Chapter 357 Natural Hell

Chapter 357 Natural Hell

Chapter 357 Natural Hell
On the autonomous driving highway in Panyu District, Yangcheng.

A Dongfeng driverless taxi drove into a renovated parking building.

Gao Wen, Schneider, and Peter got out of the taxi and, following the instructions of the holographic AI tour guide on the tourists' mobile phones, they came to the Chinese restaurant they had booked online.

This Chinese restaurant is not the kind of restaurant that looks high-end, but more like a traditional affordable restaurant.

"What would you like to eat?" Gao Wen looked at his two friends while holding the menu.

Peter looked at the menu for a while, pointed at a few dishes and replied, "I definitely want this rice noodle roll. I had it a few days ago and it tasted really good. I also want this red rice sausage, siu mai, chicken feet, and a Chinese sausage clay pot rice!"

Schneider, who didn't know what to eat, chose to listen to his friends: "I'll listen to you."

Gao Wen wrote down the code of the dish on the menu: "Then I'll add a boiled Chinese cabbage and a water chestnut cake! Waiter..."

The holographic projection AI tour guide made a synchronous voice: [Waiter, the dishes are ready. ]

The waiter came over with a teapot, took the order, looked at it, and said with a smile, "Wait a moment, the food will be ready soon."

Then he poured Pu'er tea for the three of them and heated up their bowls, chopsticks and plates.

Schneider looked at the dazzling array of dishes on the tables around him, swallowed his saliva secretly, and then sighed: "The Seres are indeed better at eating, and the prices are very cheap..."

"In fact, if we go by the current exchange rate, the euro is about 8000 to Chinese yuan. Our income level is roughly equivalent to about Chinese yuan per month. The advantage in Europe is not that big!" Peter shook his head.

Schneider suddenly asked, "Peter, don't the EU and America have plans to unify their currencies? Your classmate works in a financial institution in the EU, do you have any news?"

Hearing this, Peter complained: "Haha, with the working efficiency of those masters, it is estimated that the Seres have landed on Mars, and they have not yet discussed a plan."

"Don't even think about it. The union of the EU and America is just to deal with the rise of the Asian Union. Now that the Asian Union has stopped forcing them, both sides naturally began to relax their vigilance and started fighting among themselves again." Gawain explained with a shrug.

At this moment, the diners in the restaurant suddenly raised their voices.

"What's wrong?" Schneider looked confused.

Soon, through the translation of the AI ​​tour guide, the three of them found out why the diners around them suddenly raised their voices.

They turned their eyes to the wall on one side of the restaurant. On that wall was hung a high-definition TV, on which a news report was playing.

On the screen was a familiar planet.

Synchronous voiceover: [At this time, the Venus 1 spacecraft separated the Venus communication satellite...]

Through the translation of the AI ​​tour guide, Gawain stared at the live broadcast on TV in amazement, and couldn't help muttering to himself: "Has the Seres spacecraft reached Venus?"

"It should be true." Schneider knew more about this matter than his two friends because he went to the Sun City in Borneo half a month ago to investigate climate change.

Peter also remembered Schneider's itinerary and asked curiously: "Schneider, you went to the sky city some time ago, right? How was the situation there?"

"How should I put it?" Schneider didn't know how to start for a moment. He organized his words in his mind for a while before answering:
"When you go up to the sky city, the visual effect is very shocking, and you feel like you are in the future. However, from a professional point of view, this kind of floating facility that blocks the sky has a great impact on the local climate."

Gao Wen came back to his senses and agreed with a serious expression: "I have also inspected many floating facilities deployed in Seris. This kind of facility does have a relatively large impact on the local climate."

Schneider also looked cautious. He also felt that it was a bit difficult to grasp the pros and cons of the large-scale light-shielding and reflective floating facilities currently under construction. He could only pray for a positive development:
"I hope Seris can control the climate! Otherwise the consequences will be terrible."

Peter shook his head. "You don't need to worry about it. How bad can it get? If Seris doesn't do this, I estimate that the global sea level may rise by 50 to 60 meters in the next years. By then, not to mention the Netherlands, many places in Europe will be completely submerged."

"Sir, your siomai..." The waiter put down the steamer and crossed out the siomai line on the order sheet.

"Thank you..." Gao Wen picked up the chopsticks: "Don't just drink tea, eat something!"

"it is good!"

After a while, the three of them each picked up a steamed dumpling and continued chatting while eating.

