Simulation: Great Power Technology

Ye Zhou walked towards and pushed the engine main control compartment. The screen displayed the pre-start status of all the engines. After checking them one by one, he pressed the working medium compartment unlock button.

The command has been transmitted to the central command system. After confirmation by the captain, the working fluid cabin will inject the stored working fluid water into the exhaust manifold, which will be heated by the superheated plasma and ejected to provide a large amount of thrust.

Everything is ready, the large screen on the left shows the real-time picture in the cockpit of the spacecraft, and there are continuous commands in Ye Zhou's ears.

"The carme has been visually inspected, the orbit calculation has been completed, the optimal entry path has been calculated, and the flight path has begun."

"Washington and Dante are ready, Dangyang, Changping, and Humen are entering the escort orbit."

"Received the Humen number coordination instruction, the entry path has changed, and it is being adjusted in real time."

"After the adjustment is completed, start to slow down, lower the orbit, and the orbit drops by 4 kilometers."

"The descent is complete. Pay attention to the position of the 42nd Terxinoe on the outer periphery of the carme star cluster. It is only 6 kilometers away from us now, and there is a risk of collision."

"Understood, the avoidance orbit calculation has been performed."

......

Ye Zhou switched to the exterior scene of the spacecraft. At this time, the Weiqing had merged into the retrograde orbit of the carme constellation, but it was still swimming outside the constellation. Adjust yourself to the same plane as carme, that is, Io Eleven.

On the left side of the spacecraft's forward direction, the three Huaxia spacecraft Dangyang, Changping, and Humen are also adjusting their escort orbits, while the Washington and Dante belonging to Chouguo and Europe have completed all operations. In the rear, it undertakes the task of orbital warning.

According to the plan, they will not participate in this promotion, but as an alternative, they will only supplement when the four Huaxia spaceships have accidents.

This requires them to stay in a vigilant position at all times. Objectively speaking, compared with Huaxia's four spaceships, they face much higher risks in the early stage of promotion, because they need to conduct uninterrupted short-range maneuvers to avoid All moons of the carme constellation.

But again, they don't need to approach Io directly, there is no risk of falling into Io, and they don't have to enter Jupiter's low-Earth orbit, and the probability of a smooth evacuation is much higher.

In fact, in the initial stage of the plan, the representatives of the three parties had many discussions on the division of labor, and the final plan also fully considered the opinions of all countries and even the astronauts, but even so, the people of the other party were still very concerned about this issue. The plan expresses strong dissatisfaction.

They don't care what the Chinese people have to face, they only know that their heroic astronauts will be in danger.

But fortunately, most of the people who can go to space are the best and most loyal people among human beings. After leaving the shackles between countries, even Westerners can be trusted partners. .

"The calculation of the orbital law of Terxinohe has been completed, Weiqing, the data has been transmitted to the central processing unit. This is Washington, and we are behind you."

Ye Zhou turned his head subconsciously, and the picture on the screen immediately shifted to the wall behind him. There, Ye Zhou saw a small bright spot. In the light blue flash, Washington, D.C., which was 2,000 kilometers away from the Wei Qing. sent them the latest heartbeat.

"Weiqing received it and began to accompany it according to the scheduled orbit."

"Zheng He has completed the slingshot flight and will arrive at the scheduled rendezvous point in 4 hours."

"Understood, the position of Zheng He has been obtained, and the data has been transmitted."

"According to the current rotation of Io, the Zheng He needs to correct its course by two degrees. Please use the Tevasta volcano group as the course coordinate to adjust."

"Received, heading coordinates, Io North Pole, Tevasta Volcano Group, coordinates have been obtained."

After a series of orbital changes, the six spaceships finally entered their respective positions. From Ye Zhou's perspective, all the spaceships appeared relatively static—or, in other words, even the distant carme Io. One, it started to stand still.

But in contrast, in orbit around the spacecraft, countless moons and small dust clumps are flashing at breakneck speed, occasionally reflecting sunlight from afar at certain angles. It seems to appear suddenly and disappear suddenly.

Such a beautiful scene made Ye Zhou think of the fireflies in the summer night, and even the hallucination of cicadas appeared in his ears.

But soon, he realized the horror of those "fireflies".

Because one of the fireflies is gradually becoming larger in the vision of the spacecraft, until it fills the entire porthole.

That is Io 24 of the Yananke constellation. Its diameter is only 5 kilometers, but when it passes by at a distance of 20 kilometers, the instant impact is like a high-speed train at 10 kilometers. Passed by at a distance of centimeters.

Ye Zhou looked in the direction of the disappearance of Io 24 with a lingering fear. The report that pushed the engine inspection to complete popped up on the screen. All the data were normal, the divertor was in good condition, and the first wall temperature and radiation loss were negligibly low.

Everything he can do, at this moment, has been done.

"Push the engine test to complete, ready to ignite."

The so-called "ignition" is not actually a rigorous wording. It refers to the fact that the thrust engine enters a saturated working state and begins to output thrust to the spacecraft.

"Received, the ignition preparation is complete, and the working medium cabin has been unlocked."

"The working medium cabin unlock signal has been received. Zheng He, please start your thrust engine and prepare to enter the low-Earth orbit of Callisto."

Ye Zhou gave instructions to the Zheng He, and after a while, along with a short reply, he saw the sight of the Zheng He's thrust engines igniting on the display.

The working fluid is poured into the fusion engine header, and the liquid is instantly vaporized and expanded under the heating of the plasma, and then ejected from the rear of the engine.

The bright blue flames illuminated the night sky of the boundless universe. In just one minute, the acceleration generated by the Zheng He reached 30g. Under such an acceleration that lasted for more than 5 minutes, no human body could maintain its original state. Some structures are not damaged.

But the Zheng He need not worry about this problem, because, on that ship, there are no living people.

Or rather, a living person without any carbon-based form.

All the crew members who entered the Zheng He have undergone all-round transformation. Their bodies have been replaced by mechanical structures, and their brains have been protected in a specially designed metal skull. This protection is enough to allow them to withstand extreme conditions close to 50g of overload.

"The acceleration has been completed and is expected to skim the North Pole in two hours and 40 minutes."

"The channel enrichment state is normal, and they are in our tails."

"The power of the beacon device has reached the maximum. At present, the adjacent dimension channels are open normally, and the energy dissipation rate is normal."

"It's time to start pouring."

The Zheng He's reply message was transmitted to all six spacecraft on standby. After a brief pause, the Weiqing navigator switched the communication channel to the global sharing mode.

From this moment on, he was officially promoted from the captain of the Weiqing to the commander-in-chief of the entire fleet.

All seven spaceships must obey his dispatch.

Ye Zhou stared nervously at the screen, which showed the navigator's stern profile.

After a while, he heard the navigator's voice in his ears:

"start to act!"