Chapter 9 Chapter 5 Stay Away From Freezing

Zeiss built his first optical lens in 1924, and a hundred years later, some planetariums still use this traditional optical instrument to let the audience enter the virtual fantasy space in a dim and bright environment; but the Hong Kong Observatory Its third-generation instrumentation was phased out decades ago in favor of more functional electronic systems; basically, its large domed roof is an oversized television screen made up of thousands of Composed of other small panels, any image imaginable can be released. According to the convention, at the beginning of the film, the unknown Chinese who invented the rocket in the 13th century was pushed.The first five minutes of the film are a quick historical explanation for the audience, and only a brief introduction to the pioneers of Soviet Russia, Germany and the United States, so as to be able to give a more detailed account of Qian Xuesen in China.It is understandable that Qian Xuesen's compatriots compare him with Goddard, von Braun and even Koroyev and other important figures in the history of fire title history; the Chinese certainly have good reasons for Qian's arrest. Angry (after he helped to establish the American Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was named Caltech's first Godard Chair Professor, he was arrested by the US government, so Qian decided to return to mainland China).

Little is known about China launching its first satellite on the Long March 1 in the 1970s, perhaps because Americans had already landed on the moon at that time, so this news is not new enough.In fact, life in the twentieth century after that was uneventful. It was not until 2007 that China secretly built the first spaceship—the "Qian Spaceship"—that it attracted the attention of the world. The explainer did not explain too much about the shock of the space powers caused by the sudden departure of the Chinese space station from space orbit to Jupiter and catching up with the US-Soviet joint spacecraft Leonov. The story itself is very dramatic. (with a tragic end), so no additional embellishments are needed either.

It is a pity that there are not many specific materials that can be used to support it, so this program must rely on long-distance camera detection in the future, and then organize special effects to match the production, so that the images can be displayed in front of the public.During their brief stop on the surface of Europa's ice, the crew of the Tsien spacecraft were too busy to do TV recordings or even set up an unmanned camera. But in any case, the communication dialogue at that time still left some records for the deeds of the first landing of human beings on the moon of Jupiter (Europa); the commentary broadcast by Dr. The situation at that time provides the best description, and the library also has many images of Europa to illustrate:

"Right now, I'm looking at it from the best telescope on the spacecraft, and it's ten times bigger than the moon we see with the naked eye, and it looks really weird. "Its surface is a solid pink with brown spots. Its surface is intricately intertwined with long and narrow lines, in fact, it looks a bit like the veins and arteries in a medical textbook. "These lines are about hundreds or even thousands of kilometers long, and they look a bit like the canals on Mars imagined by Roswell in England in the early 20th century and other astronomers in the early 20th century.

"But the canals on Europa are neither imaginary nor artificial. What's more worth mentioning is that it still has water, at least ice. This moon is almost completely covered by oceans, with an average depth of fifty kilometers. "Because of its distance from the sun, its surface temperature is so cold, about one hundred and fifty degrees below zero Fahrenheit, that its ocean can be imagined as a large block of ice. "But surprisingly, that's not the case. Europa has a lot of heat generated by internal tidal action, just like neighboring Io, which generates tidal forces that drive volcanoes.

"So the ice on Europa has been melting, cracking, and refreezing, creating cracks and veins similar to those found on the ice packs around the poles; I'm not looking at these veins now, most of them are dark and old (probably millions of years old), but some are almost pure white, these are new, and their surface is only a few centimeters thick. "Qian's spacecraft landed right next to one of the strips, which is 1,500 kilometers long and named the Grand Canal. Everyone is thinking that these Chinese may be planning to fetch water beside this strip to beat them It may not be easy to do so, but they must have studied the landing site very carefully beforehand and knew what they were doing.

"Now it seems that the reason why they took this risk and why they jumped on Europa is very obvious. They regard it as a midway refueling point, as a key to enter the entire solar system." Sir Laurence reclined on that comfortable chair, staring at the artificial sky in front of the table with his eyes, thinking in his heart: It's a pity that things didn't turn out as expected.Europa's oceans remain inaccessible to humans for reasons that remain a mystery.Not only can it not get close, but it can't even be seen clearly, because since Jupiter became another sun, the two closest satellites to it have been covered by the vapor clouds released by Jupiter. The Europa seen by Sir Lawrence is Europa in 2010, not Europa today.

