I saw everything

Chapter 386 Speed ​​Up

2031, April 9.

The three experimental spacecraft launched this year to Venus have finally crossed hundreds of millions of kilometers of the boundless starry sky and arrived in Venus's near-Earth orbit.

These are Experiment 6, Experiment 7, and Experiment 8 spacecraft.

Judging from the serial numbers of these spaceships, we know that five spaceships had visited this orange-red Earth-like planet before them.

As an experimental model, the spacecraft was not only tasked with transporting supplies to Venus, but also with verifying certain designs and technologies.

Therefore, from Venera 1, also known as Venera Experiment 1, to Venera Experiment 9 and 10, which are still en route, there are significant differences in their design and function.

This is also a characteristic of experimental spacecraft models.

Inside the Sun Chasing City Space Command Center on Earth at this moment.

Zhou Xiyi, the chief technical consultant from China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, was communicating with Gu Linyu, the project's chief technical officer.

"Old Zhou, we need to keep an eye on experimental spacecraft No. 6, No. 7, and No. 8 these next few days."

Zhou Xiyi stared intently at the screen of his work laptop, which was displaying real-time data.

However, since Venus was already 1.39 million kilometers away from Earth at this time, the communication delay was very obvious. It took about 463 seconds for a communication signal to travel from Venus to Earth and the same amount of time to travel back, so the round trip would take about 15.4 minutes.

This delay is too severe.

After looking at the data on his laptop for a while, Zhou Xiyi shook his head and sighed: "In the early stages of interstellar colonization, our current communication technology is still too slow. Even when used within the solar system, the delay is still too great."

"There's nothing we can do about that," Gu Linyu said, shrugging.

The two did not discuss topics such as quantum communication, because as experts and scholars in the aerospace field, their astrophysics knowledge was at least adequate.

They are well aware that the so-called quantum communication being researched by major research institutions around the world is essentially quantum encryption technology, not communication technology.

Currently, human communication technology is mainly based on electromagnetic wave communication and optical wave communication.

Since they are electromagnetic waves and light waves, it means that the speed of light is the limit of communication speed, and it is a limit that is almost impossible to break.

Even the most sophisticated gravitational wave communication and neutrino communication technologies cannot break the speed of light limit.

The speed of light has virtually locked down the upper limit of human communication.

Since light-speed communication is used inside the Earth, there will naturally be no noticeable communication delay.

However, once the distance scale is increased, communication delays inevitably emerge.

Zhou Xiyi took off his glasses and took out a cleaning cloth to wipe the lenses: "Sigh! I'm starting to doubt whether humanity will ever truly leave our solar system home within our lifetimes."

"Don't worry... Medical technology is advancing by leaps and bounds. I heard from acquaintances in the group that our average life expectancy may reach around 120 years within the next ten years."

"120 years old?" Zhou Xiyi was very surprised: "Has medical technology become so advanced now?"

Gu Linyu smiled and reminded him, "Old Zhou, have you forgotten? Our boss is a big shot in the biological field."

Thinking of Jiang Miao's remarkable achievements in the field of biology, Zhou Xiyi subconsciously believed the rumor.

A staff member spun around in his chair and called out to the two men, “Report, Spaceship No. 6 has entered its designated orbit.”

Gu Linyu glanced at his laptop, which displayed that the Venus Experiment 6 spacecraft was currently orbiting Venus at a near-Earth orbit of 460 kilometers. He then replied:
"Okay, then let's proceed according to plan!"

"receive."

At this time, Venus is in its near-Earth orbit.

The Venus Experiment 6 spacecraft has entered its designated orbit.

About seven minutes later.

The communication instructions from the Earth command center arrived late.

Considering the constantly changing relative positions of Venus and Earth, in order to avoid communication interruptions when the sun blocks the two planets, Blue Whale Aerospace selected two solar orbits on the solar ecliptic plane between Venus and Earth, and then successively deployed 12 large communication relay satellites on these two orbits.

These large communication relay satellites ensure stable communication even when Earth and Venus are on opposite sides of the Sun.

These communication relay satellites are specially designed, not only for communication functions but also for excellent protection.

After all, these communication relay satellites are in orbit around the sun. Without the protection and shielding of the magnetic field of Earth or Venus, they are easily affected by solar wind and cosmic radiation. Their protection requirements are a level higher than those of satellites in low Earth orbit.

