."
"But the Bennu asteroid doesn't leave us much time. After mid-January, the asteroid will be farther and farther away from us. If we want to catch it again, we have to wait six years." The person in charge of the asteroid capture project next to Erwin interjected.
Jiang Chen had expected that so many difficulties would arise. He could bring back technical information that was far ahead of his time from the apocalypse, but he was unable to help these scientists and technicians digest these epoch-making technologies. Even in the 22nd century, asteroid mining is a cutting-edge discipline.
"Putting explosives on the asteroid to make sure that if it suddenly goes out of control, we can at least blow it out of the atmosphere."
"We are already doing it," Kerwin said seriously. "We have deployed 2.5 tons of T.NT-equivalent explosives on the Bennu asteroid. If there is an error in the orbit change, the remaining fuel in the rocket thruster will not be enough to make it escape. Captured by Earth's gravity, we can detonate it into meteorite fragments as it approaches the exosphere."
After lunch, Jiang Chen arrived at the Space Launch Center by boat with Kerwin.
The launch site, which was originally used to launch rockets, has been idle since the completion of the space elevator. The transport ship that travels between the earth and the moon has been designed and has now entered the experimental stage. Currently, to deliver supplies to the lunar colony, the secondary rocket of Halo 4 can be directly sent to the synchronous orbit through the space elevator, and then accelerated into the Earth-moon transfer orbit.
By directly eliminating the need for a first-stage rocket and fuel to be pushed into outer space, the cost of traveling to and from the moon is reduced by 60%. Star Halo Trade is studying the feasibility of expanding the scale of the lunar colony. If the plan is finally implemented, Star Halo Trade will send another 100 colonists to the moon.
Just when Jiang Chen finished inspecting the situation at the lunar colony base, a call came on his watch.
He clicked on his watch and connected the phone. Xia Shiyu's voice immediately appeared in Jiang Chen's ears.
"Our guests have arrived."
"Oh? Are they guests from China or Russia? Or from Washington." Jiang Chen asked pleasantly.
"They are guests from China. They have got off the plane at Koro City Airport, and the Minister of Commerce and Foreign Affairs of New Zealand have gone to pick them up. The purpose of the other party is very clear. They hope to talk to us about the space elevator."
Jiang Chen clicked on the holographic screen and looked at the time. It was already past five o'clock.
"Since they have come from afar, let them rest for a day. By the way, have they contacted where they live?"
"They have booked a room at the Hilton Hotel in the Heart of the Ocean and are now on their way to the hotel." Xia Shiyu replied.
"Then let's do this for now."
After saying that, Jiang Chen hung up the phone and turned his attention to Kerwin.
"Have the nuclear fusion generator sets been sent to the lunar colony?"
"Yes, in the newly built power station, one of the nuclear fusion generators has been put into use, replacing solar energy to power the lunar colony. In order to meet the needs of the nuclear power plant, we need to build a heavy water plant to produce the deuterium needed for the fusion reaction. "
"There is no rush in advance. I need you to prepare a report and send it to me before tomorrow afternoon."
"Report? What report?" Kerwin looked at Jiang Chen in confusion.
"As for the transportation cost of the space elevator, I need you and your team to make an accurate assessment. We will use it in tomorrow's negotiations." (.)