He was very young then, and he still vividly remembers the glory he felt when he knew his countrymen would be the first to land on this virgin land (no matter how much he disagreed with the Chinese political methods at the time). Although there was no camera to record the conditions of the landing site, the simulation effect was quite good, convincing him that the spacecraft that could not be seen clearly was the one that emerged from the dark sky and landed quietly on the recently Named Qian's spaceship beside the Grand Canal. Everyone knew what happened next, and if they were smart, no one would want to repeat it.But we can still see the image of Europa gradually disappearing, replaced by a photo of a Chinese who is as well-known as Jagarin in Soviet Russia.

The first photo that appeared was that of Chen Rute graduating in 1989. He was the youngest scholar who stood out from millions of people. At that time, he had no idea that this appointment would be 20 years later. become an important historical event. Accompanied by music, the narrator gave a brief description of Dr. Chen's academic experience, all the way to his appointment as the scientific director of the Qian spaceship.During this time, the photographs on paper grew older, all the way to the last photograph taken before his mission. Sir Lawrence was very happy about the darkness of the planetarium, otherwise both his friends and enemies would clearly see it. When Sir heard Dr. Chen speaking to the approaching Orinov but didn't know whether the other party had received the message, They must have been amazed at the sight of tears in their eyes.

"...I know you're on board the Leonov...time may be running out...I'm aiming the antenna on the gear where I want it to be..." The signal dropped out for a few seconds, then became clear again, but not loud enough. "...Bring this message back to Earth. The Chan spaceship was destroyed three hours ago. I'm the only survivor, and I'm using the transmitter I have equipped, but I don't know if the range is good enough, but this Is my only chance. Listen carefully, there is life on Europa. Repeat: There is life on Europa...” The signal is weak again... "...shortly after midnight, we were still pumping water, and the water tank was almost half full. Dr. Li and I came out to check the insulation of the pipes. The Qian spaceship was parked about thirty miles from the edge of the Grand Canal. Meters away. Suction pipes run from the spacecraft directly under the ice. The ice is too thin to walk on. Alarm bells go off..."

