History of Human Space Exploitation

Chapter 60 Escape from Mars 3 Escape
Liu Hengfei and Izel Garcia lived in such an era when humans in the entire solar system were in constant panic, while Mars, a seemingly "secondary" place, was deliberately ignored in many records about the miserable lives of local people.Facing the fate of the iron asteroid numbered 2973161 that will smash into Mars in almost 80 years, living on this red planet, especially for those who were born and raised here, is equivalent to living on the red planet. It can be seen that the future disaster will be destroyed.

"I remember it was said in the news that more than 50 years ago, the United Nations on Earth formulated something called the 'Endgame' plan, which is said to be to deal with the asteroid that is about to hit our Mars. Have you heard of it?" Ezr Garcia's round eyes were bigger than when they'd first met, but "big" now were sunken eyes from hunger.

"Yes, the news is absolutely true, but it's useless. Have you heard of any progress in this project in the past 50 years, or since you can read? No, I can understand that there may be some details that are classified or something It is a research that cannot be made public at the moment, and the uncertainty is very high. However, when our space stations on Mars and the asteroid belt have almost escaped two-thirds of the population, it is not too much to announce some information that can give everyone a little hope Right? And the current situation is that there is nothing. Even if you fabricate some inspiring specious news, the earth is too lazy to do it." This is at least the fourth time Liu Hengfei has seriously explained to Izel, his only lover, in half a year. The other party asked himself repeatedly, but because of the memory loss caused by the food shortage, the question has been asked all the time.

"It seems that we will be buried with Mars in a few decades, that's for sure?" Even though Liu Hengfei's shoulder bone was pinching his temple, Izel could still feel extremely warm.Long-term malnutrition has made it difficult for the two people who have been bred by the "Gene Diversity Program" to be "optimal" in terms of resistance, immunity, and many physical functions to resist the lack of protein, vitamins, and sugar. hair loss, muscle atrophy, and edema.

"Yes, it should be true. Those who have some ability or credit have fled back to Earth in spaceships for more than two years. Although according to the simulation data, the asteroid smashed our Mars Finally, there is a 70.00% chance that the pieces of Mars will hit the earth, but there is still a 20.00% chance that the life on the earth will survive, isn't it? Zero percent, compared to 20.00% nine, when you have the ability to choose In this case, this is actually not a choice at all, right? My dear." Liu Hengfei was weak, but still clearly said to his lover.

"Ha... It seems that people like us are destined not to even have a name in the future records, and will only appear in "Mars was hit by an asteroid and disintegrated, and all 150 million people on the planet were killed." , right? Oh, right, I’ve always wanted to ask you, although it sounds a little silly, if the spaceship that exceeds the speed of light can be invented in the past few years, can human beings escape such a bad luck?” Izel Looked at Liu Hengfei's face and asked.

"You, I really can't change the habit of being whimsical all the time. I'm so hungry that I can't even think about it. But I really thought about this issue, hahaha, let me tell you what I thought before.

I think it depends on how many times the speed of light is this super-light speed?For example, if there is a spacecraft from the earth to Mars in "minutes", we will calculate the minutes as 5 minutes and 300 seconds.The closest distance between the earth and our Mars is about 5500 million kilometers, and the farthest distance is about 4 million kilometers.According to the farthest calculation, such a speed can reach 130 million kilometers per second, which is about four times the speed of light.This distance is within the solar system, and the speed is not bad, but if it is extended to interstellar space, I think it is still not enough.

If we ignore the relativistic effect that occurs when objects or matter approach the speed of light, and use our imagination, the super-light speed that human beings can achieve can be several times, dozens of times, or hundreds of times the speed of light, but even so, the speed of the universe The vastness of the world is still very weak and small.We look at it this way, for example, ten times the speed of light is the first power of 10, a hundred times the speed of light is the square of 10, and a thousand times the speed of light is the third power of 10, but the distance scale of the universe grows much faster than this.

