Start with a blacksmith shop.

Chapter 380 Landing on an Asteroid

It is believed that in the near future, this desert will be covered in greenery, and turning the desert into fertile land will no longer be a distant dream.

Kyushu has a total of 700,000 square kilometers of desert, and it is believed that under this model, the desert will be transformed into vast fertile land.

In a spaceplane flying towards its target asteroid, all the crew members sat solemnly in their seats, as they were about to approach their destination.

In the space directly in front of them, an asteroid was traveling at a constant speed in its fixed orbit, and this asteroid was the target they were going to investigate.

This is precisely why the astronauts are all on high alert. First, after approaching the asteroid, they will adjust the spaceplane's flight attitude to keep the plane at the same speed as the asteroid.

At this point, they will begin mapping the asteroids and conduct various professional scientific investigations of them in space. Only after obtaining first-hand data on these asteroids will they continue with the next steps.

For the astronauts, outer space was not particularly unfamiliar, after all, they had always been shuttling back and forth between the Earth and the Moon. However, for the scientist accompanying them, going into outer space was a novel experience.

Moreover, they are about to get close to an asteroid, which is very exciting. After all, what they are about to do is the world's first close approach to an asteroid, and they will even control a spaceplane to land on the asteroid later.

As the distance between the two sides continued to shorten, the emotions of the people on the plane also stabilized.

Through the tireless efforts of the astronauts, the spaceplane finally maintained its attitude at a constant speed with the asteroid, or perhaps this state would be more accurately described as escorting it.

The aircraft stabilized, and at that moment, a robotic arm extended outward from one side of the spaceplane, carrying a surveying instrument.

Once the instruments extended from the aircraft, the spaceplane began to move, using the asteroid as its center and starting to orbit and map it.

The spaceplane circled the asteroid, but fortunately, the asteroid was not too large, with a total diameter of one kilometer, so the orbiting time would not be too long.

Moreover, modern spaceplanes have anti-gravity systems, so although they orbit asteroids, they don't feel like they are orbiting.

Otherwise, with them constantly circling the asteroid, everyone on the plane would get dizzy. The astronauts might be able to bear it, but the scientists on board would definitely not be able to stand it.

If you were constantly being spun around like this, you would get really dizzy, your stomach would definitely be churning, and in the worst case, you would vomit.

Just thinking about it makes me want to scream. The entire helmet would be filled with vomit; that feeling would be absolutely awful.

They completed the mapping of the asteroid at their fastest speed, and eventually they obtained a detailed topography of the asteroid.

After obtaining the complete topography of the asteroid, the spaceplane resumed its flight alongside the asteroid. The astronauts on board huddled together, and all their eyes were fixed on the large screen on the plane.

What's displayed on the screen now is the topographic map of the asteroid they just mapped, and what they need to do now is discuss which locations on the asteroid they will land at next.

After discussion, they decided to land at the highest point on the asteroid, which was the most suitable landing location after comprehensive consideration.

They made plans for what to do next, then left one person on duty in the driver's cab while the others returned to the living quarters to rest.

They will only continue after they have rested enough and their energy has fully recovered.

Meanwhile, another spaceplane, also adrift in space and originating from Earth, was only halfway to its destination, Mars.

Their journey still has a long way to go, and as they fly towards Mars, they are just like the people who went to Mars before, all of them are working hard to watch various movies and TV series.

Inside the spaceplane flying near the asteroid, all the astronauts were ready and strapped into their respective seats.

With everyone ready, the spaceplane began to move, constantly adjusting its attitude in space, and the distance between the plane and the asteroid became shorter and shorter.

Since asteroids have no atmosphere and their gravity is not very strong, it is relatively easy for airplanes to approach them.

However, this simplicity is relative. An asteroid takes at most two hours to complete one rotation. Imagine a celestial body with a diameter of only one kilometer, which takes only two hours to complete one rotation. Its rotation speed is simply unimaginable.

Therefore, the plane's current flight speed is not actually that slow, and landing on such a shape does present some challenges.

Under these conditions, the plane eventually landed on the asteroid. When the plane successfully landed on the asteroid, the engine did not shut down immediately, but continued to run.

After the aircraft's landing gear made contact with the asteroid, due to gravity and the asteroid's rapid rotation, in order to avoid being thrown into space by the asteroid, a mechanical arm extended outward from the fuselage after the landing gear touched down.

The robotic arm carries a small drilling device that continuously drills into the ground. After a certain depth, the drill bit retracts and drops an anchor into the newly drilled well.

Under the pull of this anchor, the aircraft finally came to a stable stop on the asteroid, and it was at this moment that the spaceplane's engines could finally be shut off.

This operation is quite complicated, but it doesn't take long. From the start of drilling into the ground to dropping the anchor into the deep well to secure the aircraft, the total time taken was less than five minutes.

The drilling process did not only serve to anchor the aircraft to the asteroid; the soil drilled up from the asteroid's subsurface will also be used by the astronauts for analysis.

This move can be considered a win-win situation. After the aircraft came to a complete stop, the astronauts began preparing for their upcoming exit from the spacecraft.

