Chapter 170: Moon City
Sun Changhe’s words remained calm throughout, with no emotional fluctuation. But when these words reached Jiang Yang’s ears, they carried a weight of a thousand jun.
At this moment, boundless hot blood surged from Jiang Yang’s heart.
It was not persisting because there was hope, but because one persisted, there could be hope!
He suddenly stood up: “I support Consultant Sun’s suggestion!”
Because of his special identity, Jiang Yang knew how enormous an influence such a clear, unmasked statement would have on the other attendees.
In the conference hall, the attendees remained silent. But in this quiet moment, Jiang Yang sensed a subtle change in the atmosphere.
Sun Changhe nodded slightly to Jiang Yang, then said solemnly: “With our current technological strength, is there a way to launch a detector to the vicinity of the sun to figure out exactly what kind of influence the sun has encountered?
And, how do these changes occurring on the sun affect Earth? Can this process be blocked?”
A leading figure in the scientific community stood up.
His face was still ashen, but the sense of despair and bewilderment had diminished considerably.
“First of all, it is impossible for us to get a detector to the vicinity of the sun for close-range detection of the sun within 86 days.
The fastest orbit to reach the sun is the free fall orbit, that is, setting the detector’s initial speed to zero and letting it descend directly toward the sun under the sun’s gravitational effect.
But Earth has an orbital initial speed of about 30 kilometers per second. To allow the detector to free fall, it would need to be provided with an equivalent velocity increment.
Such a velocity increment is a task that no rocket on Earth can accomplish.”
Jiang Yang fell silent.
His continuous studying in the past allowed him to fully understand this statement.
For the two space detection plans of launching a detector to leave the solar system and launching a detector to reach the sun, ordinary people usually think that going to the vicinity of the sun would be simpler.
After all, all planets in the solar system are orbiting the sun, and the sun is the main base. There’s no reason it should be harder to leave the main base than to return to it, right?
But the fact is exactly the opposite.
The root cause lies in Earth’s orbital speed.
At Earth’s orbit, the sun’s second cosmic velocity is about 42.1 kilometers per second. That is, to launch a detector from Earth to leave the solar system and completely break free from the sun’s gravitational field, it only requires giving the detector a velocity increment of 12.1 kilometers per second.
But to go to the vicinity of the sun requires giving it a full velocity increment of 30 kilometers per second, making the difficulty 2.5 times that of leaving the solar system!
Normally, when humans launch solar probes, they require multiple orbital adjustments, using the gravity of Venus and Mercury for deceleration to ultimately achieve the goal.
But doing so would take too long, at least 3 years or more, causing this detection plan to completely lose meaning.
“And… even if it reaches there, it would almost have no meaning.
According to Comrade Jiang Yang’s report, when the apocalypse arrives, the sun will not only greatly increase in brightness but also release some form of other energy, causing an electromagnetic storm.
Even without Earth’s magnetic field to excite it, this energy can almost certainly instantly destroy the detector. Even if it doesn’t destroy it, its communication interference ability is strong enough that it would be impossible to transmit information back.”
This expert’s words directly reduced the possibility of directly probing the sun to 0.
Sun Changhe nodded slightly, his expression unchanged: “In that case… we need to consider another plan, finding a way for Comrade Jiang Yang to survive this apocalypse, so that after the apocalypse, detection of the sun, Earth, and so on can be carried out, collecting relevant information to bring to the next life.”
Implementing this plan would mean that the human world completely abandons the intention and idea of defeating the apocalypse in this life and winning the continuation of civilization.
Regarding this, the attendees, whose morale had just been boosted by Sun Changhe, had no objections.
Everyone understood that temporary abandonment was for greater long-term gain.
Annihilation in this life, or even in the next life, could be accepted. As long as human civilization could continue in some future life.
“In the information carried by Comrade Jiang Yang, is there anything about the moon? How is the moon during the apocalypse?”
The expert responsible for deciphering the information answered: “No.”
Sun Changhe nodded slowly: “In that case, the moon probably was not affected by this apocalypse. At least, within the 20 seconds while the communication system was still operational, it was not affected.”
The basis for his judgment was obvious: the global monitoring network built in the previous life was unlikely to miss the moon.
If the moon had also undergone massive changes, lunar astronauts, or automatic observation equipment on Earth and the moon, would inevitably immediately report the relevant information to Earth No. 1 Supercomputer.
Since they did not do so in the previous life, it means the moon was very likely not affected within 20 seconds after the apocalypse began.
And if it was not affected at the beginning, the probability of not being affected later is similarly high.
Of course, this “not affected” only includes major influences, such as overall moonquakes similar to earthquakes on Earth. Others, like communication interruptions or equipment damage caused by electromagnetic storms, are still possible.
But that said, with advance preparation, these influences are not fatal in some sense and do not affect people’s continued survival on the moon.
“I suggest dispatching Comrade Jiang Yang and some scientists collectively to the moon, relying on the moon’s barrier to avoid the sun’s radiation and electromagnetic storm during the apocalypse outbreak, survive until after the apocalypse, and then carry out observations of the sun and Earth!”
Sun Changhe’s gaze turned to Jiang Yang: “Comrade Jiang Yang, what do you think of this arrangement?”
Return to the moon?
Jiang Yang said: “I have no objection. It’s just… the number of scientists needed will probably not be small.”
Sun Changhe nodded: “Indeed. We need a large number of scientists from different fields to carry out detection missions and data collection and analysis tasks, and numerous astronauts to carry out expansion and maintenance tasks for the moon base.
And with more people, doctors, administrative managers, order maintenance personnel, etc., are needed.
What we need is not just a moon base; what we need is a moon town.”
Jiang Yang knew that although the human world now already had a permanent base with constant lunar astronauts stationed on the moon.
But the total number added up to only a few dozen.
And this town…
“My preliminary estimate is that the number of people needed will not be less than 2000. It may be more, reaching the scale of ten thousand.
But given our current aerospace industry scale and strength, I believe that we in this era have this ability.”
