Earth Era

Part 64

Saitan Calendar: July 24, 2735.

Actually, the date is no longer important for the people of Saitan, and it's even meaningless. Because all they need to know is what happened yesterday, what will happen today, and what will happen tomorrow.

Just last night, the "Cosmic Research Headquarters" released a major news that caused a sensation worldwide. They claimed: they want to push the United Space Station out of Saitan's orbit! But due to technical issues, the space station itself lacks propulsion. How can it be pushed away? Now, they are soliciting feasible solutions from everyone, and anyone can propose their opinions on this issue. Once adopted, a ticket for the Bistellian ship will be given!

Originally, people weren't very interested in this issue, but as soon as they heard that they could get a ticket for the Bistellian ship, everyone got excited and eagerly started to submit their opinions to the "Cosmic Research Headquarters."

Before proposing opinions, we need to understand one thing: this space station is no ordinary one. It has been orbiting Saitan for at least fifty thousand years!

Initially, it was indeed just a small satellite, but after fifty thousand years of various upgrades and modifications, it is now a huge space station with a diameter of nearly 3500 kilometers! Equivalent to half the size of Saitan!

It orbits Saitan at a distance of about 300,000 kilometers, revolving around the planet.

It is a sphere, but it didn't look like this initially. Later, due to continuous upgrades and modifications, its volume increased, and as a result, it often suffered damage from space debris or meteorites, which caused headaches for the early "Cosmic Research Headquarters."

As time passed, about ten thousand years ago, someone proposed: to add a shell to the space station, so it won't be damaged anymore, right?

Later, they indeed added a thick shell to the space station. Besides the huge heat dissipation holes on the shell, there were also many "doors" leading to the interior, facilitating access and inspection.

It has been drifting in space for nearly ten thousand years until today, with thick layers of dust accumulated on its thick iron shell, forming mountains! Gradually, it became what it looks like now.

Those who don't know it will never think it's a space station at first glance but rather a small asteroid!

Wanting to push such a "small asteroid" out of Saitan's orbit is not an easy task. With the current level of human technology, there is simply no equipment capable of generating such a large force to push it away. The United Government and the Cosmic Research Group spent three months building two fusion engines on the space station for testing. During this period, more than six thousand carrier ships were launched, but less than four thousand successfully arrived, while the rest, over two thousand, were intercepted and destroyed by marauders on their way or before launch.

Originally, they planned to build three engines for testing, but in the end, only two were built...

As fusion technology proved difficult to break through, they used fission instead. This increased the cost of building the engines significantly. Although money was no longer important in the current situation, the resources on Saitan were limited.

The United Government conducted a survey of all uranium mines on Saitan and found that they could provide a maximum of one thousand engines, generating 12 million tons of thrust in ten hours. Compared to the journey from Saitan to Bistellian, which takes at least a month or even several months, ten hours were simply too short... It's like walking only one step on a hundred-kilometer road and then being unable to move forward.

At this point, someone suggested: "The space station can use Saitan's gravity as a slingshot. With one hour, that is, 12,000 tons of thrust, it's enough to make the space station orbit Saitan twice at high speed. Then, all one thousand engines can be fully activated to fiercely sling the space station towards Bistellian!"

Cosmic Research Headquarters: "But the remaining nine hours of fuel won't be enough to support the space station to reach Bistellian."

The person said: "We can coast! The gravitational slingshot effect is enough to hurl the space station away. The remaining nine hours of fuel can be used for some attitude adjustments."

The research team conducted careful calculations and found that the plan to use the gravitational slingshot effect to sling the space station out was feasible. However, orbiting Saitan twice was far from enough. At least seven orbits were needed to have enough force to sling it to Bistellian's position.

Actually, seven orbits didn't matter. It just required the engines to be fully activated for three consecutive hours~ Then, there would still be seven hours of fuel left for attitude adjustments~ Enough.

So, the engine test began, and everyone thousands of kilometers away watched the live broadcast of the scene through simulation.

Qin Feng also stood in front of the virtual screen in the bunker, watching with interest. At the moment the huge engine ignited, flames shot out, and a layer of dust was stirred up on the surface of the space station, floating into the air and slowly falling down. The personnel on the space station immediately shut down the engine, but it was useless. The high temperature of the flames continued to roast the engine.

Not long after, under the high-temperature roasting, the huge engine had already melted into a pool of molten iron. Qin Feng stood in front of the virtual screen with his neck stiff, his expression extremely shocked. And around him, there were thousands of personnel from the airspace district, all wearing the same stunned expression.

Previously, the United Government said: If this plan is feasible, the space station can at least take away one hundred million people at once! Much more efficient than Bistellian.

Now, everyone's hope has been dashed once again. The melting of the engine represents the failure of this plan.