After completing its deceleration, the "Yinghuo" turned its bow again toward the Lagrange L4 point of Saturn. Lu Yuanzhou once again confirmed the position of the spacecraft with the navigator Younis. His eyes searched the deep space and found no abnormalities.
This is the same scene when it just enters Jupiter's Lagrange L4 point. It is actually impossible to see the asteroid group called "Trojan" with the naked eye. Because the term asteroid group refers to the absolute
Most places are extremely empty in space. For the size of a space battleship, this "group" of asteroids is still very empty and sparse.
"Turn on the active radar, search for the location of asteroids in the surrounding sky, and establish a real-time star map. I want to manually drive the spacecraft into the asteroid group." Lu Yuanzhou gave the order.
Radar officer Sachiko Ono carried out Lu Yuanzhou's order, but the real-time star map that was supposed to be transmitted to the bridge screen within a short time was not in place. Just as Lu Yuanzhou was about to ask a question, radar officer Sachiko Ono spoke first, but
Not to Lu Yuanzhou, but to the navigator Younis:
"Eunice, are you sure that our current position has reached the L4 point of Saturn?"
The female navigator whose name came from the battle was obviously a little impatient, because this was not the first time that she was asked this question today.
"Of course! I have checked it over and over again many times. Unless the inertial navigation system is broken, the damn stars are running around like naughty children." Younis said angrily, and then pointed to a faint star outside the porthole.
The yellow light spot added:
"In addition to these, this thing must not be Saturn. Then I may have mistaken the location."
Sachiko Ono said to Eunice in a humble manner unique to Japanese people:
"I'm really sorry. I think you misunderstood me. Because not a single asteroid was found on the radar. When we were at a similar position to Jupiter, the radar could already detect dozens of asteroids."
The words of Sachiko Ono and Younes attracted everyone's attention.
"You mean, the L4 asteroid group has disappeared?" First Officer Hank finally looked away from the porthole.
"This is impossible. When the supply module was launched, the telescope confirmed the asteroid group at Saturn's L4 point. Although the resolution cannot clearly know their density, it definitely exists." Wang Xiaoge said.
"But that was more than ten years ago. Who knows what will happen to them in these more than ten years." Hank complained a little.
Wang Xiaoge said firmly:
"More than ten years may be a long time for human beings, but for astronomical evolution, it is nothing. When I was observing the asteroid group at Jupiter's L4 point, I also read the observation data, and these Trojans definitely existed.
"
Hank was about to say something when Lu Yuanzhou spoke first:
"I want to switch to manual mode and put the entire ship into level two alert. Let's go to the core area of the asteroid belt and take a look. If we can't find the supply bay, we must immediately return to Jupiter's orbit to resupply."
The debate subsided for the time being, because the most important thing for the spacecraft is to obtain supplies. If they cannot find the supply module here, then they will starve all the way back to Jupiter. More importantly, they will not be able to complete their mission.
The battleship began to fly towards the core of the Trojan star cluster at the Lagrangian 14 point of Jupiter's orbit. Due to the large discrepancy between the situation and expectations, the asteroids should have been evenly distributed at the gravitational balance point in order of mass from small to large.
The group was nowhere to be seen, and the spacecraft was moving very slowly.
More than ten hours had passed, and the crew members, who had not been restrained by safety belts for several years, were very tired. Especially the largest first mate, Hank, was already on pins and needles.
"Where are these damn asteroids?" he complained.
At this moment, radar officer Sachiko Ono shouted in a shrill voice:
"Radar found target! It may be an asteroid, but..."
She sent the radar image to everyone's screen
"But they're so dense!"
Looking at the dense dots on the edge of the radar screen, bursts of exclamation came from the command module. The distance between asteroids on the radar has far exceeded the theoretical prediction value.
"These asteroids should be at least several thousand kilometers apart. Why does it appear to be less than 100 kilometers apart on this radar!" Wang Xiaoge looked at the screen in confusion.
Just when Lu Yuanzhou was about to slow down, communications officer Laura reported:
"I received a radio guidance signal from a supply cabin. The intensity is very low. It looks like it should be inside a group of asteroids!"
Due to the urgent need for supplies and the ardent desire for "letters home", the battleship slowly sailed towards the abnormal asteroid group.
When the battleship approached hundreds of kilometers according to the guidance signal from the supply module, the sight in front of them shocked everyone in the command module. An asteroid "wall" composed of asteroids several kilometers in diameter stood in front of the spacecraft.
, compared with this "star wall", the space battleship is as small as an ant standing under the tall city wall.
But this "star wall" composed of asteroids is not a solid wall in the true sense. There is a distance of about one hundred kilometers between the two asteroids. Although this will not prevent the spacecraft from traveling between them, if you consider
When they are both moving at a speed of 9.6 kilometers/second, this distance is very dangerous.
"No wonder the asteroid group at point 14 looks weird in the Earth's observation records. It turns out that they are gathered together at such a high density!" Wang Xiaoge sighed. Then, he discovered the problem:
"This is unreasonable! If they were distributed according to this distance, they would have converged together to form a larger celestial body under the influence of gravity. It would even be possible to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium and become a spherical celestial body."
"They seem to be turning." Hank said, staring at the approaching star wall.
"Yes, according to the radar, they are indeed moving in the same direction. If the scale is enlarged, these asteroids should form a disk with a diameter of about 600,000 kilometers, moving in a circle around the center." Radar Officer Ono
Sachiko said.
"This makes sense! There must be a gravitational source in the middle of the asteroid group pulling them into orbit. Otherwise, they would not be in their current state. Sachiko, give me your radar data,
I want to calculate what kind of gravitational source is in the middle of them!" Wang Xiaoge said excitedly.
First Mate Hank chuckled:
"I don't care what's in the middle of these rocks, I just want to find those supply cabins as soon as possible."
Wang Xiaoge didn't pay attention to Hank's words and just immersed himself in his calculations. Under the guidance of Ono Sachiko and Laura, Lu Yuanzhou manually drove the spacecraft into the asteroid group. Although there are about a hundred kilometers between asteroids,
distance, but the clear visibility of space and high-density stars still brought great pressure to Lu Yuanzhou and the crew.
"Firefly" was as cautious as an engineer traveling through a minefield. Finally, they found the first supply cabin on the surface of an asteroid with a diameter of 3 kilometers.
Rather than saying that the supply capsule fell to the surface of the asteroid, it is better to say that the asteroid gently attracted the supply capsule. Hank drove the shuttle and used the robotic arm to retrieve the undamaged supply capsule. Just as he was happily
When the supply module was placed on the docking port of the spacecraft, the excitement on everyone's faces gradually solidified.
The expected personal information download page did not appear on the personal tablet on the arm. Except for Wang Xiaoge, who continued to be obsessed with calculations, everyone's face was filled with disappointment and loneliness.