For example, 30 kilometers, which is almost equal to the distance between the earth and the moon, is 1 light second, and 1 light minute is already 30 times 1 kilometers, and 10 light hour is 10 times, that is, The magnitude of the second power of [-].When light years are reached, the defined distance is already [-] times the light second to the ninth power.We all know that there is only a small range of distance in the universe, and only a distance of "light years" is used. The Milky Way is not very big in the universe, and it can only be regarded as a tiny structure. The diameter of the galactic disk is used in " One hundred thousand" is added in front of "light year" to express...

So you see, from the technical means that we can imagine, perhaps reaching ten times, twenty times, or one hundred times the speed of light is an understandable category, but if it is "ten trillion" times the speed of light, it is really just a digital...

In addition to the problems just mentioned, for example, to go to Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system, it takes more than four years to travel at the speed of light. At 4 times the speed of light, it also takes one year if relativity factors are not considered.At this time, there is a problem. If human beings can emigrate at several times the speed of light, what kind of governance and social structure will they present? "

"Is there any difference in social structure? I thought that if human beings can escape this catastrophe and develop to a higher level of civilization, the social system and structure will be similar to the present..." Izel asked softly .

"I think... it should be possible. Just now we assumed that the speed of single travel is faster than the speed of light, but is there any speed of communication faster than the speed of light, right? If the speed of wireless communication is limited below the limit of the speed of light, then the two planets, Or the way of communication between galaxies will become human beings sending letters in super-light spaceships. In this case, in terms of governance structure, I don’t know if it will return to the era before the invention of the telegraph? That is, the speed of travel and the speed of communication , The speed of military deployment will be infinitely close.

This will be very different from the current world.For example, since the large-scale application of the telegraph, the communication speed of basic human beings has reached the speed of light, and real-time communication can be realized globally, even in the earth-moon system, regardless of the cost.And the deployment speed of military power to maintain political rule, even today, is only very close to thirty or fifty times the speed of sound.Usually, the travel speed of civilians is only a dozen times the speed of sound, and the time to Mars is still calculated in months.

Perhaps, with super-light speed, within a certain range, such as the inner solar system or within the solar system, the convenience and richness of life will be greatly increased, because human beings have the resources of the entire solar system to maintain their own life and survival.But if it is extended to the scale of galaxies or galaxy clusters, even the travel speed at 10 times the speed of light is measured in years, then the overall political ecology of mankind may return to the world before the invention of the telegraph, right? "Liu Hengfei seriously answered the question of his lover who fell asleep in his arms just now.

"Thank you Hengfei, you have always been so serious to me, even if it is such a question that I feel stupid, you have told me so well...Before I met you, no one really talked to me like this... I'm so tired, I want to close my eyes for a while..." Izel's voice gradually weakened, and she fell asleep.

Looking at Izel who fell asleep, Liu Hengfei knew that he had to do something. He hoped that he could get along with this rare and sympathetic lover forever, instead of being wiped out with the planet where they were born decades later. .At this time, Liu Hengfei also closed his eyes, thinking.

Escaping back to Earth seems to be the only way out.Thinking of this, Liu Hengfei couldn't help feeling extremely melancholy.In his 22 years of life, he has never left Mars, and he has never even visited Mars' synchronous orbiting space station.Liu Hengfei didn't know how long it would take for him and Izel to adapt to the gravity that might make it difficult for the two of them to walk even if they arrived on Earth.

But... what does gravity count for in order to survive?However, even if they reach the earth, where should the two go?Can it survive?Would there be a relief station out there that could take care of both of them, at least for a while, when doing any physical work in unimaginable gravity?I don't know if you can find some odd jobs in the space station in earth orbit?
Liu Hengfei and Izel heard from the interstellar network that the current earth is also a mess... But think about it, the situation on Mars is a hundred times worse than those news and gossip about the earth, but the situation here is either no one cares, Either no news can be delivered to the public eye.Maybe Mars has really become a forgotten and abandoned place?If I and Izel successfully "smuggle" back to Earth, what will happen to the nearly 200 million residents who are still on Mars?well……

Although it's scary to think about it, as long as you return to Earth, won't the chance of survival rise from zero percent to single digits?With a desperate but primitive desire to survive, Liu Hengfei decided to give it a go, to see if he could win even a sliver of life for himself and his lover in this doomsday era.