The belated communication signal conveyed the instructions from Earth's command center to the spacecraft.

Upon receiving the command, the Venus 6 spacecraft's intelligent management system activated the pre-set mission program.

The spacecraft opened its belly hatch.

One by one, objects resembling large oil drums were ejected from the hatch, their ejection direction clearly towards the Venusian atmosphere.

Venus 6 has a payload capacity of 150 tons, the vast majority of which is used on these large "oil drums".

A total of 15 of these barrel-shaped devices were launched, each weighing approximately 9.7 tons.

In less than two hours, these barrel-shaped devices entered the atmosphere of Venus one after another. When these devices reached an altitude of 120 kilometers in the Venusian atmosphere, the barrel-shaped devices automatically activated their programs, and their internal gasbags rapidly expanded into a small airship as liquid hydrogen evaporated.

Although they expanded into airships, these airships were still slowly descending.

The reason for this is that the gasbags of these airships are relatively small, several times smaller than those of an airship of the same weight on Earth.

The reason for this design is naturally due to considerations of adapting to local conditions.

Because Venus's atmosphere is much denser than Earth's, even a gasbag several times smaller can still support a similar payload weight.

It wasn't until these airships descended to an altitude of approximately 75 kilometers that they reached a dynamic equilibrium point between weight and buoyancy, allowing them to float stably in Venus's atmosphere at an altitude of approximately 75 kilometers.

This altitude was determined by Blue Whale Aerospace based on intelligence gathered from its previous five missions, combined with current technological capabilities, to be a relatively suitable area for airship deployment.

If the altitude is below 70 kilometers, you will be directly exposed to the sandblasting hell layer of Venus's atmosphere.

If the altitude is higher than 80 kilometers, the effective payload of the airship will be reduced.

Fifteen airships drifted in the atmosphere of Venus.

However, they do not drift randomly, but rather they approach each other in a very clever way.

Due to communication delays, the Earth command center had no choice but to delegate the mission to a pre-programmed procedure.

Fortunately, the management programs of these airships are intelligent programs that fall between basic and intermediate artificial intelligence, so the probability of accidents is relatively small in terms of the reliability of mission execution.

However, Gu Linyu, Zhou Xiyi, and others still took turns on duty at the command center.

At noon the next day, the first batch of 15 airships in Venus's atmosphere finally rendezvoused. Using the designed docking device, they were quickly and tightly connected together under system control, transforming into a small floating city.

Immediately afterwards, the 20 airships carried by Venera 7 were also launched into Venus's atmosphere.

Watching the first batch of airships successfully dock, Gu Linyu breathed a sigh of relief, picked up his cooled black coffee, and took a sip: "Phew..."

"Chief Engineer Gu, what's the situation now?"

A voice sounded behind him.

Gu Linyu, of course, knew who the voice belonged to. He put down his coffee cup, turned around, and smiled, "Didn't Vice President Qin go back to headquarters?"

"I've taken care of my business." Qin Shangwu pulled out a chair and sat down.

"The current situation is as expected. The first batch of airships has successfully entered the Venusian atmosphere and assembled successfully. This is a video that was transmitted back half an hour ago." Gu Linyu pulled up the data on his computer and opened a video to play.

In the video, the floating city composed of airships is surrounded by a cloud-shrouded atmosphere on Venus, making the sky appear hazy and visibility extremely low.

"Is it daytime?"

"Yes, this is during the day. If it were night, the visibility would be even lower."

Qin Shangwu rubbed his stubble with his fingers: "I heard you've already completed the first draft of the plan for the future Venus colony?"

"Yes, our plan is to build a floating continent at an altitude of about 75 kilometers in the atmosphere of Venus by continuously deploying airships."

"A floating continent?"

"Yes, just one area, and the reason is very simple: safety first."

Qin Shangwu simulated it in his mind and then nodded: "A floating continent is indeed safer, as there is no need to worry about the trouble of collisions between them."

"Just as Vice President Qin said."

Suddenly, Qin Shangwu asked in a low voice, "Chief Engineer Gu, you should know that the transport capacity from Earth to Venus is limited."

"I know." Gu Linyu was certainly aware of the situation.

At this stage, whether it's the Asian Union or the Northern Union, even if all of humanity were tied together, the total space transportation capacity would still be limited.

