May 24, 2022.

Bell Island, equatorial waters in the central Pacific Ocean.

When the last elevator cable was connected, it represented the Blue Star synchronous orbit between the Blue Star surface, and since then it got rid of traditional chemical rockets and entered the space elevator era.

Huang Xiuyuan stood on the top floor of Bell Island and looked up at the cables of the space elevator. This is a new starting point for humans to step into the sea of ​​stars.

On the west side, about 2,000 meters away, another cable is about to be connected.

A complete space elevator system must have two cables one up and one at a time. Although at this stage, the Federation does not need to send too many resources from outer space to the Blue Star, the design of the two cables was prepared from the beginning.

This is mainly for safety and efficiency. After all, if there is only one cable, you can only go up or down at one time, and once you need to change the direction, it means you need to adjust it.

Therefore, setting up the double line can maximize efficiency more and more.

Huang Xiuyuan and a group of project leaders left the 3,500-meter-high roof and returned to the inside of the control center.

About seven hours later, the other cable was successfully docked, and the staff began to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the two cables to ensure that there were no neglected problems.

Although the two cables weigh 450,000 tons, and the Jianmu Synchronous Orbital Space Station that has been expanded to 320,000 tons, the synchronous station and cable of the Jianmu Space Elevator has reached an astonishing 770,000 tons.

However, because of the Jianmu Synchronous Orbital Space Station, it did not press down to the ground at this time, but pulled the cable and generated centrifugal force to the outside of the Blue Star.

Therefore, the ground station on Bell Island is not actually under pressure, but under huge pulling force.

The structure of the ground station must be very strong and the weight must reach a certain level.

In fact, in addition to the 350 million tons of man-made buildings, the ground station on Bell Island also gained about 20 billion tons of weight to connect underground rock formations through ground piles.

In the future, this ground station will continue to expand, on the one hand, to ensure the stability of the ground station, and on the other hand, to continue to improve the infrastructure here. In the future, it will become the core transportation hub of the Federation.

In the control center, Huang Xiuyuan did not disturb the staff's busyness, but discussed the future development of space with several other academicians.

"Xuyuan, the Venus Floating City you proposed has developed very fast now!" Academician Ouyang said with a smile.

Huang Xiuyuan smiled and shook his head: "Venus is still careless. Although the surface gravity can reach about 90% of the Blue Star, there is a gap in the end. In the future, we still need to consider rotating space cities."

Academician Ouyang nodded, with a hint of worry in his eyes: "But there is a problem of exposing coordinates in large space cities, and now the federal executives are not sure about it."

Huang Xiuyuan naturally had no choice but to do this issue. After all, the lessons of the giant civilization can bring a reminder to the Federation.

Now the Federal Bureau of Space Investigation has re-examined galaxies within 200 light years around the solar system.

During the re-examination process, two galaxies suspected of existential intelligent life were found, and the criterion for judgment was the flying objects inside the galaxy.

Based on this observation method, the Federation has reason to believe that other civilizations also use similar observation techniques to observe the solar system.

This is also the current stage. Various spacecraft and space stations in the Federation have been upgraded and transformed, adding protective layers to prevent observations.

Huang Xiuyuan said helplessly: "For the sake of the present, we can only use the protective layer to minimize the possibility of being observed by alien civilizations."

"In fact, as long as we do not use large structures to block solar radiation, there will be no obvious traces." Another academician expressed his thoughts.

Huang Xiuyuan said an idea: "Perhaps we can consider transforming irregular asteroids in the future to serve as camouflage for spacecraft."

In fact, many people in the Federation have been studying this technical direction, and their research projects are all based on camouflage technology.

Including natural asteroid bunkers, imitation of asteroid bunkers, and modulation of radiation camouflage technology.

The ultimate goal of these technical directions is to allow observers to see that the solar system they see does not have artificial creations, but a large area of ​​natural asteroids.

Among them, the most advanced and most difficult technology is modulation radiation camouflage technology.

The principle of this technology is very simple, that is, absorb the radiation irradiated from the outside world and then emit the modulated radiation.

You should know that the most intuitive observation technology at present is to judge its internal temperature, mass, planets, etc. through the radiation of galaxies.

As for gravitational waves, neutrinos, etc., it cannot determine whether there is intelligent life in the galaxy.

Unless humans actively edit gravitational waves and neutrinos and emit them in all directions, alien civilizations can discover the secrets of the solar system by deciphering gravitational waves and neutrinos.

Electromagnetic and optical wave communication is actually difficult to receive by alien civilizations due to energy failure and interference from cosmic background radiation.

Unless the distance between the two civilizations is very close, the distance between the two parties usually requires no more than 10 light years to have a certain chance of receiving ultra-long wave communication signals from the other party.

The Cosmic Investigation Bureau has focused on investigating all galaxies within 30 light years of the solar system radius, and there are currently no signs of alien civilizations.

Therefore, long-wave communication can be used temporarily, while gravitational waves and neutrinos have now been included in the strict control by the federal government.

Even if you want to conduct gravitational waves and neutrino experiments, you must undergo careful review to avoid exposing the coordinates of the solar system during the experiment.

Just as Huang Xiuyuan and others were discussing.

On the Jianmu Synchronous Track Space Station, an elevator cabin for testing was projected from above and gave the elevator cabin an initial speed through an electromagnetic catapult arranged on it.

Since there are near-vacuum environments between the synchronous orbit and the low-Earth orbit, the elevator cabin is ejected by an electromagnetic catapult and flew to the ground of Blue Star at high speed.

The distance of 36,000 kilometers is only 12,000 seconds, or 200 minutes, for the elevator cabin with an average speed of 3 kilometers per second.

In fact, the elevator cabin can be faster, but it is not necessary because the speed is too fast and it is not easy to control and brake.

Moreover, the cruise speed is 3 kilometers per second, which is only the speed between the synchronous track and the low-Earth track, and the altitude of 200 kilometers close to the ground station. This speed must be lowered.

When entering the atmosphere, if it is a cargo transportation elevator cabin, the speed is generally not higher than 2,400 kilometers per hour, and the speed is decelerated at a constant speed; if it is a passenger spacecraft, the speed is generally not higher than 1,200 kilometers per hour, and the speed is also decelerated at a constant speed.

In addition, the elevator cabin can be stopped midway, but under normal circumstances, it is not an option to stop midway.

If you want to transport materials to low-Earth tracks and middle-level tracks, you can use a special elevator cabin.

When the elevator cabin reaches the specified track height, the cargo cabin is ejected while running to ensure the smooth flow of the elevator cable.

After 3 hours and 28 minutes, the elevator cabin used for testing finally descended from the Jianmu Synchronous Track Space Station to the ground station on Bell Island.

In the ground station, it was like a concentric circle elevator cabin, which was quickly unloaded by the staff and sent into the maintenance room for a comprehensive inspection.
Chapter completed!