Chapter 32 32. A billion-ton diamond

In recent years, mankind has achieved many achievements in the development of the universe.Some mountains—or at least some asteroids—displaced, and a second natural satellite appeared near Earth, slightly above geosynchronous space orbit.Its diameter started out at about a kilometer and then rapidly decreased as carbon was mined.All that's left—the iron core and the scrap produced—then form the counterweights that keep the space orbital tower in a vertical position.It is very much like a stone on a catapult 40,000 kilometers long... Fifty kilometers east of the Ashoka space station, a gigantic industrial complex is in operation, turning millions of tons of "weightless" raw materials into superfibers.Since 90% of the final product is carbon with a regular lattice arrangement, people gave the Space Orbital Tower the nickname "billion-ton diamond".The Association of Jurists in Amsterdam announced annoyedly: firstly, superfiber is definitely not diamond; secondly, if it is admitted that it is diamond, the weight of the Space Orbital Tower should be 5×10＾15 carats.

No matter how many carats or tons it is, since the amount of materials used is so large, it is necessary to use all the resources of the space colonies everywhere.In the various automatic mines and factories, many of the latest achievements in the field of technology, which have been achieved by human labor during the course of two hundred years of the cosmic age, have been adopted.Then, all the elements of the Space Orbit Tower structure—millions of standard pieces—are assembled into a massive, flight-capable integrated unit. Then the assemblers got to work.The space orbit tower starts to advance downwards, that is, to advance toward the direction of the earth, and at the same time, it also extends upwards, that is, to extend toward the counterweight anchor direction of the space orbit.In two opposite directions, the cross-section of the Space Orbit Tower gradually shrinks.

When all work is complete, the construction complex will be transferred to Mars.The Martians had entered into a lucrative contract: although their investment would not begin to pay off immediately, they would retain the patent rights to such construction work for the next ten years or so.According to Morgan's predictions, the Pavonis space orbital tower will be only the first of many future orbital towers.Mars is, in all respects, the most favorable planet for a cosmic elevator system, and its energetic inhabitants will not, therefore, miss such a favorable opportunity.Morgan sincerely wished them success, but he himself faced many other daunting tasks.

Although the scale of the space orbital tower is very grand.But it's just the basis for a whole, much more complex project.Along its four faces, 36,000 kilometers of tracks will be laid, and these tracks must be able to accommodate speeds that no one has ever attempted to achieve.The entire length of the road should be powered by power supplied by powerful nuclear generators via superconducting cables.The entire set of equipment will be controlled by an unimaginably complex electronic computer network that operates continuously without failure. At the terminal, the Pole, passengers and cargo will be picked up by spacecraft docked with the orbital tower in space.The terminal itself is a rather complicated project. The same goes for the "Central" and "Earth" stations, which are currently being "fired" with lasers in the heart of the sacred mountain.In addition, there is also the problem of pollution in the universe...

Over the past two hundred years, "satellites" of various shapes and sizes have accumulated on various space orbits close to the earth—from individual bolts and nuts to entire cosmic villages.Three quarters of these "materials" are long-forgotten waste that no one needs. In order to ensure the safety of the space orbital tower, these things should be detected and removed as much as possible. Fortunately, those obsolete space-orbital fortresses happen to be equipped with all kinds of excellent equipment for this purpose.The original radars on them, which are used to spot approaching long-range rockets, can easily intercept all kinds of things that "contaminate" the universe.Then, they can emit lasers to burn some "satellites" into extremely fine dust, while those larger "satellites" are relocated to higher, safer space orbits.As for something of historical value, restore it and send it back to Earth.In the process of cleaning up the space, some unexpected situations are often encountered. For example, the bodies of two astronauts who died in a secret mission were found, and several reconnaissance satellites were launched by unknown persons. .However, these things no longer have any practical significance, because they happened at least a hundred years ago.

As for the large number of useful satellites and space stations that have to operate in orbits not very far from the earth, their space orbits have to be carefully checked and, in some cases, changed.It goes without saying that, like all things created by human hands, the orbital tower will inevitably be hit by meteorites.In a day, the various seismometers installed on it will record many impacts with a force of several millinewtons; it may also suffer minor damage once or twice a year.And sooner or later, maybe at some point, something big will hit the track tower, causing one or more tracks to temporarily go wrong.In the worst case, the space orbital tower will even be knocked off in one part.

However, the chances of such an event happening are extremely small, and it will never exceed the chance of falling a giant meteorite in London or Tokyo, which has an area similar to the total surface area of ​​the space orbit tower.certainly.The inhabitants of these cities never lose sleep over the possibility, so Dr. Vannerva-Morgan can certainly rest easy.