Soon, Starport sent a spacecraft to send Zhou Cheng and Song Shi to the moon. Due to the miniaturization of high-thrust ion engine technology, the time it took for them to reach the moon was shortened from the four days of Apollo 11 to a few hours.
.
When the spacecraft docked at the "Yutu 3" space station, it happened to be that the earth, moon and sun were in a straight line, and the moon was blocked in the shadow of the earth. Zhou Cheng and Song Shi were adapting in the space station like ducks and ducks.
The walking posture of the electromagnetic gravity simulation suit.
Because the earth outside the porthole window is on the back side, the crystal clear blue sphere can no longer be seen. It looks like an agate stone placed next to a candle, with a little yellow glow. It is the all-nighter on the earth.
The projection of a non-stop working industrial factory on the night sky.
Outside the porthole on the other side, most of the lunar surface is pitch black. Only on the northern side of the Moon Sea, the Guanghan Palace base, which is equivalent in size to a large city on Earth, is like a string of lights shining brightly.
Glass chain beads.
"If you haven't seen it with your own eyes, it's really unimaginable. In just a few years, we have made such great achievements in aerospace technology. If it weren't for the crisis era, we thought it would take hundreds of years to achieve it." Song Shi
Said excitedly.
Zhou Cheng looked at the earth that shimmered like agate in the deep sky in the morning light and said nothing. He understood that as an astronaut, Song Shi could not conceal his excitement at this moment. But he also knew that all this was at the expense of almost everyone on the earth.
In exchange for a normal life, the results obtained in the future are still not optimistic.
With the help of Nicole and Duncan, Zhou Cheng and Song Shi walked around the annular section of the "Yutu 3" space station, and basically mastered the essentials of electromagnetic gravity simulation. During this period, from Guanghan Palace
A shuttle flew from the base and brought a department head from the base construction department. After that, they took the shuttle together and flew to the moon.
During the flight of the shuttle, Song Shi excitedly communicated with the person in charge about the construction status of the Guanghan Palace Base. When he learned that the Guanghan Palace Base could fully realize a self-sustaining cycle without considering production and reducing the resident population.
At that time, he was as excited as a child who got a birthday present.
But when the Guanghan Palace base, which was already vaguely visible outside the shuttle, gradually disappeared on the horizon with the obvious curvature of the moon, Song Shi asked in confusion:
"Isn't the location of the high-energy particle accelerator project near the base?"
The person in charge replied:
"According to the engineering information provided by the EDA engineering department, the site of this project is located at the intersection of the lunar equator and the lunar 0-degree longitude. This is indeed far from the base location, but it is within the coverage of our transportation system. Construction materials can be guaranteed
supply."
Neither Zhou Cheng nor Song Shi quite understood the meaning of the positions of the moon's equator and 0-degree longitude mentioned by the person in charge. At this time, the height of the shuttle was already very close to the moon, and the originally thin and black moon had already appeared outlines like ink marks.
The outline of the mountain. The large and small intertwined craters have vaguely appeared in sight.
Looking through the porthole, the shuttle was hovering over a huge black abyss. The flickering firelight from the shuttle's thrusters made a circle of rocks around the black abyss faintly visible. This made them look like a
The bait is about to be swallowed by the catfish.
Suddenly, a series of "whooshing" sounds came from the bottom of the shuttle. Several light spots with faint trails flew in all directions, and then lit up dazzling lights in the surrounding air. It was like several lights suddenly appeared in the sky
A slowly falling high-power chandelier.
Only then did they see clearly that the giant mouth beneath them just now was a huge crater. The circular pass of this crater looked perfect at the height of the shuttle, almost a perfect circle. And the depression in the pass
The depth is much lower than the ground outside. This makes it look like a huge pot on the moon.
The shuttle moved slowly over the crater.
"This is the location of the project site. Let the two experts take a look." The person in charge said.
Zhou Cheng was familiar with the entire lunar high-energy particle accelerator plan when he was on Earth. He knew that dozens of superconducting electromagnetic acceleration coils would be built on the rounded peaks of the crater.
After completion, those several-story-high superconducting coils will form a ring around the crater like the beacon towers of the Great Wall. After the particles are accelerated in it, they will be deflected to the impact induction tower in the center of the crater for collision.
Therefore, after the construction here is completed, it will not appear as a ring like the accelerator on the earth. It will be more like a radar reflection antenna with a probe inserted in the middle.
The shuttle flew around the crater, and the light of several flares also went out. At this time, Zhou Cheng saw a few faint bright spots next to the crater, and he asked:
"Has construction begun?"
"Yes, the scale of this project is very large. The preliminary work has been carried out, and the leading engineering team has begun to build temporary facilities." The person in charge replied.
"Then can we go down and have a look? We have never built a particle accelerator on the moon. I want to talk to the construction staff." Zhou Cheng said.
Song Shi also said:
"Yes, we also need to communicate with the actual builders on some issues regarding the earth-to-lunar transportation of finished parts in order to complete the task more efficiently and reasonably."
The shuttle landed next to a semicircular temporary building. The temporary cabin was very large and looked like a three-story Eskimo igloo. A lunar rover drove over from the direction of the crater and got off.
There were several people. The leader came jumping up and down, and the person in charge said:
"This is Li Linjie, the person in charge of the high-energy particle accelerator construction project. He is one of the first professional builders to come to the moon. He has rich experience in large-scale building construction and has excellent professional skills."
Since the environment is more than 100 degrees below zero on the dark side of the moon, everyone wears extravehicular space suits. Conventional etiquette is omitted.
"Are there any difficulties in building a high-energy particle accelerator here?" Zhou Cheng asked.
Li Linjie replied:
"We have completed the preliminary geological survey. The density of the lunar rocks can fully support the foundation of all the equipment that needs to be built. Technically speaking, there is no problem in completing the project construction. It is just that it is far away from our base and needs construction.
A large number of temporary facilities are needed to carry out construction operations."
Li Linjie's confusion about the project site selection attracted Zhou Cheng's attention. When he was studying this plan, he focused more on theoretical calculations and experimental machines themselves, and did not pay much attention to the project site selection. However, when he was in this
When we were exposed to the extreme environment of the lunar surface, we felt that the choice of the location for the construction of the particle accelerator was somewhat difficult to understand.
"Are craters of this size rare on the lunar surface? I mean, size and shape." Zhou Cheng asked.
Li Linjie said:
"There are three more craters of this size on the front side of the moon, one of which is much closer to our base. There are about a dozen craters on the back side of the moon. This one is quite far away, but this one is also very far in terms of location.
Specially, it is at the intersection of the equator and 0 longitude."
This is the second time Zhou Cheng and Song Shi heard this concept of position and were about to ask questions. Li Linjie added:
"Our crater is named Central Crater. That is to say, the crater is located in the middle of the first moon. In theory, this point always faces the Earth."
Zhou Cheng and Song Shi both subconsciously looked back at the shimmering earth hanging high in the sky. Zhou Cheng, in particular, always felt that this position had special significance, but from his own scientific system on high-energy particles
I really can't figure out what's so special about this location.