Chapter 34 34. Terminal
It's no wonder people call the Space Orbital Tower the "Trans-Siberian Road."If you calculate the distance, it will take fifty hours to descend from the "central" station to the bottom of the space orbital tower.
One day, the distance could be covered in five hours; but not until two years later.At that time, the problem of energy supply will be solved, and the orbit will be powered by magnetic fields.Only the various inspection and technical maintenance equipment that climbs up and down on the face of the space track tower will still be driven by the old-fashioned wheels supported in the guide groove.Even if the limited power of the battery can allow it, it is not safe to use this system at speeds exceeding 500 kilometers per hour.
However, it is a pity that no one has thought of this-maybe everyone is too busy with work!Professor Sai Suyi and his three students are observing and calibrating the instruments in the descending cosmic airtight cabin, so as not to waste time after arriving at the destination.The pilot, accompanying engineer and flight attendant were not idle either.This voyage was a little unusual.From the beginning of construction to the present, no one has visited the "Basic" space station, which is now 25,000 kilometers below the "Central" station, a total of 600 kilometers from the earth.The check indicator has never recorded any fault signals here.However, the "basic" station is only a fifteen-meter-square airtight room, and it is one of dozens of emergency shelters set up at certain distances along the entire space track tower.
Professor Saisuyi was only allowed to use this method after exerting his own full and considerable influence, and would slowly crawl through the ionosphere towards the rendezvous with the "Earth" station.Professor Sai Suyi insisted that all the scientific instruments must be installed before the sunspot activities fully reach the existing maximum.
The activity on the sun had reached an unprecedented level, and this situation made it difficult for Saisuyi's young assistants to concentrate on their instruments, because the magnificent aurora had an invincible attraction for them.Both the north and south sides of the sky are filled with slowly moving, large and banded green lights, forming a sacred atmosphere and showing brilliant colors and grandeur that cannot be seen on the earth.However, this is only a faint phantom of the airy splendor that shone around the Earth's poles.The aurora seldom strays far from its rightful territory; it intrudes over the equator once in a while, once in a while.
Sai Suyi asked the students to return to their respective posts and persist in their work. The reason was: after completing the instrument installation task, they could enjoy all kinds of scenery during the long time of returning to the "central" station!But, in fact, the professor himself stood near the porthole for several minutes, fascinated by the brilliant sky.
Someone gave them a nickname for this voyage "Expedition to Earth".In terms of distance, its authenticity can reach 98%.As the machine kept crawling on the face of the space orbital tower at an insignificant speed of 500 kilometers per hour, it became more and more obvious that it was getting closer to the earth.Gravity was slowly increasing—the exhilarating sense of relief at Central Station, which had a gravity below the moon, had turned into a sense of normalcy approaching Earth's gravity.Every experienced astronaut has probably been amazed at the fact that it seems an anomaly to feel some degree of gravity before entering a dense atmosphere.
If it weren't for the sin-fed random waiters who kept hearing complaints about the poor food, it should be said that the trip went well.At a distance from the "base" station - a hundred kilometers, smooth application of the brakes reduces the speed by half.After fifty kilometers, it was lowered by half again."What if we get derailed at the end of the track?" asked one student.
The pilot (he insisted that he be called the pilot) replied angrily: "This situation is impossible, because the end of the channel is several meters away from the end of the space orbital tower! Besides, there are several One shock absorber, which is specially designed to deal with the unexpected situation where all four independent brake systems fail at the same time." Everyone agreed that this kind of joke was not only not funny at all, but also very ominous.
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