For example, the Asia-Pacific Space Telescope (APTT) will have a payload capacity of about 1.5 tons to near Earth orbit this year; while the payload capacity for the Venus mission will be about 3000 tons.

Even if we continue to increase the number of dedicated space cities, Earth's space transportation capacity will hardly reach the level of several million tons per year, and at most it can only reach the level of several hundred thousand tons per year.

Is several hundred thousand tons of supplies a lot each year?

If used by individuals, such a large amount of supplies would be astronomical, and it would probably take a lifetime to consume them all.

However, if these resources were to be used to build a floating continent, they would obviously be insufficient.

Gu Linyu continued to explain: "We have already prepared some experimental equipment specifically for production on the No. 8 spaceship that will arrive on Venus next month."

"You know this well. For our Venus exploration project to succeed, we must solve the problem of self-sufficiency. We can't rely on Earth's resources forever, otherwise this project will go bankrupt sooner or later."

Gu Linyu didn't find Qin Shangwu's words offensive, after all, what the other party said was from the bottom of his heart, and it was also a problem that the current Venus Expansion Project had to face.

"Thank you for the reminder, Vice President Qin. I will urge relevant research institutions to design more experiments."

"Yes, time waits for no one!" Qin Shangwu said meaningfully.

Gu Linyu didn't recognize it.

In fact, Qin Shangwu's return to headquarters this time was at Jiang Miao's behest.

After he reported the progress of the Venus exploration project to Jiang Miao, Jiang Miao believed that the current progress was still too slow and that the relevant research institutions were too lax in their performance.

It's not that they're lazy.

The main problem is that Jiang Miao's demand to colonize Venus makes many people feel that it's a bit far-fetched and not a goal that can be achieved within ten years.

Therefore, Jiang Miao needs Qin Shangwu to urge the relevant research institutions to work harder.

Seeing that Gu Linyu still didn't understand his implied meaning, Qin Shangwu had no choice but to speak frankly: "Chief Engineer Gu, when I went back to headquarters to report the progress to the boss, he was very dissatisfied with our current progress."

“Uh…” Gu Linyu’s expression changed slightly, and his palms even started to sweat. He asked nervously, “Vice President Qin, you should know that we are already progressing very quickly. If we continue to speed up, I am worried that there will be an accident.”

However, Qin Shangwu shook his head: "Chief Engineer Gu, your idea is very wrong."

"Please correct me, Vice President Qin." Gu Linyu felt increasingly uneasy.

"The boss isn't afraid of losses, so you don't need to save money for the group, understand?"

"this…"

Qin Shangwu continued, "Let's be more aggressive now. Even if there's an accident, we can consider it as accumulating experience for the future. If we continue with the space development approach of the Seres era, when will we be able to colonize Venus?"

Now Gu Linyu understood the group's intentions.

Indeed, Blue Whale Aerospace's current development strategy is somewhat conservative.

Actually, it's not Gu Linyu's fault, because this is a problem left over from the era of Seris.

Previously, the Seres Space division was used to being meticulous and careful with every detail in every project.

The advantage of doing this is, of course, a very high success rate for launch missions, a longer lifespan for spacecraft, and the ability to even exceed expectations.

However, this approach also has its drawbacks, namely that it slows down the mission's progress and makes it difficult to rapidly increase the launch scale in a short period of time.

"I understand. I will convene an internal meeting as soon as possible to adjust the progress of some tasks." Gu Linyu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, Gu Linyu found the group's decision acceptable, and he even hoped it would be so.

After all, if the group and the boss can accept a certain failure rate, it means they can go all out and many projects can skip long-term ground verification and be launched directly into outer space for experimental testing, which will obtain data faster.

The consequence of doing this is that it's quite expensive.

However, Hailufeng Group currently has too much cash flow. If burning through tens of billions can accelerate the progress of the Venus Expansion Plan, Jiang Miao won't care too much.

"Very good, it seems you understand the group and the boss's thoughts. Then convene an internal meeting as soon as possible. However, you must also be careful to maintain a proper balance, since the research and development department will investigate your use of funds at any time." Qin Shangwu gave a final reminder.

After all, the group only asked them to speed up the process, which could be done by burning money, but that doesn't mean that Gu Linyu and Blue Whale Aerospace's research institutions can squander money recklessly.

Gu Linyu quickly assured him, "Vice President Qin, please rest assured, I will definitely talk to them and make sure that resources are not wasted."

(End of this chapter)