Chapter 638: A Long Journey
July 15, Xinghe Year 8.
The Qinglong-class space battleship completed its final inspection in Mars orbit and obtained sufficient supplies.
The Qinglong class, with a payload of 45,000 tons, not only stores a large amount of water resources as nuclear fuel and working fluid, but is also filled with various testing equipment, lithium-carbon nanolayers and related raw materials, as well as a device specifically for processing lithium-carbon nanolayers.
42 crew members are already in place in the cockpit.
Yin Siyong checked the time and said, "Everyone, head towards the North Star at full speed. The reacceleration time is 50 hours. The first stage of the voyage is 1 astronomical unit."
"receive."
"Nuclear fusion power system started, 2 rings running, 4 rings on standby, power output 10%..."
"Route planning completed..."
"set sail!"
Violent aluminum plasma spurted out from the Qinglong-class main thruster, reaching 15% of the speed of light, leaving a distinct glow against the background of the empty universe.
The light began to erupt from the vent and spread outward in a funnel shape until it stopped being noticeable 18 kilometers away.
Driven by the reaction force of the plasma thrusters, the Qinglong-class space battleship flew rapidly towards the North Star, and the spacecraft was in a state of uniform acceleration.
Yin Siyong and others in the cockpit did not take it lightly. Eight radar soldiers responsible for radar monitoring were staring intently at the holographic scanning screen.
As the Qinglong class moves further and further away from the ecliptic plane of the solar system, the density of asteroids in the surrounding star regions also decreases exponentially.
This situation made Yin Siyong feel a little relieved.
He also looked at the damage to the lithium-carbon nanolayer of the nuclear fusion power system.
[While evaluating the extent of local degradation, it is estimated that it can last for 130 to 180 days...].
At the 50th hour, the speed of the Qinglong class had been increased to 1,000 kilometers per second, and there were only a dozen hours left to travel the distance of one astronomical unit.
Yin Siyong and others, who had just changed shifts several times, had been controlling the navigation direction and carefully scouting the surrounding asteroids.
When approaching the turning point of one astronomical unit.
"Start the auxiliary thrusters and begin adjusting the flight direction."
"receive!"
"The navigation direction has been successfully shifted..."
"Reported flight speed dropped to 936 kilometers per second."
Yin Siyong immediately ordered: "Restart the nuclear fusion power system."
"receive."
As two of the Levis rings of the nuclear fusion power system were activated, the Qinglong class accelerated again. When the speed reached 1,000 kilometers per second, the nuclear fusion power system was shut down again and the battleship was switched to inertial flight mode.
In the vast void, a space battleship was speeding past at an extremely terrifying speed.
The Qinglong class is on a course parallel to the solar system's ecliptic plane, 1 astronomical unit above it. The asteroids here are very sparse, and the Qinglong class can move forward at high speed without the need to change orbit frequently.
A distance of 43 AU.
It took less than 75 days, which is a relatively impressive speed among first-level civilizations.
As the Qinglong class arrived above the ecliptic plane of the Kuiper Belt.
Yin Siyong frowned at this time.
Because he saw quite a few asteroids.
The distribution of asteroids in the Kuiper belt is in a donut shape, and not all of them are concentrated in the ecliptic plane.
Even in this void 1 astronomical unit above the ecliptic plane of the Kuiper belt, the density of asteroids here is dozens of times higher than that of other parallel routes that have been sailed before.
For safety reasons, Yin Siyong had to step on the brakes in advance. At this time, the flying speed of the Qinglong class was only 300 kilometers per second, and it was still continuing to decline.
Especially after reaching the turning point, it changed its flight direction and flew towards the core area of the Kuber Belt. At this time, the speed of the Qinglong class was only 273 kilometers per second.
Even at this speed, there is still a certain risk, and we must always pay attention to the movement trajectory of asteroids within 1 million kilometers ahead.
If an asteroid is discovered within tens of thousands of kilometers, there may not be enough time to brake or adjust the flight direction.
"Report, a dwarf planet has been discovered ahead! It's 3.82 million kilometers away..."
"What?" Yin Siyong was very surprised. He hurriedly checked the star map and found that there was no record of this dwarf planet in the star map.
Michelle turned her head and looked at him: "Captain, what should we do?"
After thinking for a few seconds, Yin Siyong ordered: "Slow down and get closer to the dwarf planet."
"OK."
The Qinglong-class's secondary thrusters were quickly activated, and then began to use reverse thrust to decelerate evenly.
As the Qinglong-class and the dwarf planet continued to approach, the situation of the planet was also detected.
The dwarf planet has a diameter of 1,036 kilometers and is a nearly spherical planet composed of ice and soil. Its density is equivalent to 44.7% of the moon and its escape velocity is 1,541 kilometers per second. Due to its own low methane and carbon dioxide atmosphere, its reflectivity is extremely low.
After seeing these detection data, Yin Siyong suddenly realized: "No wonder this dwarf planet has not been discovered."
In fact, Sapiens has quite a few probes and satellites in the Kuiper Belt. Currently, there are a total of 1,733 probes and satellites in service in the Kuiper Belt.
This number seems very large, but the problem is that the diameter of the Kuiper belt is close to 10 AU and its circumference is between 270 and 310 AU.
One astronomical unit is the distance from the Earth to the center of the Sun.
1,733 probes and satellites scattered across the Kuiper Belt are like dropping thousands of sonar probes into the Pacific Ocean.
We can get some general information about the situation, but it is wishful thinking to expect that we can completely understand the details of the entire Kuiper Belt.
It might be possible to increase this scale by 10,000 times.
In fact, after Sapiens entered the Kuiper Belt, it discovered 7 dwarf planets and 42 large asteroids.
Since this dwarf planet has not been discovered, Yin Siyong and others will naturally not be polite.
After all, the first group to discover a star is qualified to name it.
As time went on, the Qinglong class got closer and closer to the dwarf planet, until its speed dropped to 5 kilometers per second, and the distance between the two sides was only about 130 kilometers.
"Michelle, launch three satellites."
"OK."
The cabin on one side of the Qinglong-class ship opened, and three small launch vehicles carrying artificial satellites flew towards the dwarf planet.
About half an hour later, the three satellites successfully orbited the dwarf planet and transmitted back the first batch of images and detection data.
After discussing with the crew, Yin Siyong decided to name the dwarf planet "Courage Star".
Courage is different from other Pluto dwarf planets, which is why this dwarf planet has not been discovered yet.
But at this moment, they discovered some very strange data.