Because a landing was planned beforehand, the astronauts were fully equipped just in case, so there was no need for much preparation in terms of equipment at this time; a simple check would suffice.

After confirming that all aspects of their spacesuits were in good working order, the astronauts began packing up the various instruments they would be using for the upcoming spacewalk.

They took out all sorts of testing equipment, large and small, and conducted a final inspection before leaving the cabin. After confirming that everything was in good condition, they assigned two people to stay on the plane while the other four headed towards the airlock.

On a small asteroid, a plane over thirty meters long was steadily parked. Just then, a ring of white mist appeared on the fuselage, followed by the appearance of a hatch on the fuselage.

As the hatch opened, four astronauts, fully equipped in full-body spacesuits resembling those worn by Wu Gang, stepped off the plane.

When the four astronauts stepped onto the asteroid's surface, all the astronauts who had just completed their spacewalk were inevitably filled with excitement.

The feeling was unlike anything they had ever experienced before; they had accomplished a world-class feat.

Before this, no one on Earth had ever landed on an asteroid. Any research on asteroids involved using some kind of instrument to get close to the asteroid and impact it.

For example, a few years ago, the Little Life team hit an asteroid with something and conducted a very basic test on the asteroid.

Even such a move is enough for Xiao Rizi to brag about in the aerospace industry for a long time. What they are doing now is even more impressive. This is much more sophisticated than what Xiao Rizi is doing. While Xiao Rizi is still throwing things at asteroids, they have already transported people to asteroids.

The technical difficulties and the gap in capabilities involved are clearly evident to people.

After calming themselves down, the three astronauts and one scientist who disembarked from the plane also began their activities on the asteroid.

First, they conducted a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the soil they had just drilled up from the ground, using instruments and equipment to analyze the various components in the soil.

Because of the gravity on the asteroid, the astronauts never dared to loosen the tethers attached to them and move freely. If they did, they might never be free again.

Fortunately, they carried a considerable amount of weight, which made it easier for them to move around on the asteroid.

Because of their limited range of activity, they can only operate around the aircraft. In fact, compared to asteroids, their range of activity is not small. The size of the aircraft plus the length of the tow rope allows them to operate within a radius of 100 meters.

This range of activity already allows them to do a lot on the asteroid, since the asteroid itself is not very large!

Time passed by, and the group carried out various testing activities within the activity area. While they were still collecting various asteroid test samples, the first testing instrument they turned on completed its test.

At this moment, everyone put down their work. The four people who were originally divided into two groups quickly returned to the plane, and their eyes were all fixed on the instrument that had completed the test.

The composition of the asteroid soil was analyzed by the instrument, and the results were transmitted from the instrument to their personal terminals. Everyone watched intently.

While the three astronauts were still looking at the analysis results, the scientist cheered excitedly, and his cheers were transmitted to the ears of the other astronauts through the communication channel.

At this moment, all the astronauts looked at the scientists. They all understood that the scientists must have made some major discovery in their analysis, otherwise the scientists would not be behaving this way.

All eyes were fixed on the scientist, who knew everyone was waiting for his answer, but his heart was pounding so hard that he couldn't utter a single complete sentence.

Their focus returned to the analysis results they had just obtained, which clearly showed the composition of the soil extracted from the asteroid's subsurface.

The soil composition contains a number of rare elements. Just that one spot contained two elements, and in extremely high amounts.

Scientists now estimate that the entire asteroid's soil composition may be like this. If it is indeed as they guessed, then the asteroid they are targeting this time is an asteroid composed entirely of rare earth elements.

Just this one discovery is enough to make the asteroid beneath their feet worth doing everything they can to bring it back to Earth. Although Kyushu has the highest rare earth content in the world, who would complain about having too many good things?

Moreover, based on what they have discovered so far, we can actually make a rough guess about the origin of this asteroid.

One of the physicochemical properties of rare earth elements is that they lack sulfides and sulfates, and rare earth elements are oxyphilic.

In general, there is no oxygen in outer space, yet these asteroids have so many rare earth elements that are oxygen-loving. Isn't this a huge contradiction?

Therefore, scientists speculate that this asteroid was likely a part that separated from a celestial body with sufficient oxygen. As for why the asteroid separated from the celestial body, that is beyond their knowledge.

All the discoveries they've made so far have greatly helped them understand asteroids, and this help is theoretical.

The value of the entire asteroid is only higher, as it contains a large amount of rare earth elements.

Just as the scientists were focusing their attention on the composition analysis table, one of the astronauts, who had been waiting for a response, made another discovery on the table.

This discovery made him feel that it might be even more important than the rare earth elements that had been discovered. Astronauts actually have a lot of knowledge, and they can understand some basic things.

For example, they could understand the last few substances on the ingredient list, because they had spent some time at the lunar base before, which made them very familiar with various organic substances.

And now, the astronauts have discovered the presence of organic matter on the composition sheet they have in their hands.

They discovered organic matter in the soil of an asteroid in space!

(End of this chapter)