Chapter 937 Epoch-Making First Traffic Opening
"Whenever I look up at this space elevator, I can't resist the urge to kneel down and worship. Only miracles can describe this magnificent project. May God bless mankind and not lose its way in the vast sea of stars, Amen."
Standing at the foot of the space elevator and looking up, the gray-bearded old man wearing a priest's uniform stretched out his hand, touched the shell of the space elevator, crossed it with his old fingers, and chanted an unknown prayer.
Today is the first opening of the space elevator passenger track. The No. 70 High School will take the space elevator to the terminal space station. In addition to 30 astronauts who have received basic training, there are also 20 representatives from all walks of life in the country who have been selected, and 20 Foreign special guests.
The quota of these 20 people was generously handed over to the United Nations by Star Ring Trade. Except for a few places that have been negotiated with China, the United States, Russia, Britain and other countries, the other places are voted by a special committee established by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
And this grey-bearded "Santa Claus" is the former Pope Joseph Ratzinger from the Vatican, and he is also the oldest passenger in this first opening. In order to take care of this nearly hundred-year-old man, Xinghuan Trade specially adjusted the acceleration and deceleration phases of the space elevator. This will slightly prolong the acceleration time, but it does not have much impact on the entire 36,000-kilometer journey.
Withdrawing his gaze from the old man, the man took out a small wooden box from his arms, and slowly stuck it to his chest. His complexion was fair, his short brown hair was slightly curly, and there was a little nostalgia in his expression.
"In 1895, the Russian scientist Siokowski was inspired by the structure and shape of the Eiffel Tower, and imagined a 'sky castle' moving synchronously around the earth." Looking up at the space elevator, the man murmured, "It's fascinating. The greatness of China lies in the charm of civilization. We can always get inspiration and inspiration from our own culture, imagine unrealistic dreams, and finally turn dreams into reality.”
"Are you?" The black man standing next to him gave him a surprise look.
"A writer." After a pause, Rudolph Clark looked at the wooden box in his hand, and a flash of memory appeared in his pupils, "Same as my grandfather."
In 1978, his grandfather Arthur Clark got inspiration from the description of Pearson of the US Space Mechanics Research Laboratory and wrote the book "Fountain of Heaven", which described the blueprint of the space elevator to people and influenced a group of later generations. of science fiction literature.
The "carbon nanomaterials" and "ocean-equatorial space station" even involved in the text predict the future in a certain sense. The main material used by Xinghuan Trading to build the space elevator is "graphene", and the end point of the space elevator is the space station named "Xinghuan City".
"You seem surprised?" Rudolph looked at the black man.
"really,
The black man nodded, "Here, I see at least two writers." "
As he spoke, he cast his gaze to the side of the space elevator.
There, stood an old Asian man who was not very gregarious.
"Here is a line of characters written in Chinese." Haruki Murakami stretched out his hand, and lightly slid his fingers across a line of square characters at the bottom of the space elevator, and said to himself, "Who will leave it?"
"I know we can solve the next problem, because we have solved all the problems that have arisen before... If it is translated into English, it probably means this." Walking to the old man from Japan, Liu Haotian replied casually in English , "As for who left behind, who else could it be?"
As he spoke, a nostalgic smile curled up on the corner of his mouth.
When he was in Shangjing and Wanghai, he had some contact with Jiang Chen, but now his official position is no longer the protocol department, and the Liu family can't let him waste time in that position all the time. This time representing Huaguo officials to participate in the first traffic opening ceremony that crossed the era, basically relying on the energy of the Liu family.
It's just that he regrets that he failed to see Jiang Chen again during this trip to Xinguo.
At the same time that they held the first traffic opening ceremony here, Jiang Chen probably accompanied the president of the new country to fly to Canberra to attend the United Nations Outer Space Summit.
"My humble Haruki Murakami." Surprised by Liu Haotian talking to him, the old man over sixty stretched out his hand to him, "Nice to meet you."
Liu Haotian didn't mind because of the old man's nationality, he held the hand extended by the old man, and shook it lightly.
"Liu Haotian, it's also nice to meet you."
Of course, not everyone will be fascinated by this space elevator. For example, the expert from the European Space Agency pointed out the design of this space elevator to the BBC reporter next to him with a sneer.
"Have they considered the impact of the high air flow difference on the structure of the elevator? You'd better take some airsickness medicine. When we go up to the height of 10,000 meters, I'm afraid we'll shake like ramen noodles."
As he spoke, the ESA expert added another sentence with sarcasm.
"Maybe it will break like noodles."
Going to space with all the invitees, there is also a Stingray X-1 aerospace plane hanging on the outer cargo track of the space elevator.
To be precise, its name is Stingray C-1.
According to the data released by Starlink Trading, Stingray X-1 will be a multi-purpose aerospace aircraft that can mount multiple functional modules. The one carrying the transport module is named Stingray C-1, which can carry a small amount of cargo to and from the space station. The electric ray for mining is named P-1, and so on, and the attack type is A-1.
However, Star Ring Trading did not admit that it has production plans for attack aerospace aircraft. At least for now, humans have not discovered the existence of other civilizations. That being the case, the significance of mounting attack modules on aerospace planes does not seem to be very significant.
After all, according to the design drawings of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, the weapon used by the Stingray A-1 is a laser cannon. The power attenuation coefficient of laser weapons in the atmosphere also makes it impossible to become an efficient medium and long-range weapon. Moreover, using an aerospace plane without aerodynamic design to fight wars in the atmosphere is far less effective than the Aurora-20 with a wing design.
"Train Ch-001 is ready, passengers are requested to go to the waiting room, check in and board the train in order..."
A polite and clear voice sounded, and with the assistance of Star Ring Trade employees, the seventy first batch of passengers boarded the vertical train on a small elevator.
The ticket Liu Haotian is holding is A07-9, which represents seat 9 on the 7th floor of carriage A.
Under the guidance of the flight attendants, he sat in his own fixed cockpit and fastened the weird seat belt. During the ascent and landing stages, the cabin will enter the overweight and weightless states, and passengers are prohibited from leaving their seats during these two stages. However, when the elevator is running at a constant speed, passengers will be able to leave the cockpit and stand by the window to enjoy the beautiful scenery that is gradually moving away from the earth.
After sitting firmly in the cockpit, Liu Haotian took a deep breath, rested the back of his head on the soft pillow, and relaxed his tense body.
Under a uniform traction force, the carriage starts to move sideways under the traction of the mechanical arm, and then moves up. Like a bullet being pushed into the rifling, after a short and slight tremor, the carriage entered the No. 1 ascending track.
"Welcome to take the Ch-001 train of Star Ring Outer Space Rail Development Co., Ltd. This train travels from the base station on the sea surface to Star Ring City, with a running distance of 35,860 kilometers. The estimated running time in the air is 5 hours and 12 minutes. Second……"
"The elevator track has been confirmed to be unobstructed. Train Ch-001 has entered track 1. Passengers are requested to confirm that their seat belts are fastened..."
With their own thoughts, all passengers closed their eyes to the soothing music.
"The train is leaving, I wish you a pleasant journey." (To be continued.) Launch a new website