On the TV screen, the Venus 1 spacecraft also launched 12 artificial satellites in succession into Venus's low-Earth orbit.

4 communication relay satellites.

4 remote sensing satellites.

4 ranging and positioning satellites.

As these artificial satellites are put into operation one after another, the clarity of the live broadcast images has improved a lot, which obviously means that the communication quality has improved.

Each of these satellites weighs nearly 3 tons, adding up to about 36 tons.

However, the payload of the Venus 1 spacecraft is 67 tons, so the spacecraft still has nearly 31 tons of payload.

After a while.

The spacecraft launched four more artificial satellites, which were scientific exploration satellites specifically used to test the solar wind, Venus' magnetic field, and Venus's low-Earth orbit radiation.

The purpose of the remaining 19 tons of payload soon became clear.

Various types of hydrogen airship compression packages were dropped into the Venusian atmosphere one by one by the spacecraft according to the procedure.

Apparently, these hydrogen airship compression packages were sent into the atmosphere of Venus as test products.

When reaching the predetermined height, these hydrogen airship compression packs immediately activate the liquid hydrogen storage tanks and quickly release hydrogen into the airbags, which quickly fill each airbag.

The Venusian atmosphere, which already had a very high atmospheric concentration, suddenly slowed down the descent speed of the airships that had just been inflated, until a buoyancy balance point was reached, and the eight airships were suspended at their respective predetermined altitudes.

From 120 kilometers to 50 kilometers from the surface of Venus, there is an airship every 10 kilometers on average.

The scientific instruments carried by these airships have begun working according to the programs set by the system, and then the various detection data collected will be transmitted back to Earth via communication relay satellites.

In the Earth's sun-synchronous orbit, there are also a group of communication relay satellites specifically used to receive signals from Venus.

Through two relays, the signals sent from Venus successfully reached the ground command center on Earth.

However, this information was obviously confidential and was not displayed on the live TV broadcast. Instead, it showed images of several airships in the atmosphere of Venus.

Gao Wen took a sip of Pu'er tea and looked at the live broadcast screen: "Is this picture of the atmosphere 50 kilometers above the surface of Venus? It's all dim and gray, and I can't see anything clearly!"

"Not only is it difficult to see clearly, but the camera is also very shaky. It's obvious that the atmospheric activity at this location is very intense." Schneider discovered a detail.

Peter analyzed based on his professional knowledge: "In fact, at an altitude of 50 kilometers, in the atmosphere of Venus, there is a relatively intense atmospheric activity."

Gao Wen and Schneider nodded to show their agreement.

They are all professional climatologists who have conducted in-depth research on the Earth's atmosphere. By analogy, they can also determine part of the situation of Venus' atmosphere based on some information.

The gas concentration in Venus' atmosphere decreases sharply from the ground to the high altitude, which is similar to the Earth's atmosphere. However, the higher the air concentration, the stronger the power of various severe convective weather events. Instead, there is a relative concentration.

Judging from the camera jitters of the current detection airships at different altitudes, when the altitude is above 90 kilometers, due to the decrease in gas density, even if the air convection speed is relatively fast, the destructiveness it can cause is relatively limited.

And if Peter guessed correctly, the high-density atmosphere of Venus below 30 kilometers above sea level would actually reduce the air convection speed.

Therefore, the real high-risk area for atmospheric activity in the atmosphere of Venus should be the airspace between 30 kilometers and 90 kilometers above sea level, where the air density is moderate, and the temperature difference between upper and lower levels will cause strong convective meteorological disasters in this area.

Even without seeing the internal data, Peter could clearly judge from the violent shaking of the camera that the drift speed of the detection airships at altitudes of 50 kilometers, 60 kilometers, and 70 kilometers was very fast.

In fact, it is just as Peter's analysis suggests.

At this time, at the ground command center on Earth.

Looking at the data fed back about the airship's moving speed, everyone couldn't help but hold their breath.

The No. 8 exploration airship was at an altitude of 50 kilometers in the atmosphere of Venus, and its drift speed was 479 kilometers per hour.

This is not powered drift, but unpowered drift. The airship is drifting in the air currents of Venus' atmosphere.

If a lot of high-strength frames had not been designed during the construction process, these reconnaissance airships would have been blown to pieces by such terrible chaotic gales.

But the staff at the ground command center were not too optimistic.

Because they found that some of the airship's detection equipment began to have problems.

