The week-long visit was over, and the international friends invited by Xinghuan Trading began to return home.
The long carriage ran from the edge of the star ring to the center track and began to fall downward along the narrow elevator track. And almost at the same time, at the other end of the main axis of the star ring, a blue arc flashed briefly, and a black dot was thrown into the vast universe...
"call."
Taking a deep breath, the driver moved his stiff fingers, and gently moved his thumb on the joystick with his right hand to turn off the breathing assistance.
The feeling of electromagnetic acceleration is very bad. Although I have been injected with medicine to strengthen my physical fitness and have undergone anti-stress training, without the breathing aid and decompression cabin, the acceleration of nearly 12G and the acceleration time of more than one minute can still be achieved. The last bit of air was squeezed out of his chest.
After stretching his stiff neck, Liu Qingpeng opened the dial on the holographic helmet.
He moved to the new country through its aerospace volunteer immigration policy half a year ago. He originally planned to hang out for two or three years and then switch jobs as an electrician. However, he did not expect that because of his talents in certain aspects, he became an employee of Starlink Trading, and eventually became an employee of Starlink Trading. Became the pilot of Electric Ray-1.
The plan was advanced half a month, but it had no impact on him. Although it was his first flight mission, his performance was quite calm. After all, he had flown for countless hours in virtual reality. Now you can drive this space plane to the Bennu asteroid even with your eyes closed.
There is no reference when sailing in the starry sky. Even if he is traveling away from the earth at a speed of 7.2 kilometers per second, he cannot distinguish any changes in the starry sky ahead with his naked eyes.
Pointing his finger at the operation panel, Liu Qingpeng turned on the voice control system.
"Open the mission beacon."
The signal light on the side of the helmet flickered slightly, and an asteroid made of three-dimensional lines appeared in the field of vision directly in front of him. An upper line was drawn above the asteroid, marked with the word "ennu".
Immediately afterwards, a pale yellow path emerged in the field of view, drawing a slightly curvature arc, pointing from the first cabin of Electric Ray-1 to the position of the asteroid.
"Route set up."
"Plasma engine output power 40%."
"go ahead!"
In the deep and dark starry sky, the tail of Electric Ray-1 swayed into layers of faint blue light particles, turning into arrows that flew away from the string.
…
In the ground command center, a man and a woman stood in front of a large screen, watching real-time images transmitted back more than 400,000 kilometers away.
Outside the atmosphere, speed and distance are always just monotonous characters. If the figure of 400,000 kilometers were placed back on Earth, this would be enough length to circle the equator ten times. However, for the Electric Ray X-1 series spacecraft that cruises at a high speed of 20 kilometers per second, the flight time is less than half of the civil aviation flight from Beijing to California.
After hearing that the first mining spacecraft had arrived, Jiang Chen came to the space launch center.
Out of curiosity, Xia Shiyu also followed.
In the picture, the Electric Ray-1, which had completed its deceleration, turned off its engine and relied on inertia to slowly approach the asteroid intertwined with graphene cables.
The electric ray unfolded the mining module like a water spider, and blue light blades popped out from the ends of the first two mechanical arms. That's not a laser knife, but an ion jet with a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees. With such a high temperature, it can even poke a hole in steel with just a light touch, and it can also be used to cut minerals.
The two laser knives intertwined and cut two holes in the ore body without any suspense. The other two mechanical arms were like two pliers, snapped onto the outer shell of the asteroid. The two forearm tools changed from laser knives to two alloy hammer-like props, and they were smashed along the cut hole.
Xia Shiyu couldn't help but open her mouth in surprise when she saw the electric stingray-1 separated the ore body by three strokes and five divisions.
It was really strange to see the surprised expression on her face.
"It's like filming a movie." Xia Shiyu praised.
"And it's a science fiction blockbuster." Jiang Chen teased.
Having already seen the three-dimensional simulated working graphics of the Electric Ray-1, he was certainly not as surprised by the sci-fi style of mining as Xia Shiyu was when he saw it for the first time.
At this time, Xia Shiyu suddenly remembered something and looked at Jiang Chen in confusion.
“Why don’t we take it to geosynchronous orbit and mine it?”
Hearing her question, Jiang Chen smiled and showed off his aerospace knowledge that he had learned and sold.
"Although this asteroid with a diameter of 500 meters does not seem to be as big as our Ring City, its net weight is much heavier than ours. If it gets too close to the earth, gravity will directly pull it over. Of course, it is really It's not impossible to move it to a synchronous orbit. Just add a spiral arm behind it as a counterweight like the one in Halo City, and you can hang it in the sky."
"But considering the cost, it's not necessary at all."
"The pulse engine used by our electric ray is powered by nuclear fusion batteries, and the fuel cost is not high. Except for the acceleration and deceleration stages, the aircraft that has set a route is only doing inertial cruise for a long distance."
"We just need to send the electric ray to the asteroid, cut the ore from its body, and then pull it back through the cargo spacecraft."
At this time, Electric Ray-1 is like a mosquito lying on a piece of fat meat, constantly peeling off the ore from the ore body and collecting it in the unfolded folding container. Waiting next to it is the cargo spacecraft independently developed by Starring Trading. It uses the RM-400 plasma propulsion engine. Although its acceleration performance is inferior to the pulse engine of the Electric Ray, it is better than the thrust engine and is more suitable for large and medium-sized cargo spacecraft.
After all, the cargo spaceship doesn't need to do any high-maneuvering maneuvers, it just needs to be able to transport things straight across.
Xia Shiyu glanced at Jiang Chen, with a smile on her lips.
Unlike Ayesha, if she was asked when Jiang Chen's appearance fascinates her the most, her answer would undoubtedly be confident.
The relationship between the two is now much closer than it was at the beginning.
As promised last year, Jiang Chen selectively told Xia Shiyu about the apocalypse.
In fact, even if he didn't say it, Xia Shiyu had already guessed something, but she never said it.
However, she was still quite surprised when she heard Jiang Chen say it himself.
Just as Jiang Chen expected, the answer she imagined in her mind was completely different from his actual situation. She originally thought that Jiang Chen traveled to a galaxy and a human country that had entered the interstellar era. The reason why Jiang Chen spared no effort to develop aerospace technology was to help the earth fight against that interstellar civilization...
And because of certain restrictions, I had to go back and stay for a while at a specific time.
I have to say that women’s minds are indeed big enough to make a Hollywood blockbuster.
After a while, a cargo box was filled with minerals collected by Electric Ray-1. The two robotic arms clamped the hooks of the cargo box. The electric ray held the cargo box and flew to the side of the cargo spacecraft, and then slowly placed the cargo box in the cargo compartment on its abdomen. At the same time, the robotic arms lifted out of the cargo spacecraft. A memory alloy plate was taken out.
After completing the power supply, the memory alloy plate unfolded into a cargo box similar to the previous one.
The next step is to repeat the work, and it is no longer enjoyable.
Xia Shiyu still had something to deal with, so Jiang Chen took her out of the launch center and boarded the yacht in the port. Just as he was about to return to Coro Island to go to sea, a call from the Presidential Palace suddenly called his watch.
As soon as the call was connected, Zhang Yaping said directly.
"We're in trouble." (~^~)