Chapter 78: Gravity
The helicopter roared as it landed above Apocalypse Base No. 7, in those familiar, continuous mountains.
Standing before the entrance, Jiang Yang gazed into the distance at the city already brilliantly lit by the sunset, his heart filled with an indescribable feeling.
Zhou Yu stood beside him silently accompanying him.
At this moment, she already knew the truth of the matter, but under that complex mindset of rationally knowing it was familiar yet emotionally feeling it was clearly strange, she still felt somewhat reserved.
Jiang Yang ignored her emotions and just looked at that city in the distance.
At this moment, nationwide wartime mobilization should have already begun.
Beneath the serene and peaceful, brilliantly lit surface that was the same as every day before, in places ordinary people couldn’t notice, there must already be many people bustling about…
I only hope that the intelligence I brought can make the success rate of the rocket in this life a bit higher, and not let so many excellent astronauts die meaninglessly again.
With a light sigh, Jiang Yang turned and entered the base passage.
Continue studying, increase knowledge, so that I can make a more accurate overall judgment on the apocalypse, detect more details, and when exchanging with Professor Lu and other experts, receive more inspiration from them, and gain a deeper understanding of the apocalypse.
At this moment, countless people are already struggling for the apocalypse, and continuing to study is my way of struggling.
……
Night had deepened, but one building was still brightly lit.
In the theater-style conference hall, looking at the experts from various fields who had rushed from all over the nation to attend the meeting in just a few short hours, Professor Li Jiaming slowly spoke.
“……Based on the mission requirements, we need to use pure mechanical methods to achieve functions such as cold-resistant insulation, heat insulation and dissipation, air circulation, internal pressurization, eating and drinking water, and feces collection for the spacesuit.
I have divided these functions into the following major modules, namely……
Everyone present is an expert in their field, possessing the top professional skills within our nation, even in the world.
And to gather everyone in such a short time, unite everyone to work together toward a common goal, and open up all logistical resource supplies, the organizational capacity required is unique to our nation.
Combining the above conditions, I can responsibly make the judgment that if even we cannot solve this problem, then no one else on this Earth can possibly solve it!
Time is tight and the mission is heavy, so I won’t say more. Now, everyone immediately gather by their respective fields, and within 14 hours, submit the design drawings for the pure mechanized spacesuit module in the field you are responsible for to me. I will organize a team for review and subsequent integration coordination.
21 hours later, the overall design drawings must be delivered to the factory for the first batch of production. The time nodes are fixed and cannot be changed; our mission must be completed on schedule. Now, the meeting is adjourned!”
With a command, the crowd immediately surged, respectively entering different laboratories.
When facing this group of experts, Professor Li Jiaming lied.
Because he knew that similar situations were simultaneously happening in the other 16 places domestically, such as precision machinery, aerospace equipment, laboratories, or research institutes.
A total of 17 teams were participating in the development and design work of the pure mechanized spacesuit, not just the one here.
The 17 teams would each independently submit design plans and conduct test production. Subsequently, depending on the situation, they would either select the best for adoption or integrate the advantages of the 17 different plans into a brand new plan.
……
Astronaut base, a total of 64 active and non-mission astronauts lined up in neat queues, each with a serious expression.
Under the starry sky, amid the lights, 64 large airplanes were quietly parked.
The instructor’s gaze swept across the faces of the 64 astronauts one by one, and he said loudly: “First adaptive training, begin now!”
“Yes!”
The 64 people simultaneously ran forward, orderly boarded the shuttles, and respectively entered the 64 large airplanes.
All seats inside these airplanes had been removed, and after modification, they became like a small flat area, with some gray-black rock-like objects fixed on top, and the ground covered with a thick layer of dust.
Just like the real lunar surface.
But while the environment can be simulated, gravity cannot be changed.
Earth’s gravity is always constant at 1G, and the human body has adapted to this environment for millions of years.
Without changing gravity, no matter how realistically the environment is simulated, astronauts cannot know what it really feels like to walk on the lunar surface.
The 64 astronauts each took their positions, and the 64 large airplanes began to move.
They respectively lined up at the ends of the two runways at the base.
Under the frenzied burning of aviation kerosene, the engine turbofans began to rotate rapidly. A powerful airflow blew backward, and the reaction force pushed the massive fuselage to slowly accelerate.
When reaching about two-thirds of the runway length, the large airplane roared into takeoff, rushing straight into the sky.
Its nose slowly lifted, pointing at the firmament at a 45-degree angle. With the addition of surging power, it soared into the clouds like a flying bird.
The pilots, instructors, astronauts, and others inside the cabin immediately felt a massive pressure assaulting them, pressing them firmly into their seats.
Their body weight seemed to instantly increase by about 80% at that moment.
That was the overload pressure brought by acceleration flight.
This pressure lasted for more than 20 seconds before suddenly disappearing.
At this moment, outside the airplane, the high-rise buildings on the ground had become too small to see, and the undulating mountains also looked as small as sandcastles piled by children.
But the people inside the cabin were completely unaware of this. Because all windows of the airplane had been completely sealed.
The interior of the cabin was now like an independent world.
“First adaptive training, countdown ten seconds! 10…”
The astronauts in this airplane had already put on their weighted gear and were standing before the flat area simulating the lunar surface, with a total area of about 100 square meters, ready for preparation.
At this moment, the airplane suddenly changed from level flight to a dive.
Under the acceleration descent of 8.2 meters per second squared, everything inside the cabin seemed to instantly lose five-sixths of its weight.
Equivalent to the moon’s gravity, at this moment, it was created inside this cabin that was like an independent world.
This astronaut participating in the training lightly pushed off the ground with one leg, then stepped out with the other leg, taking a step as if walking normally.
But the next moment, at the predetermined time when that leg was about to touch the ground, it did not contact the ground as expected.
Because his entire body “flew” up, traced a parabola in the air, and only touched the ground after a delay.
This immediately caused bodily incoordination, and the whole person fell to the ground.