A planetary climatologist raised his glasses and said, "It's particles..."

"Ash particles?"

"Ok!"

"Yes, there has been volcanic activity on the surface of Venus for a long time. These volcanic activities have ejected a large amount of volcanic ash into the sky. The strong atmospheric circulation has carried it away. There must be a large amount of volcanic ash particles in the atmosphere of Venus."

"Report! The D8 camera of the No. 25 exploration airship is damaged..."

Several scholars frowned, then looked at each other, and their eyes became serious.

Apparently, the time it took for parts of the detection airship to be damaged was a little beyond their expectations, and was reduced to a few tens of minutes instead of the several days previously estimated.

However, although their expressions were solemn, they also knew that this exploration of Venus' atmosphere was very meaningful.

"Report! The air humidity has come out..."

A researcher ran over and asked, "Oh? How much is it?"

The data analyst replied without even turning his head: "Higher than expected. The humidity in the atmosphere at an altitude of 50 kilometers is about 87 times higher than expected, with an average content of about 0.14%."

The researcher stroked his chin and analyzed, "It is the water contained in the crust of Venus that was ejected into the atmosphere by volcanic activity. However, water molecules are relatively heavy, and the atmosphere of Venus is relatively thick. Therefore, it is impossible to collect information about the composition of the atmosphere at this altitude through previous long-distance spectral analysis."

"this is a good news."

"This is indeed good news. At least from the current situation, there must be an aquifer in the atmosphere of Venus, which reduces the difficulty of our future development of Venus."

The researcher continued, "Tian Ming, what is the concentration of sulfur dioxide?"

The data analyst took a look at the data on the panel: "The sulfur dioxide content at an altitude of 50 kilometers is higher than expected, especially in the water vapor, which is basically in the form of sulfuric acid droplets."

"Report! The C8 camera of the No. 11 exploration airship is damaged..."

"horrible!"

"It's more than just scary. It's a veritable natural hell."

"High-intensity gales, dense sulfuric acid raindrops, and overwhelming volcanic ash particles, no wonder the Russian probes never returned."

“It’s like spraying the equipment with sulfuric acid while blasting continuously in the blast room.”

When Zhou Xiyi came into the ground command center from outside, he obtained one hour's data from eight reconnaissance airships.

After reading these data, his face was full of surprise and joy.

The good news, of course, is the discovery of a natural aquifer in the atmosphere of Venus, which can solve a large part of the water problem in the future development of Venus.

The worrying thing is the terrible destructive power of Venus' atmosphere.

Only an hour had passed.

At the 42nd minute, the No. 8 detection airship lost contact, most likely because its communication antenna was damaged.

Even though the detection airship has three sets of communication antennas, it still cannot withstand the ravages of Venus' harsh atmosphere.

As for falling to the surface of Venus, this possibility is not high.

Zhou Xiyi knew the design of these exploration airships. The surface of the airbags of those airships was covered with a layer of special high-strength silicon carbide. Even though the atmosphere of Venus was like sandblasting, coupled with the corrosion of sulfuric acid, there was still no way to destroy the airbag structure in a short period of time.

But Zhou Xiyi did not feel relaxed about this situation.

After all, the harshness of Venus' atmosphere was really beyond their imagination.

If it is simply a high temperature, high acid and high corrosion atmosphere, there are actually quite a few solutions.

But when you add the sandblast-like storm, the difficulty is no longer just one plus one, it’s several times more difficult.

Because sandblasting storms damage the surface of equipment, it makes it easier for sulfuric acid droplets to penetrate into the interior of the equipment, accelerating the damage of various equipment.

Gu Linyu, who was standing by, was not too worried: "Although this is the case at an altitude of 50 to 70 kilometers on Venus, the sulfur dioxide concentration in the airspace above this point has dropped significantly, and there are no sandblasting storms, so it is still relatively safe."

Zhou Xiyi smiled and replied: "I know, if we build the Sky City at high altitude in the early stage, then there will not be much problem."

Gu Linyu patted him on the shoulder: "We have to work overtime these few days."

“Want to improve the plan?”

Gu Linyu nodded slightly: "Yes! After all, the next Venus spacecraft will be launched in half a year, so we have to hurry up."

"Okay! It's rare to have to work overtime. I've been working as a technical consultant in your company for the past two years, and I'm a little uncomfortable with working overtime." Zhou Xiyi joked.

(End of this chapter)