In the process of looking for a job for more than a year, Liu Hengfei visited front-line positions in many industries, including the Central Logistics Center of Tharsis City.Although he didn't get a job as a delivery man or loader operator, Liu Hengfei still frequents the place.The reason is that when the small but still considerable number of rich people on Mars pay high prices to buy family tickets to return to Earth, often their seats can only be temporarily cleared from the cargo in a small corner .And at this time, the spaceship administrators from the earth will ask these people to abandon those already packed, hill-like luggage.Often after begging hard, they can only take a small part of them onto the cargo spacecraft.

In the abandoned luggage of these rich people, there are often good daily necessities, even snacks for children, etc., things that Liu Hengfei covets.For more than a year, every one or two standard months, Liu Hengfei and a few homeless people near the logistics center would hide near the transfer station of the logistics center, waiting for the luggage left by the wealthy people who had boarded the ship.Although there are sometimes verbal conflicts and even fist fights, but as scavengers who are already malnourished, everyone finally reached a tacit understanding of "quietly taking their share".

Near the logistics center, besides being able to bring back candy, dry food, and some cosmetic and skin care products that they had only seen in advertisements for Izel, Liu Hengfei could also find out the approximate time of the next flight back to Earth.And this time is the most important information in Liu Hengfei's plan to escape from Mars.

120 kilometers east of the Fesenkov crater, when the left-behind personnel of the Fesenkov Radio Astronomy Observatory found them, the two left hands were holding their right hands, and there was no moisture and air in the vacuum suits facing the sky.When the law enforcement officers of the Public Security Department of Tharsis City acted as temporary morticians to clean up the remains of the two corpses, they found a letter in the inner bag of the male deceased, which read:

"

Her name is Izel Garcia, and her identification number is MARS230112071901.

My name is Liu Hengfei, and my ID number is MARS230207032987.

If a third person reads this letter, it means we failed to complete the walking tour from Tarsis City to Tenby Space Station.

Food rations have dropped to less than 30.00% of what they were originally half a standard month ago, and it appears that number is at risk of dropping to single digits for the foreseeable future.The only wish of me and my lover Ezel is to survive, but it seems that this basic wish is difficult to realize on Mars.So what if we can eat enough?Are we going to watch an asteroid burn us to charcoal decades from now?
There is no other way, we can only put all our eggs in one basket to see if there is any possibility of escaping back to Earth?Although the earth also has a high probability of suffering, but that is only a high probability, and it is always better than inevitable destruction.

More than ten days ago, I learned through my friends that a transport spacecraft will leave Mars for Earth.Those of us who need relief even for food naturally cannot pay for the ticket, so we decided to find a way to sneak into the cargo hold of the spacecraft and "smuggle" back to Earth.And across in front of us is almost a thousand kilometers between the city of Tarsis and the Tenby Heights.We don't know whether we can support ourselves to the destination after we have been hungry for almost two years.But it's worth a try, isn't it?Otherwise we will miss the only cargo ship in a standard year.

We did everything possible to collect enough food and water to feed us for 20 days. I hope this wish can be fulfilled, right?
Farewell, Mars, farewell, Tharsis, and farewell, Olympus. "

On the [-]th day after the death of Izel Garcia and Liu Hengfei, the earth announced that all the basic theoretical research of the "Epilogue Project" was completed, and it began to gather the resources available to humans in the entire solar system to create a bomb that could blow up the extinguishing star. Fusion nuclear weapons on iron asteroids.The tragedy of the two people is the epitome of several tragedies of human settlements outside the earth in the era of Great Recession after the detection of asteroids as a whole.The stories of Izel Garcia and Liu Hengfei were preserved with great difficulty by the leftovers of Mars, and stored together with many similar stories in the human historical database. ——The third part of "The History of Human Universe Development", "The Great Recession Era"

(End of this chapter)