There was another silence... "...No problem, five kilowatts of lightning hit the spacecraft, like a Christmas tree, shining brilliantly on the ice field. Dr. Li first saw a big, black thing rising from the depths of the ice. At first we thought it was a school of fish, not a single fish, because - the fish was not that big, and then it broke through the ice... "...it was like a large, wet clump of seaweed crawling along the ground. Dr. Lee quickly ran back to the boat to get the camera, and I stayed there to watch carefully and report the situation by radio. The thing was moving very slowly, and I Can easily catch it. I was so excited, I thought I knew where it was, I thought it was a seagrass bush I saw on the coast of California, but I was completely wrong. "...I know it's in trouble. It's unlikely to survive in temperatures one hundred and fifty degrees below normal; as the creature moves, it freezes and solidifies little by little. , its body shattered piece by piece like glass one by one, but it still moved towards the direction of the spaceship, a black wave, slowing down at any moment. "I'm surprised I didn't turn my head around and imagine what it was going to do... "...it climbed onto the spaceship and formed a channel of water in an instant as it passed. Maybe this will block the cold, just like the wood chips created by termites block the sun for them. "... tons of ice on the spacecraft, first the radio antenna snapped, then I saw the landing footings of the spacecraft start to buckle, and all—everything was going very slowly, like a dream. "I didn't understand what the thing was trying to do until the whole spaceship started falling apart, but it was too late. If we had turned those lights off, we might have saved everybody's life. "Then the hull of the spaceship split open and fell sideways, forming a cloud of snowy fog like condensed water vapor, all the lights went out, only one was still on, hanging back and forth on a line a few feet above the ground. "It may be a phototaxis plant whose biological cycle is driven by the sunlight that breaks through the ice, or it may be attracted to light like flying ants to a fire. Our lights are likely to be on the planet Europa. The brightest light ever... "I couldn't imagine how this series of things happened at once. I just remember that the light was shining on me, and I was standing by the wreckage, surrounded by freshly formed snowflakes. I could clearly see the footprints of my running. The whole The process took about a minute or two... "The plant (I still think it is a plant) is lifeless, and I wonder if it was injured by the impact, because a large part of its trunk (as thick as a human arm) is snapped off, like a broken branch. "Then the trunk started moving again, it left the shell of the spaceship and started crawling towards me, and that's when I knew it was sensitive to light, because I was standing under a kilowatt light, which had already No more shaking. "It was like an elm, or, for that matter, a leafy poplar, stretched out by gravity and into the ground. It began to form a circle about five meters into the light and surrounded me. Hold. I think this is the limit of its tolerance, the balance point of light absorption and repulsion. After a few minutes of calm, I wonder if it is dead and frozen solid. "Then I saw many small branches starting to emerge from the larger branches, it was like watching a slow-motion film of flowers blooming. I actually thought they were flowers, each one the size of a human head. "Delicate, beautiful flowers began to bloom, colors I had never seen before, colors that would not exist in the absence of light, and it was the light that kills us that brought them into this world . "After the flowers bloomed and swayed in the air... I walked towards the living wall that surrounded me, so that I could see clearly what happened until then, and only then in this life. I'm terrified of this creature, and I'm sure it wouldn't be malicious even if it was sentient. "These large flowers vary in size according to the degree of openness. They remind me of butterflies emerging from their chrysalis, with their curved wings still weak, and I understand the truth more and more. "Although they have grown flowers, they are still frozen there. As soon as the flowers are formed, they wither. Then, one by one, they bloom one by one, and then fall one by one from the mother stem. The ground was full of fish. Finally I figured out what they were. These paper thin things were not fins, but fins, or something like that. It belonged to the larval stage of swimming creatures ; most of the life of such organisms may be embedded in the seabed, and then let their offspring continue to find new areas of life, just like the corals in the earth's oceans. "I knelt down to look at one of the little creatures. Its beautiful color had faded to hazel now, and some of its petal fins had broken off, brittle from being hardened by the freeze; but it could still slowly When I approach it, it will try to avoid me. I wonder how it feels that I am approaching it? "Then I noticed the stamens (that's what I call them) had bright blue spots at the top that looked like little star-shaped sapphires (or rather the stamens looked like a white scallop The many blue eyes on my body), they can detect the presence of light, but they can't see the real image like eyes. When I look at it, the crystal clear blue begins to dim, and the life-like sapphire suddenly becomes common stone... "Dr. Buddha, or anyone who is listening to me, I am running out of time, Jupiter will soon block all my signals, fortunately my report is almost over. "I knew what I was going to do next. The wire that was connected to the kilowatt light was almost down to the ground. I pulled hard a few times, and the light flickered like fireworks. "I thought it was too late. For a few minutes nothing happened. So I walked up to the wall that surrounded me and tapped on it. "Slowly, the creature began to untangle itself - back into the canal. There was plenty of light, so I could see everything. Two other moons of Jupiter, Ganymede With Callisto high in the sky, Jupiter crescent in the sky, and a great aurora at the edge of the night sky, I didn't need to use my hood light anymore. "I followed the creature and watched it come back into the water, and when it slowed down I tapped it to give it a little encouragement and felt the ice crush under my feet... as it approached the canal, it seemed Gained strength and energy, as if it knew it was close to home. I wonder if it will survive, will it sprout again? "It disappeared from the surface, leaving only some dead wreckage in a foreign land. The exposed living water bubbled for a few minutes, until an ice floe sealed the gap. Then, I walked back to space. Beside the boat, see if there are any survivors, I don't want to talk about that anymore. "Doctor Buddha, I only have two requests right now: first, when someone classifies this creature, I want them to call it by my name; second, when the next spaceship comes, please ask them to put our His remains were shipped back to China. "In a few minutes, Jupiter will cut off my comm. I wish I could know if anyone has picked up my signal. Anyway, I will repeat this message when our comm is reconnected. If my spacesuit If the life support system can last that long. "This is Professor Chen speaking on Europa, reporting that Qian's spacecraft has been destroyed. We landed by the side of the Grand Canal and installed a water absorption device on the edge of the ice..." The signal suddenly stopped, and suddenly it got better again, and finally it was completely covered by the noise until it disappeared.There was no more news of Professor Chen, but Sir Zon Lauren's ambition to explore space had already been touched.