Chapter 46 Chapter 38: Icebergs in Space

Now, they had a lot more time than expected, and Captain Smith finally agreed to accept the interview with Willis as stipulated in the contract.Due to Mihailovich's strong opposition, Willis postponed the interview.Since it will take several months for Willis to restore his original appearance, he finally decided to conduct an exclusive interview without showing his face. Studios on Earth can use image processing technology to process his images later. They sat in the captain's cabin, which was still only partially furnished, enjoying the old wine brought by Willis.Since Cosmos will cut drive and begin to slow down in a few hours, now is the last chance.Willis finds wine without gravity disgusting and refuses to drink his precious wine from a plastic squeeze ball.

"This is a report from Vivat Willis for you on Friday, July 15, 2061, at 18:30 aboard the spaceship Cosmos. Although we have not yet reached the end of our journey, we have Already crossed the orbit of Mars, and almost at full speed. Captain, what is our maximum speed?" "One thousand and fifty kilometers per second." "Over a thousand kilometers per second, almost four million kilometers per hour!" Willis' surprised tone sounded very real, no one knew that his knowledge of orbital parameters was no less than that of the captain.But one of his greatest strengths is that he can understand the needs of the audience. He can not only predict the questions the audience wants to know, but also arouse the interest of the audience.

"Correct!" replied the captain proudly. "We're moving twice as fast as the human race has ever seen." That sentence is what I was going to say, Willis thought; he didn't like the interviewee stealing the conversation.But being a professional interviewer, he adjusted right away. He paused as if to consult his little notepad, and the screen of his own sharp, steerable camera projected footage only he could see. "We travel a distance equivalent to the diameter of the Earth every twelve seconds, but we still need ten days to reach Jupiter, um, it should be said to be a magic planet! This can just explain the concept of the size ratio of the solar system——

"Captain, the subject that follows is a sensitive one, but I've been having a lot of questions about it over the past week." God!The captain yelled secretly, don't go to the toilet under zero gravity again! "At the time of our interview, we were passing through the heart of the asteroid belt." I'd rather he asked about the toilet, thought the captain. "Although there has never been a collision event that caused damage to the spacecraft, are we still taking a considerable risk? After all, according to the data, there are millions of stars orbiting in this belt, and the smallest is as big as a beach ball, and the data Only a few thousand of them are marked on nautical charts."

"Not a few, at least ten thousand." "But there are millions more that we don't know about. "That's the truth, but it's no use knowing it." "What do you mean?" "There's nothing we can do about them." "why?" Captain Smith paused for a moment to reflect.Willis is right, it's a sensitive subject indeed, and if he says anything against lead generation, it will be fixed by HQ. "First of all, space is huge, and even in the heart of what you call the asteroid belt, the chances of collision are extremely small. We wanted to introduce Hanumen, the easiest asteroid to see. Yes, this is an asteroid only 300 meters wide, but we are 250,000 kilometers away at the closest approach."

"But Hanumen is a very large planet compared to other unknown rocks floating around. Don't you worry about it?" "It's about as much as you worry about being struck by lightning on Earth." "In fact, I did almost get struck by lightning on Pikes Peak in Colorado, when the lightning and thunder happened at the same time. But you should admit that there is a danger, and the speed we are crossing is so fast, it will not increase. Is it dangerous?" Of course Willis knew the answer, but he was asking the question from the standpoint of those unknown audiences who were moving away from them at thousands of kilometers per second.

"It's hard to explain without math," said the captain (and he often does, even if it's not necessarily true), "but there's no necessary correlation between speed and danger. Hitting anything at the speed of a spaceship It's going to be serious, and if you're next to an exploding atomic bomb, whether it's a kiloton bomb or a megaton bomb, the outcome is the same." Although this is not a very accurate and reliable narrative, he has tried his best.Before Willis went any further, he hurried on: "I must remind you again that any risk we take is the best choice under the circumstances. We can save a lot of lives by an hour faster."

"Yes, I'm sure everyone appreciates it." Willis paused, and he would have added "Of course we're in the same boat" but decided to back it, which might not have sounded polite (but Not because he's never been humble), but anyway, there's very little he can do to change anything, and he's left with no choice, unless he wants to walk home by himself. He went on: "That brings me to another thing. You know what happened in the North Atlantic a century and a half ago?" "1911?" "Yes, it was actually 1912—" Captain Smith guessed what was going to be discussed next, and he pretended not to know and refused to cooperate.

"I think you mean the Titanic," he said. "Yes," Willis replied, hiding his disappointment, "I know at least twenty people who think there is some coincidence between this trip and the Titanic." "What coincidence? The Titanic took unnecessary risks simply to break the record." The captain was on the verge of adding "and it doesn't have enough lifeboats", but he immediately realized that the only space shuttle he had on board could only carry five passengers.If Willis mentioned this, there would be an explanation. "Very well, I also think the analogy is far-fetched, but people point out another coincidence. Do you know the name of the first and last captain of the Titanic'"

"I'm fully aware that it just so happens to be..." Captain Smith was about to begin when he stopped suddenly. "Exactly." Willis said with a playful smile. Captain Smith really wanted to strangle all these amateur researchers, but he couldn't complain about his parents giving him such a common English name.